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We need to get younger

juliosantos

By juliosantos,
in Carolina Panthers

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juliosantos Newbie

juliosantos

Posted
Posted

The Panthers need a youth movement. Since 2013, they’ve fielded one of the oldest rosters in the NFL:

2013: 26th youngest
2014: 26th
2015: 31st
2016: 30th
2017: 31st
2018: 29th

In 2015, we got away with it. We got great production from key veteran players on cheap contracts: Peanut Tillman, Michael Oher, Jericho Cotchery, Roman Harper, Kurt Coleman, Jared Allen, etc. We also saw Ryan Kalil, Jonathan Stewart, Charles Johnson and other players have their last great seasons. Dave Gettleman did a great job of finding productive vets at cap friendly contracts.

But this model is not sustainable. We saw these veteran players retire, slow down from Father Time, sustain injuries all while occupying a significant amount of cap space. Going into next year, we only have 36 players under contract with $28 million in cap room.

So this might be the most important offseason in the Cam Newton era. We have to be able to fill needs on the offensive and defensive lines and at safety through the draft and do what we can in free agency to retain our own guys (Reid and Daryl Williams) and add depth at other positions.

It’s time to start the new era of Panthers football led by Christian McCaffery, DJ Moore, Curtis Samuel, Donte Jackson, Taylor Moton, Ian Thomas, etc.

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Puddinhead Newbie

Puddinhead

Posted
Posted

Yes, you do. We (the Saints) went through our roster overhaul in 2015 and 2016 and to Payton' and Loomis' credit we didn't drop any further off the cliff than the previous season's 7-9, which had triggered the youth movement in the first place.  The average age dropped essentially a full year (27.2 to 26.3) from 2014 to 2018. That's more of a change than it might seem.

Of course, a lot of skill and luck is needed to get the rebuild right; you ideally want to get better at the same time as you're getting younger. It helps if you have a HOF-caliber QB willing to stick around through the rebuild rather than chase a ring elsewhere.

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