Morgan at the Shrine Bowl, talks about looking for players who are passionate (dawgs)

[Martin]

The purpose of these games and the combine is to confirm what you’ve already seen on tape. Or discover something you missed, good or bad, so you can go back to the tapes to once again confirm. The Greg Little example above was a great example of someone that looked really good on tape, but his poor combine made you go back to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Other players are the opposite.
 

What you can never do is let a combine result overrule what you’ve seen on tape. It is only one more datapoint in the total evaluation.

[Jackie Lee]

 

[Icege]

35 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

 

I am sky high on Mike Green and Donovan Ezeiruaku.

[PNW_PantherMan]

Mike Green?  Cam Ward?  This class is full of great hockey players.

 

[Jackie Lee]

I think it's a good year to double dip at pass rusher. 

 

[WhoKnows]

7 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

I think it's a good year to double dip at pass rusher. 

 

Before we crown these guys, can we find out who 55 from the team with those silver wings on the helmet is. He was in both highlights and well, he might not be NFL material.

Of course I just jinxed us as he will be our surprise 2nd rounder this year.

[WhoKnows]

1 hour ago, Martin said:

What you can never do is let a combine result overrule what you’ve seen on tape. It is only one more datapoint in the total evaluation.

Umm, you need to let a combine result overrule the tape when, like @SmokinwithWilly mentioned, Greg Little’s combine drills were the worst of every OL in attendance. He was a PFF superstar with only 1 sack given up.

The numbers stuff can exaggerate good or bad too much, but all the drills they run are simulating actual plays/movements so doing poorly/well there is a good way to compare people and to show why you should take a chance on a Trey Smith in the 6th or not waste a chance on Deonte Brown in the 6th because one is skilled and the other benefited from first and second rounders all around him.

It really is funny how some of us armchair GMs can see the obvious but the Panthers GMs get fooled way too often.

[Jackie Lee]

5 minutes ago, WhoKnows said:

Before we crown these guys, can we find out who 55 from the team with those silver wings on the helmet is. He was in both highlights and well, he might not be NFL material.

Of course I just jinxed us as he will be our surprise 2nd rounder this year.

Yeah it's still early, but almost anyone worth drafting the first two days would be an immediate upgrade to our pass rushing room lol. We are horrible

[DaveThePanther2008]

I've noticed over several years that these bowl games are pretty much late day 2 and day 3 players. I don't think it is such a bad idea to look for players that have a high motor, is tough and smart. 

Of course they all can't be projects but one's with dawg mentalities definitely wouldn't hurt in the later rounds. 

[theinstrumental]

2 hours ago, WhoKnows said:

You are confusing great athletes with talent. XL is a great athlete but I think Coker has shown to be more talented. Running routes and having great hands are “talents” for a WR.

DJ Johnson was never considered a great talented edge who just didn’t have enough passion.

We need great football players. DL that know how to get leverage, fire off the line the quickest and make plays. If you watched our defense, we had so many guys who couldn’t get off blocks or couldn’t maintain their gaps. Doesn’t mean they didn’t try hard or were bad athletes, they just weren’t good talented football players.

You’re describing technique. Which, I agree, is obviously important. But what I’m reacting against is the pushback on the idea that football character is worth drafting for. Physical attributes, technique, and football character (“dawg”) all matter. If you’re short of any of them, you’re probably going to fail. I don’t understand the eagerness in this thread to throw one of them out the window.

[theinstrumental]

4 hours ago, MHS831 said:

I am going to rock the boat because that is what boat rockers do, I think. 

Morgan will trade the #8 pick if he can if Carter is not on the board.  TMac, Graham are possible too. 

In his recent comments (forget where I read them--probably here) he referred to the #1 pick in general, but added that a trade was possible. 

I think it depends on what we do in free agency, but we have about 8 starting positions to fill:  (CB, S, S, LB, DT, DE, Edge, WR)  

So it makes sense, in a draft that seems deep in front 7 players, to trade back and try to grab 3 starters--NT, Edge, and S or WR.  I think we can get a DE (3,5 tech) later who can rotate with Robinson and Brown.

 

Agreed. I’m bothered by this FO’s historical trend to try to address every need in FA, leading them to go into the draft overconfident that every hole is filled. We need a bunch of guy, this draft is deep at what we need, and there aren’t great values at the top. It’s the perfect storm to try to move back.

[Tr3ach]

4 hours ago, MHS831 said:

I am going to rock the boat because that is what boat rockers do, I think. 

Morgan will trade the #8 pick if he can if Carter is not on the board.  TMac, Graham are possible too. 

In his recent comments (forget where I read them--probably here) he referred to the #1 pick in general, but added that a trade was possible. 

I think it depends on what we do in free agency, but we have about 8 starting positions to fill:  (CB, S, S, LB, DT, DE, Edge, WR)  

So it makes sense, in a draft that seems deep in front 7 players, to trade back and try to grab 3 starters--NT, Edge, and S or WR.  I think we can get a DE (3,5 tech) later who can rotate with Robinson and Brown.

 

Drafting a safety in the first seems like such a Morgan move.

[Tr3ach]

2 hours ago, frankw said:

I like Morgan a great deal from a personal standpoint for plainly obvious reasons but as the lead talent evaluator of this team I have become tired of this trope already. Ditch the RAS bullshit. Ditch the need to cling to feel good stories about prospects who have connections to the Carolinas and focus instead on who the best prospect is regardless of background or college they played for. Ditch the cliche tough guy tropes. Stop trying to think you're the smartest guy in the room and that you and only you see things 31 other GM's supposedly don't. Just draft good healthy(!) football players.

I don't even mind factoring ras scores as one factor.  The problem with the high ras guys we've drafted is they intentionally skipped parts of the drills (mostly cones and shuttle agility drills) so the ras we are chasing is entirely just height, weight, and 40 time.  That's a joke and not really a ras score at all.

[PNW_PantherMan]

6 minutes ago, Tr3ach said:

Drafting a safety in the first seems like such a Morgan move.

He better be the next Thomas Davis if we do that.