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Panthers picking 8th overall in 2017 Draft, but remember this important disclaimer
By
Growl,
in Carolina Panthers
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In another post, Snow says about three years before you can properly grade a rookie class. Sounds about right… -
By falconlynx · Posted
And this reiterates why I don’t want a Young contract extension. Please let us find another QB. -
Oh, the high expectations after a draft. Keep your expectations low, people. Darin Gantt's latest "Ask The Old Guy" gives life to one of those lessons about pro football reality as a fan: "Rasheed Walker was a three-year starter at left tackle for the Packers, so Freeling is going to have to work. Hunter's got another big 'un in front of him in Bobby Brown III and a different kind of defensive tackle in Tershawn Wharton. Chris Brazzell II's got a lot of traffic at his position. Zakee Wheatley has to be better than the chronically underappreciated Nick Scott, and Sam Hecht is a fifth-round rookie at the hardest position on the line to play, who probably doesn't have immediate positional flexibility, and a solid free agent addition in Luke Fortner in front of him. "Fans generally love their draft class as soon as it arrives, because there is no evidence to the contrary yet. Once guys get on the field, the reality begins to creep in, and the seasoned among you remember that if you get three or four good players out of a draft, that was an amazing draft." https://www.panthers.com/news/ask-the-old-guy-things-looking-up-after-the-draft-monroe-freeling-luke-kuechly-bryce-young-derrick-brown Don't get crazy. Winning the draft (or the offseason BTW) on paper always leads to good feelings and great expectations, especially when you seemingly succeeded the season before, but let's remember that the Panthers are very much a work in progress. Team building takes time. If we get a couple of starters out of the draft, it's a good draft, but three or four would be an amazing draft, and anything more than that is actually sensational--even if entails a few multiple high end rotational players along with three starters. Moreover, kind of within that same vein, the coaches have to let the kids off the chain. Remember the coach-speak of past coaches about competition that is anything but because coaches have their notions about veteran experience? Not saying that they're necessarily wrong, but sometimes I think their reluctance to put the young guys out there is based somewhat in dogma or possibly fear because big stakes are on the line (e.g., their jobs). It can be frustrating to say the least, but the coaches are supposed to know best. Again, I say all of this so that we can remember to temper expectations and keep them within the realm of reality. It's like telling your mind to think of it as something akin to under-promising and over-delivering. Leave room to be pleasantly surprised for the best case scenario, but be cognizant that that rarely happens. I would think at this point, most of us should be able to recognize growth when we see it, and sometimes that growth doesn't manifest itself in the form of immediate supremacy, but a setting of the stage for long term dominance for years to come. It seems like we're on track for an emergence by 2028 or 2029. We still have huge questions, but by 2029, hopefully we will take our seat at the table of the perennial contenders in the NFL.
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