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By Ricky Spanish · Posted
9. Carolina Panthers What went right: Carolina got a quarterback and a coaching staff. Trading up to the No. 1 overall pick didn't come cheap. But an organization that desperately tried to acquire Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson, drafted Matt Corral and dealt for Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield finally landed its quarterback of the future. Again, I don't want to predict how players will turn out before they've played an NFL snap, but coming out of this offseason with top quarterback Bryce Young was a huge step forward for the Panthers after the half measures of years past. I'm more confident in talking about their coaching hires. Everything went haywire for new Carolina head coach Frank Reich in Indianapolis a year ago, but the former Eagles assistant had done excellent work with the Colts up to that point, consistently getting more out of his quarterbacks than other coaches had in the years before or after. New defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is one of the few people to come out of the 2022 Broncos season smelling like a rose after leading their defense to a 10th-place finish in DVOA. What went wrong: I'm not so sure about the playmakers around Young in 2023. I'm certain the Panthers didn't want to trade away DJ Moore in their deal with the Bears, but if that was the cost of doing business for a potential franchise quarterback, it needed to happen. Moore's departure left them with Laviska Shenault Jr. as their No. 1 wide receiver. Moves had to be made. I didn't love the signing of Adam Thielen, who will turn 33 in August, has played one full season over the past four and just finished an inefficient campaign with the Vikings. Seventy catches and 716 yards sounds reasonable enough for a veteran wide receiver, but he ran 656 routes, the second most of any player in football. He averaged a woeful 1.09 yards per route run, which ranked 83rd out of 97 qualifying wideouts. Some of that is a product of playing alongside Justin Jefferson, but Thielen was at 1.69 with Jefferson the year before. Thielen is still going to have a two-touchdown game at some point in 2023, but I'm not sure he is a starting-caliber receiver anymore. No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young doesn't have elite playmakers around him, but the Panthers have a solid roster on defense. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images) I'm more optimistic about the DJ Chark and Hayden Hurst signings, and the Panthers supplemented those by using a second-round pick on wideout Jonathan Mingo. No issues there. Signing Miles Sanders to a four-year, $25.4 million deal seemed more curious, even if it's more like a two-year, $13.2 million pact in reality. Sanders has been an efficient running back and is coming off a career year with Philadelphia, but he also was playing behind a great offensive line and was buoyed by the gravity of teams focusing on what quarterback Jalen Hurts could do on the ground. The back's receiving workload also disappeared, with Sanders racking up more receiving yards as a rookie (509) than he did over the three ensuing seasons combined (433). Some of that might be a product of the Eagles' system, but the Panthers essentially gave Sanders the Austin Ekeler contract without that sort of production. Would they really have been worse off if they had just brought back D'Onta Foreman? Or should they have been more aggressive about trading for Ekeler? What's left to do: Figure out what to do with Jeremy Chinn. A second-round pick in 2020, Chinn looked like a potential star at safety for after his first two years in the league. He took a step backward last season, though, and the Panthers signed new safeties Vonn Bell and Xavier Woods in free agency. Chinn is probably not going to be a safety whom you want playing the deep half all that often, but he can be a valuable contributor as a box defender. He could even play some snaps at linebacker in passing situations, but Carolina is set there with Shaq Thompson and 2022 breakout player Frankie Luvu. Can Evero carve out a meaningful hybrid role for Chinn? Does the impending free agent's future lay elsewhere. -
By WUnderhill · Posted
Just like we wouldn’t trade a lottery pick for the last pick in the 1st rd and 4 second round picks. Who could be that stupid….
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