Given the choice next season, do you...

[rayzor]

The Panthers may think they've already taken an important step toward fixing the secondary.

yep.

fwiw, gregory pictured there is a free agent this year and the chargers are going to be doing a housecleaning supposedly so he might be a FA prospect. pretty good safety and a very good special teams player.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

that's why you improve the Dline. if you improve the pass rush you make the secondary better.

plus, as bad as our secondary was, our run D was worse. we've got to find a way to improve the pass D and run D...we do that quickest and more successfully overall by improving the Dline.

btw, godrey was a lot better than you are giving him credit for.

With an offense as dominating as I hope ours will be next year, teams are not going to have an opportunity to run the ball or control the clock. They will be throwing.

Our secondary is why we squandered the lead in the 4th quarter about 6 times this year.

[rayzor]

Hopefully your right and the coaching change will make a difference, but I did not see the talent oozing from Martin this year. Confusion and lack of ability seemed to permeate his every move

In regards to the D-line, we threw two rookies into the game with about a month of an NFL weight program and coaching. We lost the "anchor" of the line in the first practice. We then continued to pull players off the street. Before we go chastising the young DT players, can we give them an actual offseason to prepare before we deem them as worthless?

Martin and Godfrey have 3 and 4 years experience respectively, and played like they were lost in the woods.

we sholdn't be settling for these two. it's not chastising them. it's wanting to make what could be a decent Dline with two young DTs an elite or at least dominant Dline with the best players possible.

and godfrey looking lost? :lol:

[CRA]

With an offense as dominating as I hope ours will be next year, teams are not going to have an opportunity to run the ball or control the clock. They will be throwing.

Our secondary is why we squandered the lead in the 4th quarter about 6 times this year.

which is why you won't to be built to t off on the opposing QB......you do that with a strong front. Give any QB time and it doesn't matter who you have in the secondary.....they will find weaknesses.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

we sholdn't be settling for these two. it's not chastising them. it's wanting to make what could be a decent Dline with two young DTs an elite or at least dominant Dline with the best players possible.

and godfrey looking lost? :lol:

Ok your right, I am taking my hatred for our secondary play out of Godfrey when in all actuality he played well, especially against the run.

But, defending Martin is ridiculous. Not to mention Captain Munnerlyn

[rayzor]

With an offense as dominating as I hope ours will be next year, teams are not going to have an opportunity to run the ball or control the clock. They will be throwing.

Our secondary is why we squandered the lead in the 4th quarter about 6 times this year.

QBs had ample time to throw. that's why they came back.

the secondary may have been weak, but giving the QB that much time and space only made it worse. we were weak against #2 WRs. we were weak against TEs. we were weak against RBs. QBs were allowed to spread the ball around and they had the time they needed to look for their best options.

they were able to keep running the ball when they wanted.

a weak Dline gave the QB and opposing OC too many options. improving the Dline and not settling for what what we have right now takes away more options than getting a better CB and FS.

[rayzor]

Ok your right, I am taking my hatred for our secondary play out of Godfrey when in all actuality he played well, especially against the run.

But, defending Martin is ridiculous. Not to mention Captain Munnerlyn

i'm not defending those two. esp. martin. i think he should be replaced or at least competition brought in via FA (like gregory that i just mentioned). i think captain is fine as a nickel. i think he's a solid STs guy. i don't think he should be starting across from gamble. i would like to see what hogan can do. same with butler. i think we've got time to get that figured out, but while we are doing that we can be upgrading the Dline and helping out not just the passing D but the run D, both of which were atrocious.

[rayzor]

fwiw, i would like the 2013 draft to concentrate on the secondary and also filling in what ever holes we have on the Oline.

honey badger from LSU is the CB i've got my eye on. the dude is a beast.

[CRA]

you know why the Giants DB were abused all year.......now at the end of the season they look much improved.

The Giants DL is as healthy as it has ever been this season.

[MaineManPanther]

Good enough to be a full time starter with the same kind of impact as say, Carl Nicks with the Saints or Chris Snee with the Giants?

Love Schwartz, but still think he's better suited to be a backup.

The fact that he isn't on the level on Nicks doesn't really mean anything. That can be said for of plenty of talented guards

He improved well by by the end of 2011 in his second year after switching position. Assuming his health is well, I'm not worried.

[pantherclaw]

Defensive line.

Not even close.

[Seamonk]

We need a D-line. We haven't really had a game where Cam is allowed to make a mistake. A good defense can let the offense be more aggressive.

[carolinarolls]

Everybody wants a big O-line. It's not a novel idea by any stretch to give your QB more time. The fact remains however that we do not want to get in a shootout with all of our opponents when we have two very capable offenses that play in domes in our division.

We have to set ourselves up to win the tie breakers against NO and Atlanta and that means a powerful front 4 that can get pressure and a back 7 that can scrape to fill gaps, cover, and make open field tackles.

There is every possibility that we are very close to that and there is every possibility that we are two seasons or more away. It's impossible to know right now so if you want to go off of how the season ended up, you have to go defense. The offense was clearly more effective than the defense throughout the season.

I don't know how anyone could look at it and make any assessment other than D-line or secondary.

[CRA]

Everybody wants a big O-line. It's not a novel idea by any stretch to give your QB more time. The fact remains however that we do not want to get in a shootout with all of our opponents when we have two very capable offenses that play in domes in our division.

We have to set ourselves up to win the tie breakers against NO and Atlanta and that means a powerful front 4 that can get pressure and a back 7 that can scrape to fill gaps, cover, and make open field tackles.

There is every possibility that we are very close to that and there is every possibility that we are two seasons or more away. It's impossible to know right now so if you want to go off of how the season ended up, you have to go defense. The offense was clearly more effective than the defense throughout the season.

I don't know how anyone could look at it and make any assessment other than D-line or secondary.

this is my order

DL

<big gap>

Secondary

LB* I think this gets overlooked by many. Davis is as good as gone and realistically we don't know how Beason will recover

OL

WR