Person: Panthers "have their eyes on" Eric Weddle

[iamhubby1]

4 hours ago, tiger7_88 said:

If Weddle wants or expects a Tiffany's contract?  He ain't gonna wear a Panthers jersey.

If he's willing at this stage of his career to sign a Target's contract for a chance to play for a winning team?  Then the Panthers are in the conversation.

 

IMO, Weedle is going to want two things. A fair contract. And with a contending team. We can offer him the latter, but can we get close enough to the money he wants for him to come here?

 

From what I've heard all he wants is fair compensation. We should be able to get close to that. Whether we can get close enough to make him happy is the question. Will playing with Luke and Com., along with being reunited with Rivera sway him enough to take what we can offer?

 

Hellz, who knows what's going to happen? Speculators gotta speculate.

3 hours ago, The Lobo said:

This would be cool but I feel like getting some pass rush help would be better.

 

If Gman stays true to form, we should be able to do both. He has shown a penchant for finding quality vets at reasonable prices. And after all, he does have a few extra bucks to play with this year.

 

Also. Some think that a good to great back end is just as important as a pass rush. A team is luck to get 4 sacks a game. Whereas the back end is in on a poo ton more plays. Having good/great players back there can do wonders for your D.

 

 

Here's how I look at this. Gman has roughly 12mil to play with. How he spends it will tell us what he and Rivera think about our team. 1 top shelf FA would mean the rest will be bargain basements. Or does he do 3 medium FA, and spread the wealth around?

 

1 Top Shelf DE would make us better. But, do a decent S, CB, and a DE make us even better? Or add a WR into the mix. He does have options. Gonna be great watching this play out.

[KB_fan]

30 minutes ago, iamhubby1 said:

If Gman stays true to form, we should be able to do both. He has shown a penchant for finding quality vets at reasonable prices. And after all, he does have a few extra bucks to play with this year.

Also. Some think that a good to great back end is just as important as a pass rush. A team is luck to get 4 sacks a game. Whereas the back end is in on a poo ton more plays. Having good/great players back there can do wonders for your D.

I seem to recall a statistical article during the season (one of those "Carolina is the worst 7-0" team kind of things) which was actually really interesting, about how we'd won many more games that our stats would have predicted.  It turns out our pass defense had gone through the roof or something and that was the big factor making a difference in our quality of play.

I think it was at 538.  I'll see if I can find the link.  But it definitely suggested that our improved DBs were a BIG part of our amazing season. 

I'll go look for the link.

[KB_fan]

5 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

I seem to recall a statistical article during the season (one of those "Carolina is the worst 7-0" team kind of things) which was actually really interesting, about how we'd won many more games that our stats would have predicted.  It turns out our pass defense had gone through the roof or something and that was the big factor making a difference in our quality of play.

I think it was at 538.  I'll see if I can find the link.  But it definitely suggested that our improved DBs were a BIG part of our amazing season. 

I'll go look for the link.

Here's the article in question

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-explains-the-carolina-panthers-rise/

Quote

 

The Panthers have improved their rating by 116 Elo points (the equivalent of 4.6 points of per-game scoring margin) since the start of the season, and, according to our simulations, they’re on track to win 4.6 more games than was projected before the year. That’s an unusually big jump. But the manner in which Carolina has improved is also unconventional. While the typical big first-half Elo gainer¹ does it with a significantly improved passing game, the Panthers’ aerial attack is virtually the same as it was last season — league average, basically, in the eyes of expected points added (EPA).²

Although quarterback Cam Newton gets the headlines for the Panthers’ offense, which has improved its overall EPA by about half a standard deviation since last year, almost all of the change is owed to a more efficient rushing game. (Newton himself is on pace for about the same production in the rushing game as last season.) Of all the teams who improved their Elo as much as the Panthers have, only about 14 percent did so with a passing attack that, like Carolina’s, didn’t improve relative to the league. Generally speaking, to win more games in the NFL, you need to throw the ball more effectively.

That is, unless you improve your pass defense — which is exactly what the Panthers have done this year. Using the EPA grades I introduced last week, which rate teams on a scale in which 100 is average and one standard deviation is 15 points, only four defenses have improved more against the pass than Carolina’s has this season:

	PASS DEFENSE
TEAM	2014	2015	Δ GRADE
Denver	111	138	+26
Washington	65	91	+26
N.Y. Jets	89	113	+24
Philadelphia	97	120	+23
Carolina	102	125	+23
Atlanta	82	103	+21
St. Louis	105	123	+18
Tennessee	84	101	+17
Oakland	79	90	+12
Pittsburgh	87	98	+11

 

[Mr. Scot]

2 hours ago, jdpanther5 said:

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I'm not sure this isn't just speculation wrapped in "fact." I mean, Person earlier tweeted that "Gettleman indicated they won't be big spenders in free agency." Now, that's probably accurate, but of course there was no quote where Dave actually said this. 

I'm not a big fan of Person, but there's no reason not to think they're at least paying attention to Weddle.

Mind you, I'm not holding out hope of getting him.

[stirs]

I actually think there are too many people "looking" at Weddle.  This spells rising prices, so unless he just wants to come here badly, I doubt we get him

[Daddy_Uncle]

We've cleared a ton of money. Obviously we have to sign our current core guys, but I feel like it would make sense to sign a few bigger name free agents this year. Bring in Weddle, Coples, Gates to boost some key positions and we'll ne nasty

[doghead28]

I wouldn't mind Weddle coming in at the right price. Gettleman is not going to overpay for someone anyway. I think Weddle has enough left in the tank to help the team.

[jdpanther5]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

There's no reason not to think they're at least paying attention to Weddle.

 

Agreed, I just don't think Person or Jones actually have anything other than "this makes sense" but they're running with the "Panthers definitely have interest" angle. 

[R0CKnR0LLA]

2 hours ago, stirs said:

I actually think there are too many people "looking" at Weddle.  This spells rising prices, so unless he just wants to come here badly, I doubt we get him

I hope not. I'm thinking there's a good chance we sign guys like Weddle, Antonio Gates, Mario Williams, ect, because of their age they shouldn't demand big contracts. If we can get top level guys at mid-level prices then that has DG written all over it. Bad news is that there are a lot of teams with huge amounts of cap space this year (much more than average) so it might be tough to get guys at reasonable prices.

[KendrickPanther]

11 hours ago, CPF4LIFE said:

Ed Reed and Polamolu are arguably the greatest FS and SS off all time.  He doesnt have to be close to that level to make us significantly better.

Kurt Coleman's numbers at FS surpassed Weddle's best year. Not a perfect comparison metric but I'm not as gung ho about moving Coleman out of the robber as some people are. There are many players that could potentially be an upgrade over Roman Harper. 

[GoobyPls]

Weddle is old, slow and constantly injured.

[KEeP POuNDiN]

This is a plus

[Zaximus]

1 hour ago, KendrickPanther said:

Kurt Coleman's numbers at FS surpassed Weddle's best year. Not a perfect comparison metric but I'm not as gung ho about moving Coleman out of the robber as some people are. There are many players that could potentially be an upgrade over Roman Harper. 

You are looking at only turnovers, a bad idea when judging a DB.  Weddle was the 2nd best in his position last year covering the pass. 

 

[CarolinaNCSU]

1 hour ago, GoobyPls said:

Weddle is old, slow and constantly injured.

He's 31. He's got a few years left.

Though his combine numbers are what I'm going off of, he ran a 4.38-4.48 in the 40.

He's missed 7 games in 9 years. 7 out of 144.