My Mock:

[Catalyst]

Assuming we pick behind the Colts & Rams and the Colts trade the 1st pick. I'm assuming we don't trade down as it's impossible to predict without knowing the full draft order.

1st: Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State

I'm assuming the Rams take Matt Kalil, which is far from certain with Blackmon on the board, but the way their OL has played they need to protect Bradford so that leaves us Blackmon.

I realize a lot of people here want defense, but our needs there are OLB, DT, & FS and there just aren't any players worthy of a top-3 pick at any of those positions. If we trade down, yes, but as it stands now, we have to go BPA and take Smitty's long-term replacement in Blackmon.

2nd: Lavonte David, OLB, Nebraska

I think there's a chance Zach Brown slips into the top of the 2nd round and if that's the case then it's a no-brainer, but I won't predict that here. David is the best 4-3 OLB prospect at the top of the 2nd, IMO, and would be an instant starter if Thomas Davis is released or brought back at a lower salary and gets hurt again.

4th: Tydreke Powell, DT, North Carolina

Currently projected as a late 3rd-early 5th rounder, but has a ton of talent and is obviously a position of need for us.

5th: Stephen Good, G, Oklahoma

Needs to put on some weight, but could potentially be a future starter at RG for us.

6th: Joe Halahuni, FB/H-Back, Oregon State

Perfect for what Chud wants in a FB in this offense, IMO. Could be a much better version of Richie Brockel for the long-term.

6th (Comp.): Kyle Martens, P, Rice

I'm assuming we get a 6th round comp. pick for Jeff King. We need a long-term option at punter as Baker has been iffy and I'm pretty sure his contract expires soon anyway. Martens is the best punter in the draft, IMO.

7th: Charles Mitchell, S, Mississippi State

Competition at safety and special teams depth, both of which we badly need.

[carpanfan96]

If the Panthers pick third then I want either Claiborne, Coples or Brown. All three have top 10 rankings and all largely considered the 3 best Defensive prospects in the draft. All worth a top 5 pick.

[Lout]

I agree with carpanfan96, I'd take Claiborne at #3.. that is not a reach anymore. He is widely expected to be a Top5/10 pick.. and it's a greater need than WR.

[Catalyst]

Too obsessed with defense. Imagine this team without Smitty's 1,000 yards right now. In another year we'll be there and it won't be pretty. We have to find his long-term replacement and we might not get another shot at a receiver as good as Blackmon for a while.

Coples? DE isn't a need and I think the coaching staff would agree.

Zach Brown? He's a mid-1st rounder at best. That would be the biggest reach in the draft since the Raiders took Darius Heyward-Bey.

Claiborne? He may be worth the pick, but is corner really our problem on defense? The coaching staff really likes Hogan and we already have Gamble, Captain, and Butler. The reason our defense sucks is due to the linebackers and DT's. We can't afford to go defense 'just because.' It's gotta be BPA and that's Blackmon in this case.

[Claws]

Andrew Luck.

/thread

[carpanfan96]

Too obsessed with defense. Imagine this team without Smitty's 1,000 yards right now. In another year we'll be there and it won't be pretty. We have to find his long-term replacement and we might not get another shot at a receiver as good as Blackmon for a while.

Coples? DE isn't a need and I think the coaching staff would agree.

Zach Brown? He's a mid-1st rounder at best. That would be the biggest reach in the draft since the Raiders took Darius Heyward-Bey.

Claiborne? He may be worth the pick, but is corner really our problem on defense? The coaching staff really likes Hogan and we already have Gamble, Captain, and Butler. The reason our defense sucks is due to the linebackers and DT's. We can't afford to go defense 'just because.' It's gotta be BPA and that's Blackmon in this case.

De isn't a need if you think Hardy is a starting DE, I don't though. He's too suspect in run defense and sealing the edge. Coples would be an immediate upgrade over Hardy by a lot.

Zack Brown rankings > CBS - Top 10, NFL Draftnik > top 10, DraftScout > #1 OLB, 2 overall prospect in draft behind Luck, SI > top 5, AOLsports > #1 LB.

It goes on and on.... He's a top 5-10 pick and that's only going to go up when he runs a 4.49-4.55 at the combine. He's the only player in the draft that could replace the speed and athleticism that Thomas Davis brings on defense.

Yes, Corner is an issue. Munnerlyn has been horrible quite a bit this season, he should at best be a 4th CB on the team and be a major ST contributor.

On the Flip side, Blackmon while being the best WR in the draft isn't that much better then the rest of the prospects. Heck I like some of the WR's that you'll be able to get late first - the early third more then him. Plus the Panther's offense isn't bad, the team has Gettis coming back, Lafell, Smitty. Ae will still be here, the same with Pilares. That's 5 WR, the team isn't drafting one. If anything they give AE and Pilares a shot to make plays on offense before anything else.

[Lout]

Too obsessed with defense. Imagine this team without Smitty's 1,000 yards right now. In another year we'll be there and it won't be pretty. We have to find his long-term replacement and we might not get another shot at a receiver as good as Blackmon for a while.

Coples? DE isn't a need and I think the coaching staff would agree.

Zach Brown? He's a mid-1st rounder at best. That would be the biggest reach in the draft since the Raiders took Darius Heyward-Bey.

Claiborne? He may be worth the pick, but is corner really our problem on defense? The coaching staff really likes Hogan and we already have Gamble, Captain, and Butler. The reason our defense sucks is due to the linebackers and DT's. We can't afford to go defense 'just because.' It's gotta be BPA and that's Blackmon in this case.

I agree with most of what you said, but disagree with the CB part. Yes, the coaching staff really like Hogan, but he isn't currently starting material. Sure, he has the tools to develop, but it's no guarantee.. it's just potential at this point. Munny is not a starting CB in this league.. he would be a great nickelback. Butler is decent but he can't even beat out Munny. I do think a true lockdown CB is a large need on this team. Imagine, Gamble/Claiborne locking down their WRs, then you have Munny in the slot/nickel position where he excels.. then Butler and Hogan belong at dime/quarter (for now).. unless Hogan shows something to supplant Munny at nickel. That is a very good secondary.. especially if we can pick up an upgrade in FA at the FS position.

[Nicbsbll2]

Zach Brown in the top 3? Now I've heard everything :rolleyes:

[HeatCheck]

Claiborne? He may be worth the pick, but is corner really our problem on defense? The coaching staff really likes Hogan and we already have Gamble, Captain, and Butler. The reason our defense sucks is due to the linebackers and DT's. We can't afford to go defense 'just because.' It's gotta be BPA and that's Blackmon in this case.

CB isn't our only problem but it most definitely is a problem. Outside of Gamble, you can't really trust any of them. If it wasn't for our bad run defense teams would pass more. Our injuries in the front 7 definitely have had an effect in the run defense with Beason, Davis, and Edwards.

I definitely think our CBs could use an upgrade. Hopefully in the first 3 rounds.

[DaCityKats]

Shaun Williams is the better prospect at DT i think and he is shooting up the board from UNC.

[JawnyBlaze]

Yay I'm back from my deployment, time for draft talk :)

My opinion on needs: we obviously need help at DT but I agree this doesn't have to happen from the draft. Edwards may or may not return next year and help. I wouldn't wanna leave all our eggs in that basket, though. If we can't get a good FA, I'd hope we address DT earlyish, preferably in the first two rounds.

We NEED a 2nd CB. It could be Hogan or Butler, Butler's looked solid but I dunno about as a full time starter yet. I've read on the Huddle that "the FO is high on Hogan". Where is this coming from? Of course Rivera and co. are going to talk him up in interviews and stuff, they're not going to blast him before he's even gotten a chance to play. All I know for sure is that if Captain continues to start, we're going to continue to get burnt on long passes, and give up stupid PI's and that's going to severely hurt our defense.

We need another starting caliber OLB. As much as I love TD, there's NO WAY we can count on him coming back and playing 16 games. LB is much easier to address in the middle rounds though. If we can get great value on a super stud in the 1st round somewhere then ok. Von Miller has come in and played pretty well as a 4-3 OLB, despite not being in the ideal system for his talents, I'd take a player of his potential in the top 10, but I don't see any Von Millers in this draft. Not really even close. Otherwise, very good starting LBs can be gotten in the 2nd round and later.

WR and OT aren't glaring needs, but they are needs nonetheless. Next on my list of needs after DT, CB, LB. And the talent in this draft looks like WR and OT will be MUCH MUCH MUCH better value at the top of the 1st round than of the previous 3 positions (outside of possibly Claiborne). We need an eventual #1 receiver. Gettis showed flashes last year, but just like with Edwards and Hogan/Butler, that's not a basket I want to put all my eggs in. Gettis and Lafell splitting #3 reps, and both on the field for 4 WR sets, would be an ideal situation. We have no decent receivers active right now other than Smitty and Lafell. And at OT, we really can no longer assume Otah is going to make a full recovery. It's the same situation as with TD, and I'll be GD if Byron Bell should be starting in the NFL. Gross looks to be regressing anyways, if we can snag Kalil and move Gross back to RT next or the following year and have him and Otah splitting reps (to cater to Gross's advancing age and Otah's fragile back/knee/heart) I think that would be ideal. If we get Reiff or Martin, we can let them split with Otah to start and evaluate the assignments later.

After that, the next tier of needs would probably be a Safety (Martin is regressing from his promising rookie year), a kicker and maybe a punter too. Maybe spend a late round pick on a top kicker and look for an UDFA or FA punter.

If we're picking top 5 (most likely) I'd prefer, in this order: Kalil, Blackmon, Claiborne. I'd be ok with any of the picks. We don't need a DE, Hardy is most certainly a solid starter in the NFL. He's not an all-pro yet, but he's hardly a liability. And I think Coples is getting overhyped a bit. He definitely has potential, but even if we did decide to ignore all the good players we could pick in spots of need for a luxury pick, he wouldn't just waltz in and be an instant starter over Hardy. And Brown in the top 5? Ludicrous. A non-pass rusher LB that high is an extreme reach and Brown isn't even a consensus top half of the 1st round pick anyway. Most of what I've seen says mid to late 1st round at earliest. We might as well be talking about Trent Richardson with our pick if we're ignoring positional value and area of strength vs area of weakness.

If we can parlay our high pick into a 10-15 pick and grab an extra 2 and 3 or maybe a 1st next year (or even maybe Cleveland's two 1st round picks if they win a couple more and decide they aren't satisfied with McCoy and want a Barkely or Jones or Griffin3), that'd be great. In that range I could see us taking Devon Still (I think he compares well to Fairley without the negatives, as far as I know), Reily Reiff or Jonathan Martin, or I'd be less opposed to a LB in this range (Brown, or Burfict if he projects well at OLB too). I'm a little hesitant about Kirkpatrick, but if Rivera likes him I'd be ok with the pick here. I'd be even more hesitant about Jenkins (druggie, not even quite dominating his lesser competition right now) or Dennard (a little undersized) even though some people are talking about them in this range.

If we could trade down like the Browns did last year and get into the bottom 1/3 of the 1st, then I'd be pleased with picking an OLB like Brown or Burfict or an ILB like Teo or Keuchley (if they look up to it) converted to OLB (much better value here, will probably be available) or a riskier WR like Jeffrey or Floyd (still doubtful about him though). One of the mammoth DTs like Poe or Ta'amu could be good picks here if they perform well at the combine.

In the 2nd, assuming we only have our top 5 pick, if we go OT or WR (like I'd hope if we're picking with our top 5 and don't trade down), BPA from this list (or comparable if new names crop up by then): Brown, Jenkins, Brandon Thompson, Chase Minnifield, Poe, Ta'amu, Cliff Harris, Stephon Gilmore. If we take Claiborne with our top 5 pick, I'd like to see either an O-lineman (an OT that slipped, or one of the Guards that are looking special like Cordy Glenn or David DeCastro) or a WR like Dwight Jones or Floyd if he drops because of his alcohol problem. No more little WRs like Edwards or Pilares though.

If we pick up extra 2nds and/or 3rds look at more LBs, CBs, Safeties or DTs like Poe or Thompson that might fall. Good value at those positions in that range.

[Munch4455]

I am kinda split on this. On one hand our d needs all the help it can get. Corner is the only position of need that coincides with a player valued where we pick. Plus, typically you can get a solid starting caliber corner in free agency for a reasonable price. On the other hand smitty isnt going to be able to play like this forever, who know how good lafell is goin to get, and we dont know how gettis is going to recover from his injury, so blackmon would be a good fit as well...unless we trade down...

[Herbert The Love Bug]

Shaun Williams is the better prospect at DT i think and he is shooting up the board from UNC.

sylvester williams?

[DaCityKats]

sylvester williams?

yeah him.:D