MHS831

I figured that he is trying to put some distance between the player and the executive. He meant "player" obviously, but I imagine there is some stigma associated with a former player coming back to take a front office position. I did catch the comment.

I met him at an OTA when he was rookie. I liked him, and so did my small children. I got a photo of him with my kids, and his nylon stretch shirt was ripped off his shoulder and down his side. I remember thinking, "This was an OTA. He must have been battling so hard (going full speed) that the OT grabbed him and ripped off his shirt." Normally, there is a "rule" that you stop when you are not in full pads when the other player shows that he controlled you or is in position to--like pulling up and not hitting the RBs. I got the feeling that he was going full throttle. Just speculation, but it was consistent with what we would learn about him.

Morgan, Mills, Keuchley, Beason--all within the first 25 years of the team's existence--we have been spoiled by great MLB play.

Some people just want to get the attention of a celebrity and feel zero empathy for that player's feelings or personal space. My dad was lifelong friends with some big names in football (Roman Gabriel, Dan Reeves) and baseball (Pete Rose and Tommy Helms of the Reds) and I learned very young that they are people doing a job and really want to be treated like everyone else. So when I see a celebrity in public who is flying under the radar, I try not to bring attention to myself or them--I might wave if we make eye contact but that is about it. Flashback In Washington DC (Georgetown) I was eating at a restaurant with my then fiance (she dumped me later--still hurts) and at the end of the dinner, I whispered to her, "Do not look back until we are getting up to leave, but do you know who has been sitting behind you for about 15 minutes?" She said, "No. Who?" I stood to leave, so she turned around while picking up her purse, saw him, and turned back around to look at me with a shocked facial expression. It was Billy Crystal. I put my finger over my lips to keep her quiet, but she turned toward him and said, "You look Marvelous!! (one of his famous lines) and proceeded to tell him that her favorite movie is The Princess Bride, a film Crystal had a small part in as Miracle Max. Grabbing her upper arms from behind, I looked at Crystal sympathetically and he cracked a faint grin--and I gently pulled her toward the exit. She was mad at me for not telling her sooner and said that I embarrassed her by pulling her away. I told her "You had already embarrassed yourself. I was just doing some damage control." I knew that she had exposed him, and how much he was valuing his anonymity until she sounded the trumpets.

And he was probably the MVP of that game had the panthers won. He had 11 unassisted tackles, 7 assisted, for 18 tackles, the most in Super Bowl history--think about that-Ray Lewis, Jack Ham, Mike Curtis, Ray Nitschke, Mike Singletary--the list of super bowl ILBs is sick.

I KNEW IT!!!

I mean, it is just chairs. I would hope they could get 50 sacks against chairs....Just kidding with hilarious joking. This tells me a lot about their work ethic. Great to see. I have to think these were 2 great picks. Meanwhile, XL was playing Rodeo clown at the KY Derby with GloRilla. Apparently, he misunderstood what the coach meant when he told him that he needs to spend the offseason working on the Jugs Machine.

I hit you pretty hard yesterday with a Croc Dundee joke---disappointed that there was no retaliation. All in good fun.

Seems to have mellowed from when I encountered him as a player. Who knows? It was nice of him.

which is why he was a sixth rounder. I think I recall seeing a mock where he was a first rounder--If my recollection is accurate, he fell like S. Sanders.

I don't think we'd drafted a WR sixth round without a "particular set of skills." (Do you guys get Liam Neeson's TAKEN movies down under, or do you watch Crocodile Dundee movies over and over?)

Absolutely. However, when it comes down to making decisions, he needs to let the surgeons operate and not grab a scalpel because he can. I look at it from his perspective-if he is lacking confidence in the GM (as he should have with Fitterer) or coaches (Rhule and Reich were not right for this team) then I can see some micromanagement. Human nature. So you make good points.

Regardless of an early June injury, the WR room, at least on paper right now, has never been deeper. AT needs to be the slot possession WR (Ricky Proehl) and Coker is quite possibly his long term replacement, if not a solid #2. Renfrow could give us a solid few years as well. XL will probably improve with the TMac competition. TMac is goofy, but on the field, he has done nothing but produce. Horn is sneaky fast, and I wonder if he would not have done better in college at a university that did not have Hunter. He is a deep threat and was on a team with a bad OL, so his numbers were a bit low. In fact, there are two WRs who signed UDFA contracts who will probably go to the PS and wait for a season. We are in fine shape at WR, if everyone progresses.

Since the buildings are in quarters, there are no alleys. At around midnight (when I was there) Bourbon street is lined with trash bags and, yes, it smells. There were a lot of women walking around by themselves. My buddy wanted me to go into a strip joint just to get a drink and get off our feet--we'd been driving all day. We got thrown out...For falling asleep.

Drafting players off the operating table is a long-term play, as was drafting XL. XL had the chance to make a splash, but he has raw hands and he went through some turbulence with the offense. I was not expecting a finished product. Now we will see what he has been doing this offseason.

I fully expected Teppers to force himself into the conversation, but he was hands on, mouth shut. Morgan brings an eye for talent that we have not had here, imo. I think what he has done over the past 2 seasons in the third and fourth rounds is stellar--I get the XL pick, and I get the Brooks pick in round 2--they have yet to work out, but there was always a patient, 2-3 year plan, and XL was raw. So it is materializing. However, getting a starting LB and TE in rounds 3 and 4 is good (I will call Sanders a starting TE because he will play a lot in the rotation). This year, I think Ransom could start and Princely could be a key rotational piece.

There was a point in the video that Morgan looks at Tepper as if he was seeking approval--but that could have been polite inclusion. If I am Tepper I am sitting right in that seat doing the same thing--but I would be more vocal...When Morgan said, "I was hoping we would not get an offer we'd have to accept..." (paraphrasing)--that is his gut talking. Listen to your gut--don't let circumstances prevent the gut from being heard. Trust the gut. Reason? He knew the draft would play out if they got Tmac. He knew they would get an edge in round 2. After that, they could get a RB and S on day 3.

My rough place for Scourton (based on a compilation of several prospect rankings) was late first, so I did not research him much. I nearly forgot about him. His college production his final year was not elite--but that seems to be the system. I noticed that (at Tex AM) he had outside contain a lot, and was not rushing the QB--that means the CBs were probably in man coverage. So I think he could be good in this system. Princely? I had him going in the middle of the second round; he was my hope once we took TMac. Most of the mocks I saw had him going in the 40-48 range. When we traded up, I had forgotten about Scourton (or did not know that much about him) and I thought we would draft Princely. I was actually a bit disappointed because I think Princely will be a very good Edge. I would not be surprised to see both statistically challenge the first round Edge players.

I found it interesting that Evero would mention DJ Johnson and fail to mention the rookies. Not that means anything about the rookies, but I can only think of Charles Johnson and Greg Hardy--both became relevant in year 3. I think he gets cut, but mentioning a player in that manner with 1/2 sack and 25 tackles in 2 years is a bit strange.

The Rams gave us that opportunity.

More about Ransom, 4th round, pick 122. I found this to be very interesting--look how they used him at Ohio State-- Some of us had him as a Strong Safety, but I just think he is a hybrid. I mean, 60% of the snaps last year he had deep safety responsibilities. In 2023, Ransom was deep 53% of snaps. Note how that transition was gradual when in 2022, where he was deep only 31% of the time-- his primary responsibilities were as a box safety who covered the slot frequently. While his first duties were that of a box safety in 2022, he evolved into a deep safety with some slot coverage abilities. He is described as very smart, and you can see how Ohio State gave him responsibilities that require a very versatile skill set and level of intelligence. I think, when all the dust settles, Ransom will be our steal of the draft. Horn is right there with him.

I find it interesting that TMac was shown here practicing without gloves. Is that a new approach to improving hands because the gloves are so sticky? If you think about the draft and evaluated the talent at each position and rate them by round, you see what the Panthers did--get the best WR in the draft. in round 2, you had WRs like Bech and Tre Harris going--meanwhile, the Panthers grabbed Scourton (late first round grade) and Princely (expected to be drafted in the middle of the second round). Bech and Harris were projected to be third rounders. If you evaluate the draft by your expectations of the performance of the talent, you are guessing and trying for clicks. However, if you understand the depth of talent at each position and align that with needs, the strategy becomes the issue--not a subjective guess. Did the Panthers address WR and Edge wisely, considering the players likely to be available? Yes. Ask yourself this: In the Panther system, is it possible that Scourton would be a better edge than Walker? I think he is a better fit. Princely? Better fit. Morgan had an excellent draft. When you see Ransom play S, you will be convinced that it was a Home Run. That pick was solid and he will be here for a long time.

There are times during the prolonged, pre-draft process that you abandon your gut feelings and allow yourself to be persuaded by popular opinion. My gut was more consistent with what Morgan et al did than my conclusions. Here is why (my theory): 1. With social media, one opinion is often repeated until it seems like the majority. The more you see it, the more you feel that your gut was wrong. You second guess and conform at times. In January, if you told me TMac would be there at 8, I would have been very interested because there weren't other WRs like him and he was dominant on a bad team. I let the comments about film, questions about separation, etc. sway my opinion. I started comparing him to Kelvin Benajamin in my head (work ethic). So I took him off my board. 2. Morgan said something rather profound (parphrasing): "We did not want to be restricted by need." IMO, the biggest needs were Edge, S, WR. We assume that the biggest need is aligned with the first overall pick in most situations. Everyone was talking about Jalon Walker because Micah Parsons is a similar beast and Abdul Carter would be off the board. However, as a former coach at Salisbury High School and someone who vaguely knew Walker's father before he was born, I still could not see the fit here. I think Walker is a great person and will be a good pro, but he did not fill our needs. TMac was the best player who filled a primary need and we could not find another TMac-type player in the draft. However, there would be second round Edges that were, in my view, potentially as good NFL players. The first through early third rounds were loaded with edges. 3. Since edge was our biggest need, Morgan added 2--one in the second and one in the third. They mentioned referring to statistics to see the likelihood of a player being available at 55 as opposed to 59, guiding their trade practices, for example. I noticed the talent grades did not drop as much for edge players into early round three and the WR market dropped rapidly. Morgan mentioned that they only had 3 second round WRs on their board, which is why TMac in round 1 was smart. I also posted the following stats from the internet and it is never wrong: First-round picks in the NFL Draft have a higher success rate than those in the second or third rounds. Whilethe first round boasts a success rate of around 58%, the second round is nearly as good at 49%. However, the third round sees a significant drop, with only a 25% success rate. So let's do math. If you draft 1 edge at #8 he has (since it is early in the round) about a 60% chance of being successful. Morgan would earn 6 success tokens for his Edge need. If you draft an edge in the second, Morgan would earn 5 success tokens for his edge need. If you draft an edge in the third, Morgan earns 2.5 success tokens for his edge need. So Morgan gets the draft's WR unicorn in the first round and by using the second and third round selections, addresses the biggest need by collecting 7.5 success tokens instead of 6. Morgan has a high probability of being successful with 2 of 3 of the teams' biggest needs. He was not needs driven, however, he was market driven. Supply and demand. He was smart. Had we drafted Walker, a player who is a stud and can be most effective as an ILB with versatility, I am not sure we successfully addressed the need. Other players with first round talent either lacked college productivity or had red flags. We would HAVE to target one of the 3 WRs the Panthers had listed as second round possibilities (I am guessing Higgins and Burden III and Beck--all far inferior to TMac). Higgins and Burden III were drafted before they were within trade range and it is not surprising that happened--leaving the Panthers with a only Beck at pick 57. Putting that in perspective, Edge Scourton was taken at pick 51 and Mike Green was taken at pick 59. However, there were 5 edge players taken in the second round. There were 6 edge players taken in round 3. Value TMac was rated #4 by PFF and J. Walker was rated #25. Meanwhile Beck (WR), the only second round WR available in round 2 (I should point out that Tre Harris was rated by PFF at #66, and he was taken in the mid second) was rated 40. Had we taken an edge in round 1, it is likely we would have ended up with J Walker (#25) and in round 2 Beck (#40). Instead, we drafted TMac (#4) and Scourton (PFF #29) and Princely (PFF #50). https://www.pff.com/news/draft-2025-nfl-draft-board-big-board In terms of trade value points, the PFF scores value Morgan's first and second round vs. the probably first and second round (had we taken Walker and then the best WR available in round 2 Beck): So you see, Morgan ended up, using the PFF ranking system, doubling the value he got from the first two picks than if he had taken Walker instead of TMac and then drafted the best WR left at pick 51 or 57. In terms of what actually happened, TMac was drafted at #8 and Scourton was taken at #51--this suggests that the Panthers got great value vs. the PFF rankings. Walker was taken at #15, (10 places higher than his rankings) and Beck was taken at 58, (18 places lower than his rankings.) So how did Morgan do if you compare drafting Walker/WR vs TMac/Edge? So Morgan's value was still 24% higher than it would have been had he drafted Walker. Of course, this does not factor in trades, etc. but you get the idea.

Good stuff. Interesting.

If Mays had not played well last year, I and credit Hunt and Lewis for some of that, he would have done something at C--not a great draft for it. I guess he figured that we could get by with Mays and Corbett for a season. I hope Mays continues to improve.