Panthers Blueprint: Draft

[rebelrouser]

1 hour ago, mrcompletely11 said:

Why would he sign here as a guard when surely someone would sign him as a tackle?  Assuming he is healthy

Past history says he won't ever play LT again and teams won't have any post surgery film of him to make an evaluation.  It is possible that he can play at the end of '26 season but we may not let him and surely not let him play LT so we would have inside information on the injury and recovery that other teams don't.  It is a fluid interesting situation for sure.  

[mrcompletely11]

1 minute ago, rebelrouser said:

Past history says he won't ever play LT again and teams won't have any post surgery film of him to make an evaluation.  It is possible that he can play at the end of '26 season but we may not let him and surely not let him play LT so we would have inside information on the injury and recovery that other teams don't.  It is a fluid interesting situation for sure.  

It really is an unfortunate chain of events for him, I mean he was what, weeks away from a new deal

[SmokinwithWilly]

22 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

It really is an unfortunate chain of events for him, I mean he was what, weeks away from a new deal

Very unfortunate but I think an important lesson to be learned. Certain positions, QB, blind side tackle, green dot LB, are positions that need to be constantly in search of a 1b. They're just too important to be lackadasical regarding depth. 

[UnluckyforSome]

2 hours ago, SmokinwithWilly said:

Icky has never really had the lateral quickness to be an consistently efficient pass blocking LT. I see him being able to slide inside to guard and thrive there where power is relied on more than side to side movement. It's not like pro bowl level guards make chump change and he has/had the power and short range lateral movement to be a dominant guard. 

I think he could transition to guard and be very effective. He is middle of the pack at best in pass protection, and what is asked and expected of a left tackle.

While no salary in the NFL would be considered peanuts, guard is not 1 of the premium positions. Because left tackle is a premium position, he might very well test the market. As stated, his health and mobility will be a big determiner as to what he might get offered, if anything.

Personally, I have thought that he would/could/should move to right tackle after Moton is retired, and not to be blunt, but that should happen very, very soon. 

[strato]

29 minutes ago, UnluckyforSome said:

 

Personally, I have thought that he would/could/should move to right tackle after Moton is retired, and not to be blunt, but that should happen very, very soon. 

I cut the rest of the post to respond to this… I think that is his best path to staying. No guarantee he will will be capable though, as of today. 
 

Any deal has to be incentive based at least to start with. Make it through a year and we will revisit. 

[csx]

2 hours ago, rebelrouser said:

Past history says he won't ever play LT again and teams won't have any post surgery film of him to make an evaluation.  It is possible that he can play at the end of '26 season but we may not let him and surely not let him play LT so we would have inside information on the injury and recovery that other teams don't.  It is a fluid interesting situation for sure.  

History is showing us several tackles coming back from this in last few years. 

[SmokinwithWilly]

16 minutes ago, csx said:

History is showing us several tackles coming back from this in last few years. 

It's happening some, but not something I would bank on at this point. Only about half of players injured return to the NFL and of those, less than 25% return to pre-injury form within 2 years. I'm fine with keeping him, but for now, any contract has to be short term, incentive driven until he has some post injury game tape. 

[PadresPanthersFan]

I know these are fluff pieces but i dont care. I will eat these up every time.  I always enjoy peeking behind the curtain and im glad they continue to put these out

[UnluckyforSome]

20 minutes ago, PadresPanthersFan said:

I know these are fluff pieces but i dont care. I will eat these up every time.  I always enjoy peeking behind the curtain and im glad they continue to put these out

They are off-season, propaganda, fluffy, hype videos for sure.

I found this to be much more interesting, and revealing though than the 1 made after we drafted Young and it opened with Fitterer declaring how the plan was always to get the team assembled AND then drop the superstar rookie qb in and be immediately taking the league by storm.

[Candler Cat]

1 hour ago, UnluckyforSome said:

They are off-season, propaganda, fluffy, hype videos for sure.

I found this to be much more interesting, and revealing though than the 1 made after we drafted Young and it opened with Fitterer declaring how the plan was always to get the team assembled AND then drop the superstar rookie qb in and be immediately taking the league by storm.

He had no clue

[strato]

Btw it was proposed in a post that we should trade Walker if he doesn’t beat Freeling out - we should not trade any talent from the OL. 
If he gets unhappy, maybe a different situation 

Edited 6 hours ago by strato

[pantherclaw]

Freeling is   the future LT of the Panrhers.  He may even start this year.  While he didn't start all of his college career, we he did play, he performed.   He is an absolute stud. If he had more play time in college, he would have been the first tackle taken in the draft. 

Icky is looked up to and has deep value within the team and locker room.  If he can get back healthy, he will continue to play for us.  Obviously at another position. RT, Guard.  I don't see him running to another team unless the Panthers cut ways with him. Which is possible, although no team will value him like our team does. 

 

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by pantherclaw