PFF raves about our draft. The best class in the whole draft?

[LinvilleGorge]

1 minute ago, MHS831 said:

We got a #2 WR (I think he comes around), Brooks was damaged goods at a discount but I did not like the pick--I hate drafting RBs, but the second injury was not expected, we got a pretty decent LB, a pass-catching TE with upside, and a Nickel CB.   I did not want XL or Brooks and still am critical of the picks.  I think we were smarter this year--our first three picks could have gone in round 1 in a different year.  Tex AM did Scourton no favors but he is 20---Princely might become the better player.

I really hope XL comes around, but man I really wanted Ladd McConkey at that spot. But my #2 wish at that spot was Jalynn Polk and he looked completely lost on an NFL field as a rookie so there's that too. LOL 

[PanthersGTI]

Eh, I liked our draft especially the first 3 picks ( I think all 3 will be long term starters for us )  but I would be hesitant to use this as a win. For one someone already posted all the great draft grades they gave us on previous drafts, so they don't have a good track record. Secondly this makes sense because we just drafted guys they ranked high.

[Bear Hands]

39 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I really hope XL comes around, but man I really wanted Ladd McConkey at that spot. But my #2 wish at that spot was Jalynn Polk and he looked completely lost on an NFL field as a rookie so there's that too. LOL 

Yeah I was sold on all the Husky receivers,

Polk didn’t just hit a rookie wall, he was barely able to get to the wall to attempt to make it over lol. Both him and that over the top UCF WR were hyped and fell flat on their faces. 

 

[Davidson Deac II]

26 minutes ago, PanthersGTI said:

Eh, I liked our draft especially the first 3 picks ( I think all 3 will be long term starters for us )  but I would be hesitant to use this as a win. For one someone already posted all the great draft grades they gave us on previous drafts, so they don't have a good track record. Secondly this makes sense because we just drafted guys they ranked high.

Yeah, imo its impossible to know how well a draft worked for at least two years.  

[PNW_PantherMan]

43 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I really hope XL comes around, but man I really wanted Ladd McConkey at that spot. But my #2 wish at that spot was Jalynn Polk and he looked completely lost on an NFL field as a rookie so there's that too. LOL 

 

1 minute ago, Bear Hands said:

Yeah I was sold on all the Husky receivers,

Polk didn’t just hit a rookie wall, he was barely able to get to the wall to attempt to make it over lol. Both him and that over the top UCF WR were hyped and fell flat on their faces. 

 

At best, the draft is an educated guess on a coin flip.  For all the scouting and analytics we have now, the hit rate on prospects hasn't gotten any better.  Some guys make the jump and some don't.

[Davidson Deac II]

8 minutes ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

 

At best, the draft is an educated guess on a coin flip.  For all the scouting and analytics we have now, the hit rate on prospects hasn't gotten any better.  Some guys make the jump and some don't.

The hit rate (players that sign second contracts with the team that drafted them) is less than 50%.  Of course, there are a number of reasons for this, and sometimes even a good player will sign with another team for his second contract.  But if you get two starters and a decent backup out of any one draft, you are doing good.  

[LinvilleGorge]

18 minutes ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

 

At best, the draft is an educated guess on a coin flip.  For all the scouting and analytics we have now, the hit rate on prospects hasn't gotten any better.  Some guys make the jump and some don't.

Yep, there's busts and steals in every draft and it's just always going to be that way I don't care how hard you try to analytics your way out of it. There's just too many potential variables to account for.

[PNW_PantherMan]

I think football is especially tough because it’s difficult to isolate performance from the context of their teammates, opponents, coaching, etc.

Baseball is the most individual team sport, and everyone has one job to score.  Hit the ball.  But they still can’t figure out who’s gonna be able to hit major league pitchers and who isn’t.

[Jay Roosevelt]

I loved our draft outside of the 4th round. I felt there were better RBs available than Etienne and better safeties than Ransom, but I don't hate either pick. Our 5th round could end up being the best value we've had in a draft since Josh Norman.

[LinvilleGorge]

30 minutes ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

I think football is especially tough because it’s difficult to isolate performance from the context of their teammates, opponents, coaching, etc.

Baseball is the most individual team sport, and everyone has one job to score.  Hit the ball.  But they still can’t figure out who’s gonna be able to hit major league pitchers and who isn’t.

There's always going to be a lot of guesswork in projecting talent to a higher level of competition. Plenty of 4 and 5 star recruits bust at the college level too and the #1 overall pick this year was a literal zero star recruit coming out of HS. Like we just don't see this guy as a college player level "recruit". And he was a Heisman finalist and now a #1 overall NFL draft pick.

[shaqattaq]

On 4/30/2025 at 7:48 PM, jfra78 said:

It's Panthers great

We get graded on the curve!

[shaqattaq]

On 4/30/2025 at 10:31 PM, LinvilleGorge said:

Please understand that our head of analytics as of last May is the former head of analytics for PFF. There is probably going to be a lot of praise from PFF for most of our roster moves simply because we're probably using a lot of the very same analytical metrics. And PFF sure is rooting for our success because if we keep going down our flailing path it's really going to devalue PFF's analytical system.

[shaqattaq]

On 5/1/2025 at 9:33 AM, Tr3ach said:

I agree.  I didn't love this draft, I would give it a B, but I was really unhappy with last years draft so it's a step in the right direction.  I feel like there was definitely more of a plan this year and I can at least see what they were trying to do with most players they picked.

This was also a weird draft because unless you were in the top 5, you weren't landing a blue-chip player. I think Dan handled it beautifully... got Tmac, the consensus best WR in the draft, 2 all SEC DE/OLB's, a solid SS,  TE depth, RB depth, WR depth, NT depth (all positions of need). Hard to give it an A, IMO, because no 1 player wows me, but unless Carter dropped, no one was going to.

[WhoKnows]

On 5/1/2025 at 9:33 AM, Tr3ach said:

I agree.  I didn't love this draft, I would give it a B, but I was really unhappy with last years draft so it's a step in the right direction.  I feel like there was definitely more of a plan this year and I can at least see what they were trying to do with most players they picked.

Last year’s draft was bad and we all pretty much knew it afterwards except the eternal optimists. This year’s draft was way better. It still hinges on TMac working out and actually getting edge production, but there were no obvious WTF did we take him over XYZ. This draft could end up great or bad, but it has actual potential. Last year’s was a it’ll be great if somehow we hit the lottery odds.