ESPN 3rd mock

[Icege]

3 hours ago, Navy_football said:

I disagree with some of your sentiments toward Moehrig. I think he's exactly what this team needed. A leader in the backfield that can tackle and fill his gap. The Panthers have to stop the run going forward. Moehrig is huge in that area. He's also a good blitzing Safety. More of a Kyle Hamilton lite. Agreed that a ball hawking FS is a BIG need too. I think that guy can be found in the later rounds in Mukuba and Malachi Moore. Smaller but more cover guys than anything else. 

Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the team signed a top-10 player at their position without resetting the market for the position group like they did with Horn (only for it to be reset again soon after).

Took a historically bad run defense and added a box safety that was elite in run defense and 21st in rushing the passer. It's a massive upgrade from Jordan Fuller. Who would they have preferred instead?

Definitely need to get a boundary safety for Evero's scheme unless they're depending on Demani.

Edited April 16 by Icege

[LinvilleGorge]

3 hours ago, Navy_football said:

I disagree with some of your sentiments toward Moehrig. I think he's exactly what this team needed. A leader in the backfield that can tackle and fill his gap. The Panthers have to stop the run going forward. Moehrig is huge in that area. He's also a good blitzing Safety. More of a Kyle Hamilton lite. Agreed that a ball hawking FS is a BIG need too. I think that guy can be found in the later rounds in Mukuba and Malachi Moore. Smaller but more cover guys than anything else. 

You don't pay run support safeties big money in 2025. I just don't see him as a fit for us at all unless Evero is changing up his scheme to accommodate. He typically runs a lot of two deep split safeties. That's not Moehrig's game. And if we're going to shift to more of a single high scheme then good lord, FS might be our biggest need period.

[Navy_football]

16 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

You don't pay run support safeties big money in 2025. I just don't see him as a fit for us at all unless Evero is changing up his scheme to accommodate. He typically runs a lot of two deep split safeties. That's not Moehrig's game. And if we're going to shift to more of a single high scheme then good lord, FS might be our biggest need period.

I don't know man. Kyle Hamilton is definitely a Box Safety, and he can completely disrupt offenses. He'll reset the market when his rookie contract is up. If Moehrig could play that role, he'll improve the defense overall. Agree, I don't think he's as good in coverage. So will definitely need to account for that in playcall and personnel additions - ball hawk. Box safeties are more important than deep guys in my opinion though. They are involved in more plays. Moehrig had over 100 tackles last season. But would love to have a guy that can patrol deep and make you pay for trying to force passes into tight coverage. We didn't have that last season. Just mediocre box types that were bad tacklers and slow at play recognition - thus not filling their gaps and leaving huge running lanes. Maybe they overpaid. But if he can get 100+ tackles, 3+ sacks, 2+ INTs, and 6+ TFLs, then that'll be cap well spent. Particularly for the plays in the backfield that gets offenses off schedule. 

[Icege]

17 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

You don't pay run support safeties big money in 2025. I just don't see him as a fit for us at all unless Evero is changing up his scheme to accommodate. He typically runs a lot of two deep split safeties. That's not Moehrig's game. And if we're going to shift to more of a single high scheme then good lord, FS might be our biggest need period.

Evero runs Vic Fangio's scheme and leans heavily on cover 4 with disguised coverages. It is not predominantly cover-2 as suggested. This means that the box safety is going to likely be covering 1/4th as opposed to 1/2 of the field. Whomever the team brings in to be the boundary safety (unless they stay with Demani) is going to be covering the 1/2 part.

Though with Evero's scheme, that box safety can also be one of the three underneath coverage guys depending on how they've got it disguised prior to the snap.

Edited April 17 by Icege

[LinvilleGorge]

22 minutes ago, Icege said:

Evero runs Vic Fangio's scheme and leans heavily on cover 4 with disguised coverages. It is not predominantly cover-2 as suggested. This means that the box safety is going to likely be covering 1/4th as opposed to 1/2 of the field. Whomever the team brings in to be the boundary safety (unless they stay with Demani) is going to be covering the 1/2 part.

Though with Evero's scheme, that box safety can also be one of the three underneath coverage guys depending on how they've got it disguised prior to the snap.

I didn't say cover two. I said he runs a lot of two deep safeties. Both cover two and cover four do that.

[jb2288]

18 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

You don't pay run support safeties big money in 2025. I just don't see him as a fit for us at all unless Evero is changing up his scheme to accommodate. He typically runs a lot of two deep split safeties. That's not Moehrig's game. And if we're going to shift to more of a single high scheme then good lord, FS might be our biggest need period.

I don’t know man we gave up over 5 yards per carry last season. There is 100% a spot for him here. That doesn’t mean we still don’t have a need at FS too 

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, jb2288 said:

I don’t know man we gave up over 5 yards per carry last season. There is 100% a spot for him here. That doesn’t mean we still don’t have a need at FS too 

I'm not saying there's not a place for him here. I'm saying we massively overpaid for his skill set in today's NFL. Both statements can absolutely be true.

[kungfoodude]

On 4/16/2025 at 8:57 AM, LinvilleGorge said:

I don't love this safety class. It won't surprise me if we don't see value there. We shouldn't reach just because we have a need this year. A big part of our failure to ever put together consecutive winning seasons is constantly flailing to find bandaid solutions vs. actually focusing on building the core of a roster. I'm a firm believer in getting your bandaid solutions in low to mid-level FA and using the draft to try to build the majority of your core roster. Basically, using free agent for the pressing current needs and thinking longer term with the draft.

If you don't expect us to dip into a weak positional class early, you must have forgotten our recent trauma. It's basically Tepper Panthers 101.

[csx]

On 4/17/2025 at 1:38 AM, LinvilleGorge said:

Moehrig was such a a head scratching signing. He's a 1980s safety in the 2020s.

The era of the undersized LB At safety should be over with the possible exception of the SS in a cover 3 scheme but in that situation you should probably be looking at that position as a spot to save cap space not burn through it.

He's only 202 lbs

[csx]

They selected the wrong OT for us

[Icege]

20 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I didn't say cover two. I said he runs a lot of two deep safeties. Both cover two and cover four do that.

That's the pre-snap disguise and as already stated the strong safety is going to be one of the underneath or a deep 1/4 guys. That is a reduction in coverage responsibility.

Moehrig is more than capable of getting down into the box from a two-high look as well. I don't think he'd be in the NFL if that were the case, let alone be considered a top-10 run stopper.

Edited April 18 by Icege

[CPcavedweller]

On 4/16/2025 at 11:37 AM, Waldo said:

Not landing a safety in the first 3 rounds is going to be a hard fail for me just like no RB or WR later eould also be fails in this draft. Edge and FS look really bad without talent injections at this point.

Why do we need to draft a safety? We don’t. We just pulled a big money safety in Free Agency and wasting a pick there when your front four needs to be fixed is what will lead to continual problems. 
 

Speaking of which, I don’t even think Walker or Williams will fix that. I would pass on them and go defense in the 2nd round where the talent drop off is really not that big. So take the BPA. Take Warren. 
 

Morgan, if you read this, you must draft Tyler Warren. 

[carpanfan96]

34 minutes ago, CPcavedweller said:

Why do we need to draft a safety? We don’t. We just pulled a big money safety in Free Agency and wasting a pick there when your front four needs to be fixed is what will lead to continual problems. 
 

Speaking of which, I don’t even think Walker or Williams will fix that. I would pass on them and go defense in the 2nd round where the talent drop off is really not that big. So take the BPA. Take Warren. 
 

Morgan, if you read this, you must draft Tyler Warren. 

Front four??? 

So do you mean edge or DL... 

Line seems pretty set. 

Brown - Brown - Wharton | Robinson and Tuttle as the main backups. Could use one more depth piece to fill out a solid top 6. 

 

OLB or edge... Well that's a different story but don't worry Walker is on the way. 

 

 

[Waldo]

21 hours ago, CPcavedweller said:

Why do we need to draft a safety? We don’t. We just pulled a big money safety in Free Agency and wasting a pick there when your front four needs to be fixed is what will lead to continual problems. 
 

Speaking of which, I don’t even think Walker or Williams will fix that. I would pass on them and go defense in the 2nd round where the talent drop off is really not that big. So take the BPA. Take Warren. 
 

Morgan, if you read this, you must draft Tyler Warren. 

Lol. Wasting big money on a run support safety is peak 1980s and just dumb, which this year will reveal once it's over and they fire Evero.

Acting like having 1 safety that can cover anything is bad. Acting like Warren isn't also the same as the rest of the teir 2 guys is hilarious. That dude is a 2nd round TE in most drafts...just like everyone after the 2 teir 1 guys in this draft.

The only offensive guys worth taking at 8 are OTs.