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It sounds simplistic, but you just can't do everything at once. As L.A. Fanatic pointed out, Rucker hasn't been gone for that long, and the same could also be said of Jenkins, who--although not a defensive end--was still able to contribute and take pressure off of Peppers.

Last year we picked up Brayton, who played decently, especially against the run. Obviously he's not our answer at the position.

This year we will address the defensive line, just as we did the offensive line last season. Given our success last year at improving that line, coupled with the fact that our defensive line is really the only glaring weakness on this team, and I think the Panthers will have no problem shoring up the defensive line for next year.

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It sounds simplistic, but you just can't do everything at once. As L.A. Fanatic pointed out, Rucker hasn't been gone for that long, and the same could also be said of Jenkins, who--although not a defensive end--was still able to contribute and take pressure off of Peppers.

Last year we picked up Brayton, who played decently, especially against the run. Obviously he's not our answer at the position.

This year we will address the defensive line, just as we did the offensive line last season. Given our success last year at improving that line, coupled with the fact that our defensive line is really the only glaring weakness on this team, and I think the Panthers will have no problem shoring up the defensive line for next year.

I'd love for that to happen...but with what money will we improve our line with? We keep Pep, we add next to nothing. We trade Pep, we must first fill in his spot before we can then improve it. Face it, the days of Jenks/Pep/Buck/Ruck are over. We have to make do with our average line for a while now until we can draft someone who will produce from day one, and have the cap room to do what other teams are doing.

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I'd love for that to happen...but with what money will we improve our line with? We keep Pep, we add next to nothing. We trade Pep, we must first fill in his spot before we can then improve it. Face it, the days of Jenks/Pep/Buck/Ruck are over. We have to make do with our average line for a while now until we can draft someone who will produce from day one, and have the cap room to do what other teams are doing.

Yeah, I guess thinking about it fixing the defensive line will be much tougher than fixing the offensive line last season, as we already had some good pieces in place there.

I do hope, however, that Meeks will be able to develop some of our existing players. I would like to see Charles Johnson and Hilee Taylor see the field more. Maybe draft a defensive tackle and hope he can come out and play at a starter level, much like Otah did. Who knows, we might get lucky with some later round picks as well.

I have a feeling Peppers sticks around, which might be for the best this year.

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Brayton isn't a bad defensive end, by any stretch and realistically we couldn't afford to spend a huge amount of money on a free agent at that position.

Once Rucker left we had two young guys who were taking longer than expected to progress and Brayton came along, that's not a bad move.

We have at least two serviceable guys and we need another starter.

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