Bear Hands

Yeah the real burn in this situation was DG forcing Worley and that other CB pick who didn’t make it for a 3CB draft to pair with that atrocious Vernon Butler pick Overcompensated… I won’t forget DG and Rivera laughing like “see we know what you wanted and finally did it” presser. I mean, Joe Thuney was the pick after Worley lol. I will say the one saving grace was how terrible the 2016 draft was overall.

I'm putting Carrier ahead of KB and others at 4. Also because of his impact after he retired during the 2010s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfCHTAB-l54&ab_channel=CarolinaPanthers

The Cowboys also had some OL issues last year and he still managed 1k+. Pretty nice to be going into a season with (2) 1k backs, both 26/under. And a guy in Etienne who is as fresh as it gets (just 371 total college carries, 62 receptions)

Yep - It's a balance. And actually targeting guys with production and being worth a damn is as well (DJJ :/). I'd say there's a line between guys on a tier block starting to be selected and you deciding to go up with the appropriate compensation versus what we've previously done. Which is panicking and grabbing whichever [positional need] is available at the top of said position groups at a unnecessary cost.

Rewatched again - and noticed some fun stuff-- They claimed that we started engaging once Ez and JTT were picked in a row at 44-45, so LAR, AZ, HOU, CIN, & SEA were the teams we likely called before the deal at 51 w/Denver. Brandt goes "I texted John an offer" that's either John McKay, the Asst GM of LAR or John Schneider of SEA. I think it was SEA, we had likely exhausted enough energy with LAR. So my read is we said no to a trade at 50 that was in SEA's favor, and worked with DEN to get a really balanced package. Strong work there not submitting to the Seahawks wishes. Then, once the focus got to the next pick - I found it super interesting. We knew we wanted Princely - There were a few strongly identified targets by the sounds of it beginning in the 60s but Princely was the guy we really wanted. The video was edited A LOT so that a lot of the calls and negotiations were shown before/during/after Nic's pick. Targeting him was as soon as KC at 66 (from Sneed), or BUF's new spot at 72 as they showed us calling them and negotiating. Beane wanted 114+85 for 72 which is dead even on trade charts, but Dan didn't want to just give up 114 to move up. He emphasized to "Stay patient" which was good. Sounds like SF apparently wanted even more for 75. Our unnamed prospect tier was now down to 2 guys - Brandt asked about their odds at 85. Those odds were now 41%. You hear in the back "They've got 3 threes" -that was NE. And, we are clearly, very tight with Wolff in NE. He called us ahead of pick 77 to negotiate that one. With their pick abundance, we were able to work out a more favorable deal. 77 for 85 and 146 (5). Not bad at all compared to giving up 85 and 114 (4) for 72 and getting the same guy. That's how you don't overdraft.

Once you get past the top tier (Henry, Barkley, Gibbs, Taylor, Bijan) and get to Kyren/Mixon/A Jones types, that's the tier Chubba could cement his spot in. Level (not style) wise, I can see him producing more long term than a James Conner, Tony Pollard, etc. I think we're staring at two roads. One is the archetype of someone who was good/deent, popped one year and slowly declined vs. getting to that 3+ year feature back role for a team.

Tillis telling Tepper that meandering socks story was priceless— he’s got that Will Forte energy

Seems like Ez, JTT, & Scourton were targets. Unsure how they stacked but they had a 1st round grade on Nic. Good stuff. And they were targeting Princely for a while - Dan wanted him badly. Really good stuff

I think it's more - get us interested and keep us battling until at least week 15/16. I prefer not to know by week 10-14 that we're firmly out. That's kind of my line this year.

Yep - that's kind of what I was getting at by the end of my OP. He's been a slow burn guy who has really put in the work. Started out with balance issues, many people kind of scoffed at him and din't place high expectations. But then he just seemed to grind his way through the depth chart and produce. He was never a guy we all thought - "well there's our RB" when we drafted him, but he's carved out his own role and is here with his 3rd HC, now firmly the RB1. It will be a defining year for him. If he can near match last, we have ourselves a quality talent we should be happy to have. Which is possible when you look at touches and all. Overall, I kind of dig our RB room Brooks aside. Dowdle doesn't have a ton of mileage and is a quality slippery zone guy, Etienne has some great pass catching skills and super light on miles in college. So it's a quality, fresh leg room if Hubbard needs relief from his feature role.

Thought this is pretty interesting - time can be a tricky one - it's crazy to really see the all-time Panthers rushing list. You don't expect much in a 30ish year history (not saying this is impressive), but Chuba has quietly working his way up. 1) 7,318 yards - J Stew 2) 6,846 yards - DeAngelo Williams 3) 5,036 - Cam Newton this is where it gets interesting: 4) 3,980 - CMC 5) 3,336 - Deshaun Foster *6) 3,175 - Chuba Hubbard If Chuba has a healthy season, we should expect him to easily climb into #4 on the all-time Panthers list. I don't know for others, but Foster & CMC seemed like they were here longer than they were (or maybe they just played in more impressionable seasons and injury stints made the playing time seem longer). I know it's not some impressive history or anything but a fun thing to note. Also, if we make strides as a team, and he follows up with another strong year, he's probably got 2-3 more in him as he turns 26 next week. Some questions: Does another solid year cement him as our guy at RB? I prefer to keep taking late round stabs as you can cycle RBs, but he could prove to be a top RB this year. I expect Rico & Etienne to help spell him, but he's our RB1 no doubt. If we flirt with our first playoff berth in years, could a top-10 RB type season put him on the map as a more revered Panther? He will be touching the ball the second most after Bryce this season, so it's not unrealistic to view him as our top skill position player (pending McMillan's hopeful rise as WR1). It would be fun to see this actualize and make his mark more widely in the league. Overall, just adding some perspective. When you think of eras of Panthers teams, you usually think of a few guys. And if we can finally crawl back to relevance, maybe Chuba is a guy we think of helped us get out of the rut rather than just being one of many that lived here in the cellar.

I will say, I am feeling very good about staying put and landing a top wideout to really elevate this offense. We needed an offense defining type player and got that in Tet. In retrospect, I really don’t know if I would have felt as good getting Mykel/Etc and a lesser WR — sacrificing not getting a day 1 WR1 and reaching on D. Honestly, we got the same level of talent/potential in R2-3 on defense that we were gonna get in a trade down. Won’t know until we see results but it was a really smart draft strategy this year. Heck, even if we traded down, who knows maybe Golden may have been in the cards over defense.