Travis Hunter on T-Mac

[TD alt]

Like the article says, Hunter is a receiver and has to cover receivers. FWIW, if you believe Hunter, then there's more to Nalo than what some think.

"They definitely don't give you enough credit, because you were definitely the toughest receiver I ever played. I always tell everybody that. Ask me, I'll be like, 'It's not no receiver that ever gave me problems,' but the toughest receiver I ever played against was you. You do everything. You got the speed, you got the hands. Jump, like you said, you're tough. You're not going to let nobody get you out of your game. Definitely the toughest I played against." 

Hunter may cover better receivers in the pros, but just the fact that he praised McMillan should be a pretty good indicator that, at the very least, T-Mac has a relatively high floor and maybe even higher ceiling in the NFL. 

https://www.si.com/nfl/panthers/news/travis-hunter-love-panthers-rookie-tetairoa-mcmillan

[Aussie Tank]

I've watched the shorts he held all day he definitely had dramas 

[rayzor]

yeah. for Hunter to have a chance at all, he had to be grabbing on TMac. That's pretty plain to see. Now I don't know how many others Hunter had to grab to contain, but it probably wasn't many, if any at all. Hunter knew what was up....it was TMac over him. 

[Pejorative Miscreant]

I couldn’t get excited about drafting him prior to the draft but I’m all in (I guess I have to be) on TMac.  Maybe some of it is Kool-Aid but I’m excited and it’s the season of hope but it feels like we finally have a true threat at WR since forever.  

[MHS831]

3 minutes ago, Pejorative Miscreant said:

I couldn’t get excited about drafting him prior to the draft but I’m all in (I guess I have to be) on TMac.  Maybe some of it is Kool-Aid but I’m excited and it’s the season of hope but it feels like we finally have a true threat at WR since forever.  

If you think about it, we were not meeting the need for a #1 WR any other way with any other WR.  We dabbled in free agency and watched #2 WRs like Higgins get monster deals.  In this draft, only TMac had the skills and traits of a #1.  Plenty of #2s and slots--but I am not sure there was a #1 ready to play in the draft--that explains why three NFL teams that we know of were trying to move up to get him--and why the Jalon Walker smokescreen (if intentional) is what you must do.  Teams who wanted TMac were trying to move up.  Morgan refused to trade back as he clearly advertised before the draft--He did not want the others to know he was after any single player, but he was.

[Man Strength]

What other top WR did he matchup with over his college career? 

[Jon Snow]

36 minutes ago, Man Strength said:

What other top WR did he matchup with over his college career? 

None.

[Tr3ach]

1 hour ago, MHS831 said:

If you think about it, we were not meeting the need for a #1 WR any other way with any other WR.  We dabbled in free agency and watched #2 WRs like Higgins get monster deals.  In this draft, only TMac had the skills and traits of a #1.  Plenty of #2s and slots--but I am not sure there was a #1 ready to play in the draft--that explains why three NFL teams that we know of were trying to move up to get him--and why the Jalon Walker smokescreen (if intentional) is what you must do.  Teams who wanted TMac were trying to move up.  Morgan refused to trade back as he clearly advertised before the draft--He did not want the others to know he was after any single player, but he was.

I totally get what you're saying but some of us that don't like it don't see tmac as a #1.  I get that some people declare a #1 entirely based on size like the panthers seem to do, but I think a perfect world ceiling for him is a Higgins personally.  Hopefully I'm wrong and he becomes a true great #1 for us for the next decade though.

[jb2288]

1 hour ago, Man Strength said:

What other top WR did he matchup with over his college career? 

I guess Troy Franklin in 23? They got blown out in the game and he had like 100 yards receiving and 2 TDs lol. 

[tukafan21]

4 hours ago, Man Strength said:

What other top WR did he matchup with over his college career? 

 

3 hours ago, Jon Snow said:

None.

The majority of NFL draft picks don't play all too many snaps lined up directly across from another NFL player, and I don't think many people really realize this.

Unless you play a game against one of the 2-4 schools that are putting half their lineup into the NFL each season, most teams who have multiple draft picks, MIGHT only have 2-4 draft picks in any given season.

Some skill positions get around 30 players drafted each year, other positions are in the teens to low 20's.  With at least a handful of them coming from non power conference schools too.  So the odds for any WR or CB to get too many games lined up directly against another future draft pick is pretty low.

The better odds are that they get lined up against a future NFL player, i.e. a junior or senior WR getting lined up against a freshman or sophomore DB who will get drafted in a couple of years.

Then if you take it one step further and look for players who actually play in the NFL and make a difference.   You're basically looking at players drafted in the first 3 rounds of the draft, so a little less than 100 players a year, spread out across all the positions and conferences (which in today's massive conferences, teams have even lower odds of player the teams with more NFL players than ever before).

Edited 9 hours ago by tukafan21

[rebelrouser]

1 hour ago, tukafan21 said:

 

The majority of NFL draft picks don't play all too many snaps lined up directly across from another NFL player, and I don't think many people really realize this.

Unless you play a game against one of the 2-4 schools that are putting half their lineup into the NFL each season, most teams who have multiple draft picks, MIGHT only have 2-4 draft picks in any given season.

Some skill positions get around 30 players drafted each year, other positions are in the teens to low 20's.  With at least a handful of them coming from non power conference schools too.  So the odds for any WR or CB to get too many games lined up directly against another future draft pick is pretty low.

The better odds are that they get lined up against a future NFL player, i.e. a junior or senior WR getting lined up against a freshman or sophomore DB who will get drafted in a couple of years.

Then if you take it one step further and look for players who actually play in the NFL and make a difference.   You're basically looking at players drafted in the first 3 rounds of the draft, so a little less than 100 players a year, spread out across all the positions and conferences (which in today's massive conferences, teams have even lower odds of player the teams with more NFL players than ever before).

Unless you are in the SEC.  Will Campbell got to play against Kyle Kennard (USC), Princely Umanmielen (Ole Miss), Landon Jackson (Ark), Shemar Stewart and Nick Scourton (A&M), Jalon Walker and Mykel Williams (UGA). And those are just the edge rushers not the DT's. The SEC had 79 picks vs. Big 12 31.

[Seltzer]

T-Mac put up good numbers for 3 consecutive seasons on teams without a good QB situation, and in an environment where T-Mac got game planned against weekly and still performed. Teams threw all kinds of defensive coverages against T-Mac, and he still found ways week in and week out to contribute at a high level.

XL was basically a 1-year wonder. Doesn't mean he cant be great (and I think him & T-Mac will compliment each other well), but i think T-Mac is the more polished of the 2 right now.

This certainly isn't a perfect comparison, but I hope XL & T-Mac can approximate what we had with Smitty & Moose (Although i think T-Macs ceiling is higher than Moose and XLs ceiling is lower than Smitty).

Both those guys were multiple Pro Bowlers and even All-Pro. T-Mac & XL have a long way to go to actually being comparable, but the potential is there.

And regardless of how this season turns out, you can actually see a strategic plan being executed.

On paper, I think this offensive roster has as much talent as any Panthers team since 2017.

Defense is still a question mark, and it's unrealistic to think we will go from being historically bad to great in 1 year, but based on historical and statistical data, we stand a much better chance of turning the defense around in 1 year than the offense.

I still want us to potentially add at S, CB, and ILB, but this roster is exponentially better than the roster heading into the 2023 season.

Which still begs the question of how & why the team thought they were in a good position to trade all the way up.

Regardless, it's in the past, and while the past 2 years have mostly sucked, we are strategically in a much better position than we have been in years.

This is easily the best WR group since 2020 IMO (Moore, Anderson, Samuel).

I'm super excited about what T-Mac can bring to this offense and team, and I'm really hoping we continue to build off where we ended last year offensively, and hopefully we've made enough improvements on defense to be competitive.

I've also been vocal for the most part in supporting BY9. He came into an awful situation and to a team that was in no position to make such a trade.  

Still, this is Year 3. And this is a team that IMHO has both the talent & depth on offense to score and score a lot.

Most QBs that ever amount to anything are competing by Year 3. There are no excuses for the offense not to perform.

I think BY9 knows full well what's riding on this year in terms of his long term future. 

And I think T-Mac is a massive piece in helping Bryce and the team get over the hump and back into playoff contention.

 

[MHS831]

7 hours ago, Tr3ach said:

I totally get what you're saying but some of us that don't like it don't see tmac as a #1.  I get that some people declare a #1 entirely based on size like the panthers seem to do, but I think a perfect world ceiling for him is a Higgins personally.  Hopefully I'm wrong and he becomes a true great #1 for us for the next decade though.

Same page--I think I am looking at the long term plan.

[ColumbusCounty]

3 hours ago, tukafan21 said:

 

The majority of NFL draft picks don't play all too many snaps lined up directly across from another NFL player, and I don't think many people really realize this.

True but there are always exceptions. It's one of the reasons I got behind the Jaycee Horn pick a few years ago. He faced a ridiculous amount of future NFL talent iirc.