Everyone Pushing to Draft Yet Another WR Early

[Gapanthersfan]

This team closed the season out with a 40 burger in our biggest rival’s house in a game that did matter to them. They were able to keep pace with the chiefs and eagles. Why everyone has such an obsession with having our own Justin Jefferson I’ll never know. 

[PappyMay]

I want the first 2 picks to be defense, but I'm all for a receiver in the 3rd or 4th. Just think it needs to be a route runner who is quick rather than big body guy. Really hope our picks from last year take a step forward and 1 more year of AT being safety valve.

[TD alt]

50 minutes ago, Gapanthersfan said:

This team closed the season out with a 40 burger in our biggest rival’s house in a game that did matter to them. They were able to keep pace with the chiefs and eagles. Why everyone has such an obsession with having our own Justin Jefferson I’ll never know. 

It's not even really a Huddle thing, even analysts think that we need to get Bryce another legit weapon. 

Losing to the Chiefs and Eagles still equals two losses at the end of the day. Beating the Falcons the second time around was great, but our record was not. We made strides, but hooking our bandwagon to an old guy is not ideal.

I say just draft the BPA, if that happens to be McMillan if he's still on the board, it is what it is. If it's Malaki Starks  (or possibly Carter or Graham, both if whom I think will be gone), I'm good with that too. 

FA will go a long way towards determining what's what. 

[tukafan21]

8 hours ago, Icege said:

T-Mac's lack of separation at the collegiate level does not give you any concern?

He's the biggest body and has good hands, but I don't think he's the best receiver in this draft class. Hunter/Egbuka are my 1a/1b, then Tet, then Golden.

No, because I think his "lack of separation" is overblown due to the contested target statistic that was bouncing around here a month or so ago.

His contested target statistic was more because of the constant double and triple teams than his inability to separate from defenders, as once he gets a little room from one, there was the double team to step right in.

Plus his size and hands mitigate the issue as well, because he is so good at making contested catches by blocking out the defender with his big body and making hands catches away from his body as well.

[Basbear]

Just use common sense. The draft is deep at DT, DL, EDGE, DE. It's weak at WR. Look at the current group for 2025, AT is JJJ age, XL, Coker. 

It's makes too much sense to draft tmac and let the young BY grow with a potential weapon. 

Then draft all the defense players you want with the next 8 picks while using the best part at its maximum value.  

[Aussie Tank]

35 minutes ago, Basbear said:

Just use common sense. The draft is deep at DT, DL, EDGE, DE. It's weak at WR. Look at the current group for 2025, AT is JJJ age, XL, Coker. 

It's makes too much sense to draft tmac and let the young BY grow with a potential weapon. 

Then draft all the defense players you want with the next 8 picks while using the best part at its maximum value.  

It's weak for WR at the top i do like the rounds 3-5 WR prospects 

[Basbear]

1 minute ago, Aussie Tank said:

It's weak for WR at the top i do like the rounds 3-5 WR prospects 

 

That's the thing, Panthers need a starter more than depth.......yes they need depth too, but that chance at a top end WR could be sitting there at 8. There's a much higher drop off in WR than DL form 8th to 57th. 

I mean they need a new KR, PR as well. Jesus sooo many holes. 

Unless you want to put all your chips in the XL or Coker will be the stud..... I prefer to draft Tmac and rack in defenders for the next 4 picks......Then add in TE, RB, and maybe even QB for the true BPA soup and you have my perfect Panthers draft!!

 

 

 

Its against my religion but they also need punter, kicker, and LS( equip poop armor ) 

[Aussie Tank]

11 minutes ago, Basbear said:

 

That's the thing, Panthers need a starter more than depth.......yes they need depth too, but that chance at a top end WR could be sitting there at 8. There's a much higher drop off in WR than DL form 8th to 57th. 

I mean they need a new KR, PR as well. Jesus sooo many holes. 

Unless you want to put all your chips in the XL or Coker will be the stud..... I prefer to draft Tmac and rack in defenders for the next 4 picks......Then add in TE, RB, and maybe even QB for the true BPA soup and you have my perfect Panthers draft!!

 

 

 

Its against my religion but they also need punter, kicker, and LS( equip poop armor ) 

I think we add another Vet like Amari Cooper or Hopkins this offseason and give XL and Coker more time to develop. While pumping everything else in defense 

[Basbear]

6 minutes ago, Aussie Tank said:

I think we add another Vet like Amari Cooper or Hopkins this offseason and give XL and Coker more time to develop. While pumping everything else in defense 

 

I think another point would be you'd have a young QB growing with a young WR. Like the next ten could be special. 

Lastly I think Tmac is great fit for the type of WR that should excel with BY. Think about that. 

[Aussie Tank]

21 minutes ago, Basbear said:

 

I think another point would be you'd have a young QB growing with a young WR. Like the next ten could be special. 

Lastly I think Tmac is great fit for the type of WR that should excel with BY. Think about that. 

I think the same thing but that's just how I see things playing out 

[tukafan21]

33 minutes ago, Aussie Tank said:

I think we add another Vet like Amari Cooper or Hopkins this offseason and give XL and Coker more time to develop. While pumping everything else in defense 

If we add another 30+ year old WR this offseason, then we're dumber than I could imagine.

That would be like trying to fix holes in a boat by using a mesh screen to patch them

[Martin]

2 hours ago, tukafan21 said:

No, because I think his "lack of separation" is overblown due to the contested target statistic that was bouncing around here a month or so ago.

His contested target statistic was more because of the constant double and triple teams than his inability to separate from defenders, as once he gets a little room from one, there was the double team to step right in.

Plus his size and hands mitigate the issue as well, because he is so good at making contested catches by blocking out the defender with his big body and making hands catches away from his body as well.

So are you saying he has no problem getting separation? I’ve never seen him play, so I’m genuinely curious to understand if he can or not on a consistent basis. I’m not interested in if he can overcome it or not. Just looking for a yes or no on this question.

[Aussie Tank]

29 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

If we add another 30+ year old WR this offseason, then we're dumber than I could imagine.

That would be like trying to fix holes in a boat by using a mesh screen to patch them

This team isn't one offseason away and our defense is putrid. If we gotta add another capable Vet like Thielen so we can field a competitive defence I'm all for it 

[tukafan21]

2 hours ago, Martin said:

So are you saying he has no problem getting separation? I’ve never seen him play, so I’m genuinely curious to understand if he can or not on a consistent basis. I’m not interested in if he can overcome it or not. Just looking for a yes or no on this question.

It's not a yes or no question for him, as neither just saying yes or just saying no would be a correct statement.  The correct statement is that it's one of his weaknesses, as he has 3 "weaknesses" to his game, his top end speed, his initial get off at the snap, and his ability to separate on routes.

HOWEVER...........

Saying those are his weaknesses doesn't mean he's bad at any of them, he just isn't elite in those categories compared to the rest of his game, hence why they're "weaknesses" for him.  But again, as I've pointed out many times, not many WRs of his size/style of game are elite in those areas, if they were, they would be the next Calvin Johnson or Randy Moss, and if you don't want a tall WR just because they're not Calvin/Moss, then you expect too much.

He already runs a full NFL route tree at a high level, so once he crisps up some of his cuts (and more it's the post-cut separation than the cut itself) a bit as he gets better, that separation will become even better as well.  It's hard to fix a bad route runner once they're already in the NFL, but getting a great route runner to be quicker into/out of his cuts is pretty standard in the NFL. 

I don't think he'll struggle to get enough separation in this league to be a high end #1 WR, but if you expect him to have a Jefferson or Chase ability to quickly separate, you're going to be disappointed by him in that aspect of his game.

But as I've also said before, everything is a trade off, as maybe he isn't elite in those areas, but his hands, catch radius, and contested catch ability are all off the charts and I think are all better than guys like Jefferson/Chase.  For a QB like Bryce, who doesn't have the huge arm to fully take advantage of a take the top off type of speed WR, his ability to place the ball where he wants would be a perfect combination with T-Mac's catch radius and hands.

T-Mac is a faster but slightly less thick Mike Evans, my comp for T-Mac has always been AJ Green.  I think he will be a better version of Mike Evans (note, I'm not saying he's a surefire HOFer like Evans will be, but as great as Evans is, he's only had 1 or 2 seasons where he truly was a Top 5 WR in the league, his HOF status is more about long term consistency, like Frank Gore).

I'll put it this way, if he had elite speed/quickness/separation, there wouldn't even be a discussion of drafting him as there would be zero chance he'd fall to us, he legit would be in the mix for the #1 pick if that were the case as he'd be a perfect prospect.

If he never improves his speed and separation, I think he ends up in that 15ish best WR in the league every year, but still a true outside #1, to me that's his floor.  If he improves on them, as I think he will, then he has legit Top 5 WR potential and what I expect him to become in this league.

Edited February 4 by tukafan21