Analysis & Review of 2017 Draft Prospects Visits to date

[KB_fan]

I spent some time today reviewing and playing with the list of Panthers draft prospect visits / meetings / workouts to date.   I was trying to get a feel for what positions we might be targeting where in the draft.  That is, looking for patterns / groupings of players, and just trying to get a feel for what the visits might show about our relative priorities on offense & defense.

I've only done a preliminary review / analysis.  I hope to do more, but for now, in the next few comments here I'll be posting some of what I've been playing with, and a few of my conclusions based on the patterns I've found.

All of my data for the Panthers 2017 draft prospect contacts / visits / workouts is taken from Gene Ferrell's Black & Blue Maniac blog (I cross checked it with Walter Football as well) and is current through April 13.

https://panthergf.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/2017-draft-prospect-visit-workout-meeting-list/

[KB_fan]

First, let me post lists of all the players we've met with or shown any interest in by offense & defense.

Here's the list of players we've been in contact with on offense:

(click on graphic to see a larger version)

 

We've had reported contact with 58 players on offense.  Of those we've had private visits and/or workouts with 31 offensive players.

 

It's clear we're doing a TON of work / due diligence on two position groups in particular:

Wide Receivers - 18 player contacts and 12 visits/ workouts

Offensive Tackles - 16 player contacts and 10 visits/workouts

On offense, I'm confident we're going to draft a RB; OT & WR, probably in that order of priority. 

Re: Tight Ends, if Howard or Njoku are BPA at one of our picks, we'll probably draft one of them, but I'm surprised we've not had reported contact with more mid-round TEs - players like Butt; Kittle; Leggett.   It seems a bit similar to last year:  if we don't take a TE VERY high, we might not take one at all until late on day 3.

 

[KB_fan]

Sorry - let me play with the formatting of the table.  It's showing up so small.... 

thanks for the patience

[Marguide]

Thank you.

Great info.

[Saca312]

2 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

Re: Tight Ends, if Howard or Njoku are BPA at one of our picks, we'll probably draft one of them, but I'm surprised we've not had reported contact with more mid-round TEs - players like Butt; Kittle; Leggett.   It seems a bit similar to last year:  if we don't take a TE VERY high, we might not take one at all until late on day 3.

 

You kidding? We've met with TE prospects that are probably some of the biggest gems of the class. That shows you the diligence our scouts are taking with this draft. I was very pleasantly surprised to see who we scouted, and two prospects jumped out immediately.

Cethan Carter has the ability and flashes that compare to Tony Gonzalez. Here's a snippet:

https://mattwaldmanrsp.com/2017/03/02/rsp-boiler-room-no-85-te-cethan-carter-suddenness-and-bend/

Quote

When he played for the Falcons, Tony Gonzalez could no longer stretch the seam or wreak havoc in the open field like he did with the Chiefs for most of his career. Even so, defenders couldn’t cover the old tight end in the shallow zone.

It’s because Gonzalez still possessed two skills that the “next Tony Gonzalezes” (that never came to fruition) lacked. Two skills that many don’t value in comparison to size, vertical leap, wide catch radii, Reed-like speed, and Gronkowski-like power.

These skills are bend and suddenness.

Until the day he retired, Gonzalez could drop his hips and bend his knees into a sudden stop within the span of one step and he could whip around in his breaks. These two things earned Gonzalez all the separation he needed over the middle.

Cethan Carter is young, fast, strong, and has all the flashy things that other folks value. He’ll likely impress this weekend in the running events and I wouldn’t be surprised if he out-lifts bigger tight ends, too.

But it’s how Carter integrates his burst and flexibility into routes that excites me as a talent evaluator. This week’s Boiler Room examines Carter’s burgeoning route prowess, including his bend, suddenness, release acumen, and reading one level ahead of the defense.

And then Jeremy Sprinkle; Matt Waldman's favorite sleeper:

https://mattwaldmanrsp.com/2017/03/15/rsp-boiler-room-no-86-te-jeremy-sprinkle/

Quote

Technique and athletic ability earn much of the focus when studying draft prospects. Often, those qualities take a back seat to play intelligence. Jeremy Sprinkle is an unsung option in an exciting class of rookie tight ends.

He’s big, strong, and quick enough for the NFL. He catches the ball. Sometimes what catches the eye isn’t the physical traits or refined technique, but intelligent decision-making wrapped in an unrefined technical package.

Here’s one courtesy of Sprinkle.

 

[KB_fan]

Ok - trying again on the table of OFFENSE player contacts / visits

Note: I added the NFL.com rankings to the list posted at black & blue maniac in order to give me a more obvious way of sorting the players within each position.

*NOW CORRECTED to fix missing WRs*

[KB_fan]

6 minutes ago, Saca312 said:

You kidding? We've met with TE prospects that are probably some of the biggest gems of the class. That shows you the diligence our scouts are taking with this draft. I was very pleasantly surprised to see who we scouted

Not criticizing our scouts, nor saying we haven't met with some great TE prospects.  It just seems there's a pretty big gap in the middle.  Players like Kittle & Leggett are surprise absences.  Of course we may have met with them.  The lists are never 100%; and we do occasionally draft players we've not been known to meet with, especially in later rounds.  I just expected to see MORE TEs on the list in a wider variety of rounds given the depth of this class.

[Saca312]

Looks like we met with the three power backs from the draft; Perine, Conner, and Fournette. Pretty much expected, as the Panthers will definitely look to Perine or Conner as fallback options in the case Fournette isn't our pick.

Would love if we nab McCaffrey in the first and Perine/Conner later on. Would pretty much make our running game near unstoppable with how many looks we could employ. Even so, we could use Perine as a fullback option as well, so don't sleep on that idea if we still get Fournette.

Marlon Mack is very elusive, but should be drafted as a scatback more than a workhouse back. His ability through open space is very good.

[Saca312]

2 minutes ago, KB_fan said:

Not criticizing our scouts, nor saying we haven't met with some great TE prospects.  It just seems there's a pretty big gap in the middle.  Players like Kittle & Leggett are surprise absences.  Of course we may have met with them.  The lists are never 100%; and we do occasionally draft players we've not been known to meet with, especially in later rounds.  I just expected to see MORE TEs on the list in a wider variety of rounds given the depth of this class.

Gotcha. Leggett in particular isn't very flashy, so I can see the hesitancy there. He works well against zone, but nothing much other than that. There's a reason he's underhyped right now, and it is warranted.

Other than that, I agree. We should be taking a look at more TEs, but I have a sickening feeling Rivera feels we're "fine" when we're not. Hope that's not the case, but could very well be.

[TheSpecialJuan]

Great work

[Ace_Aladdin]

9 minutes ago, Saca312 said:

Gotcha. Leggett in particular isn't very flashy, so I can see the hesitancy there. He works well against zone, but nothing much other than that. There's a reason he's underhyped right now, and it is warranted.

Other than that, I agree. We should be taking a look at more TEs, but I have a sickening feeling Rivera feels we're "fine" when we're not. Hope that's not the case, but could very well be.

@KB_fan Expect Leggett to be taken around 2nd or 3rd round if OJ Howard is gone 

You assesment of Leggett is wrong, he is probably the 2nd best route runner behind OJ Howard

- He can block  In-Line / FB

- Hands Catcher / Minimum drop rate

-Another Greg Olsen Clone with better upside as a blocker.

Oh yea man 2 man he owned the secondary player below .

 

 

[Lasus83.]

Good analysis... wish I had thought of it [emoji6]

Sent using the amazing CarolinaHuddle mobile app

[KB_fan]

Ok, now for the players we've met with on Defense:

We've had contact with 40 Defensive players and had private meetings / workouts with 19 of those players.  

The fact that the number of player contacts & meetings on Defense is SO MUCH FEWER than the numbers on Offense

suggest so me that we will be going heavy on Offense this draft as long as the board falls the way we hope.

• 58 offense contacts to 40 defense contacts
• 31 offense meetings &.workouts to 19 defense meetings & workouts

 

I'd guess our Defensive Priorities are clearly DE & Safety.

I'm intrigued by that threesome of DE prospect visits around our #98 draft pick.  Bashom / Walker / Kpassagnon.  If Thomas or another elite prospect is not on the board when we pick, one of these 3 guys could be our plan B at DE.  I'm guessing DG might have trouble resisting Kpassagnon's size!

Surprised we've not had any reported contact with Lattimore at CB.

Linebacker, looks like we're most looking for some depth as we're not meeting with hardly any top LB prospects. (no surprise...)

[Marguide]

Your re-formatted table cut off some of the wide receivers.