Panthers bring in DT Walter Nolen for 30-visit

[pantherclaw]

Good luck. 

[csx]

5 hours ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

We missed out on Milton Williams, Wharton is nice but he’s rotational DT. Make no mistake, Nolen is a top 10 on pure talent alone. I wouldn’t be surprised if we took him @8         

Wharton played more pct of snaps than Williams. They are both rotational 

[Panthro]

Williams caught lightning in a bottle in the playoffs.

 That’s also a recipe for boom/bust contracting

[MHS831]

10 hours ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

Yeah we need to upgrade our backups - Shy Tuttle and LaBryan Ray 

I am not real sure how he was used last year, but it is possible that Shy was played at NT and should have been a DE--Don't know his history or how he was used--just looking at his stats and PFF score--yikes.

[poorboysrev]

12 hours ago, MHS831 said:

That is what I thought, but this draft is LOADED.  I think we take one --NT Brown III, Rookie NT, DEs--Brown, Robinson, Wharton, ROOKIE DE, but we have Tuttle, Ray, and Crumedy on the roster--so we could be done-

With the kind of formations evero likes true big boy NT’s seem mandatory if we want a chance to stop the run.  I like the Bobby brown pickup for that reason but we need more than one 

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, poorboysrev said:

With the kind of formations evero likes true big boy NT’s seem mandatory if we want a chance to stop the run.  I like the Bobby brown pickup for that reason but we need more than one 

Yet Evero seems to like lighter, more mobile NTs. Sure, if you can find a lighter, quicker NT who can still hold up to double teams that's awesome but that seems like looking for a unicorn.

[poorboysrev]

11 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yet Everyone seems to like lighter, more mobile NTs. Sure, if you can find a lighter, quicker NT who can still hold up to double teams that's awesome but that seems like looking for a unicorn.

Just seems like a recipe for disaster to me..again ha. Makes more sense to me to have a DT that frees DB and company to wrecking ball

[LinvilleGorge]

46 minutes ago, poorboysrev said:

Just seems like a recipe for disaster to me..again ha. Makes more sense to me to have a DT that frees DB and company to wrecking ball

There's a reason why prototypes exist. It obviously doesn't mean that someone who doesn't fit can't succeed but it's going to be harder to pull off. But yeah, if I'm looking for a NT I'm ideally looking for someone built like Vince Wilfork not Shy Turtle's 6'3" 300. That's fine for a three tech if you have quickness and burst but man, it's gonna be HARD to hold it down at the nose at that size and we saw that play out last year.

[philw5289]

Well if we’re bringing this guy with character issues in for a visit why not consider Mike Green at 8!? 

[poorboysrev]

36 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

There's a reason why prototypes exist. It obviously doesn't mean that someone who doesn't fit can't succeed but it's going to be harder to pull off. But yeah, if I'm looking for a NT I'm ideally looking for someone built like Vince Wilfork not Shy Turtle's 6'3" 300. That's fine for a three tech if you have quickness and burst but man, it's gonna be HARD to hold it down at the nose at that size and we saw that play out last year.

Exactly. Exposes the whole defense. Dude thinks anyone can be Aaron Donald or something

[Bear Hands]

3 hours ago, Panthro said:

Williams caught lightning in a bottle in the playoffs.

 That’s also a recipe for boom/bust contracting

Yep - I'm kind of happy we didn't land him.  He's a vet that is still a non-3-down guy, his nonexistent run defense makes that contract such an albatross.

It doesn't make me like Wharton's deal for us (my least favorite), but the Pats deal saved us from ourselves a bit.  

[LinvilleGorge]

14 minutes ago, poorboysrev said:

Exactly. Exposes the whole defense. Dude thinks anyone can be Aaron Donald or something

I mean, NTs are already basically a unicorn. You're looking for a guy who is big enough and strong enough to hold up snap after snap with two 300+ pound NFL athlete technically proficient people movers trying desperately to move you off that spot. That is a HARD guy to find that can hold his ground snap after snap in those scenarios. It's the trade off of the 3-4. Teams love it because it puts more speed on the field and 3-4 OLBs are easier to find than 4-3 DEs but that NT is a hard spot to fill.

[Bear Hands]

If there's a prospect who looks strong on the field but has the question marks, makes sense to bring them in and see if they are indeed a nutjob or not.  Especially if they couldn't get a good sense in limited time to meet him at the combine. 

Randy Mueller has talked about it before -- many GMs don't just use these top-30s to validate the guys they already love.  Although we seem to do that and kind of show our cards a lot lol.  

But to the point, if they love tape, have met enough coaches/teammates and talked to them at the bowls/workouts, many teams don't need to wine and dine and get to know them.   There's certain guys who get to know regional scouts, GMs and position coaches starting mid-college season last year.   

On the flipside, there's the wildcards who aren't privy to developing relationships with the pro-community while in school, have bad reps, and teams need to dig a bit further into it.  A top-30 becomes a good measuring stick for those teams think could be a stellar fit but are unsure on who the guy actually is - which matters a ton at the end of the day.  Organizational fit has so much more weight than let on and is why these drafts after the first few picks get so all over the map.

 

[kungfoodude]

Love the player but we have to figure out what the situation is with all the character flags. If they adequately answer those, I am all for it.

At the end of the day, we will never be privy to the behind the scenes character vetting processes. 

You may hear rumblings from unofficial sources after the fact but that's about it.