D. Morgan on T-Mac: “I made the decision pretty early [January]

[MHS831]

With the exception of knowing our obvious needs and who we were talking to along the way, my question is this:  How did so many people start on this Jalon Walker frenzy?  I think this--everyone wants to have a voice, make a prediction.  Now with social media and 24 hour tv, networks, etc.  it is more like a middle school grapevine than it is a process where people actually dig for real evidence and reasons.  Speculative journalism is lazy, and since there are now 2,348.356 podcasters with basement studios blasting nonsense into our phones all day, I think they just cut and paste ideas.  Yes, coaches lie and mislead, but I don't think Morgan or Canales did.  You are only as reliable as your sources.  Was Morgan more deliberate this year?  I think he heard the gossip and decided to downplay WR.  He said, (paraphrasing) "We like our WR room.  We will probably add to it at some point."  Not a lie, but definitely downplaying things.

I was convinced that we needed a blazer to keep safeties honest, but to be honest, I am not sure that we have the QB with the arm to keep safeties honest.  We have Coker who is 6'1", Theilen is 6'2", and Legette is 6'3" and now TMac is 6'4"+.  It seems size has more value than blazing deep speed.  If I had known they thought that, I might have gone with TMac all along--I thought he was not a good fit.  And if you look at the Panther guide and consider the talent they met with in the first round, there was only one offensive player--TMac.

There was another quote that Morgan made that might have been a bit revealing or at least directive. (Paraphrasing) "We want players that were productive in college."  Well, TMac was very productive. In 2023 and in 2024, he averaged 108.8 yards per game.   He is also a great artist.  Drew this portrait of Bryce Young from memory:

Many people spent 3 months absolutely confident that Jalon Walker would play edge here. We had a need at edge, but with Clowney, Wonnum, and Jones, were we OK if we drafted a second round Edge? Was Walker the answer?  Unlike Hunter, he is a versatile player who could be awesome in the right system, but if used as a pure edge, he is not a top 10 player.  I was convinced that we would sign Jalon and as much as I like the kid, I could not feel good about the pick.  Mykel Williams scared me.  Both might be great players, but I could not see it.  So was Scourton productive? He was as a Jr when he was standing.  When asked to be other things, he lost his edge (pun intended). In essence, I think we got the best pure edge when you take away the other things he was supposed to do.  Walker's productivity was based on his versatility--something he would lose as a pure edge--so we would not really be meeting needs at edge.  Scourton, on the other hand, is better when not asked to be versatile.  Princely had 10.5 sacks in the SEC.  It simply makes sense.

Edited Wednesday at 03:06 PM by MHS831

[Martin]

If true, that means Dan trusted all game tape and used the combine etc. to confirm what he saw in tape, just the way it should be. The draft was focused on players that produce, so good stuff.

Edited Wednesday at 04:06 PM by Martin

[grimesgoat]

2 hours ago, MHS831 said:

 

Many people spent 3 months absolutely confident that Jalon Walker would play edge here...

Many of the same people bitched and moaned that our front office leaked like a sieve, we always telegraph our picks, charlie campbell always knows our pick because we're so predictable, etc. etc.

Glad to see those guys finally STFU.

[tukafan21]

4 hours ago, CRA said:

I'm sticking with my longstanding view.  You can't actually believe anything a team says to the masses when doing PR runs.   The real goal isn't to be truthful....it's to sell what they did.  Every team after the draft essentially tells the same story year after year.....you won't believe it but guess what we got exactly who we wanted in every round.  Steals practically. 

I think it's all partial truths.  If the decision to draft Tmac was made so early.....then why were legit reporters talking about them working the phone so hard the day before the draft to move. 

if you make a thousand different plans.  I guess you somewhat nail your plan. 

Two things here

I mostly agree that you can't read too much into all the interview stuff the week after the draft, because yea, they're selling the fans on the pick at that point.  But I think the initial press conference after the pick can tell you a lot about what they were thinking as they accidentally say a few things certain ways without thinking.

And Canales' comments about the 5th pick being big and once they took Mason they thought their guy would drop to them.  That wasn't post-pick spin, I think that was just him talking off the top of his head and "gave away" that T-Mac was one of, if not the, top targets the whole time.

In regards to why the reports about us trading back if we never would have because we were taking T-Mac...

I heard an interview with a former GM the morning of the draft and they said you really can never trust anything you're hearing with regards to that stuff.  That teams will "let things leak" to purposefully try and make other teams think you're doing something else far more than anyone actually realizes.

I think calling around looking for trades is a good way to make other teams be less afraid of you staying put and taking the guy they want, and thus make them feel it's not necessary to trade up ahead of them to get their guy before you do.

I could very well see a scenario where the Cowboys trade up to 7 to take T-Mac if they thought we were going to take him, and since they took an OT when another went at 9 after us, they very well might have made that trade figuring at least one of the two OT's would still be there for them at 12 to take while getting extra picks.

[*FreeFua*]

TMac became a real possibility once Higgins stayed in Cincy and they couldn’t close the Metcalf trade. 

Obviously had we landed either one of those two guys TMac wouldn’t be a Panther

Edited Thursday at 10:19 AM by *FreeFua*

[gorillamilitia13]

All the local pundits who cover the Panthers are shocked and disappointed that we didn't draft Walker. My friends, you were successfully smoke screened.

[tukafan21]

12 hours ago, *FreeFua* said:

TMac became a real possibility once Higgins stayed in Cincy and they couldn’t close the Metcalf trade. 

Obviously had we landed either one of those two guys TMac wouldn’t be a Panther

And we're so much better off for it.

T-Mac just turned 22 and we'll pay him about $28 million over the 4 years of the contract.

DK will turn 28 late in the season, is costing the Steelers $132 million the next 4 years, plus a 2nd rounder to get him.

Higgins will turn 27 in the playoffs, is costing the Bengals $115 million the next 4 years, and the Bengals probably weren't trading him for less than a 1st rounder.

[CPF4LIFE]

21 hours ago, gorillamilitia13 said:

All the local pundits who cover the Panthers are shocked and disappointed that we didn't draft Walker. My friends, you were successfully smoke screened.

I mean everybody was, there is a difference between wanting them to draft the guy you like and accepting them drafting someone else based off all the intel and rumors. Up until draft night everybody was convinced it was gonna be walker or maybe another defensive player. If you didn't you was just crossing your fingers. 

[mrcompletely11]

21 hours ago, gorillamilitia13 said:

All the local pundits who cover the Panthers are shocked and disappointed that we didn't draft Walker. My friends, you were successfully smoke screened.

Playing devils adovcate here, but if you truly wanted to trade down then it made no sense to be a smoke screen for Walker only.  Especially since Tmac is not a generational type player.  Make it known that he is in play and see if the cowboys or whoever really like him as rumored. 

[tukafan21]

3 hours ago, mrcompletely11 said:

Playing devils adovcate here, but if you truly wanted to trade down then it made no sense to be a smoke screen for Walker only.  Especially since Tmac is not a generational type player.  Make it known that he is in play and see if the cowboys or whoever really like him as rumored. 

Except we very clearly did not want to trade down, because we had the offers to do so and we didn't.

The Walker smokescreen was so that teams like the Cowboys, Rams, or 49ers who all apparently wanted T-Mac, all thought we were only thinking defense so they didn't try to trade with the Jets to jump us for T-Mac.

[tukafan21]

3 hours ago, CPF4LIFE said:

I mean everybody was, there is a difference between wanting them to draft the guy you like and accepting them drafting someone else based off all the intel and rumors. Up until draft night everybody was convinced it was gonna be walker or maybe another defensive player. If you didn't you was just crossing your fingers. 

I wasn't even crossing my fingers until 30 seconds before our pick, and I think we all know how badly I wanted T-Mac, lol.  And I only came around at the end there when the guys on NFL Network using past tense multiple times that they thought we would have gone defense with out pick right before they announced it.

The past few weeks of only hearing about defense had me 100% convinced we were going that way, whether it was Walker, Nolan, or a trade back for someone else, I wasn't even hoping for T-Mac once we got on the clock and he was there, I was just ready to be disappointed.

I also think that's why it was so exciting for me, because I was so convinced it wasn't even a possibility, that it was a legitimate shock to me.

LFG!!!!!!! bhahahahahahaha

Edited 8 hours ago by tukafan21

[LinvilleGorge]

3 hours ago, mrcompletely11 said:

Playing devils adovcate here, but if you truly wanted to trade down then it made no sense to be a smoke screen for Walker only.  Especially since Tmac is not a generational type player.  Make it known that he is in play and see if the cowboys or whoever really like him as rumored. 

Seems like we were gonna take T-Mac if he was available unless someone offered something crazy. I'm guessing the Walker smokescreen was them just guessing on who was going to be the most sought after guy at that spot if T-Mac was gone since he was probably out plan B if T-Mac was gone 

[rebelrouser]

The early rumors were T-Mac to us, but the staff did a great job subtlely playing that down so then the speculation turned to Jalon Walker. Carolina needs an edge and why not an edge/ilb? My guess is we were haggling w/ the Rams and 49'ers when the Jets took Membou.