Rivera And Hurney Offer Tidbits On Thursday About Who We Might Draft

[panthers55]

Rivera and Hurney were together being interviewed in their pre-draft conference today. Hurney was also interviewed on Moving the Chains by Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwin on NFL Sirius. First the pre-draft conference.

Yeah most of the time these interviews are boring with no one wanting to tip their hand as to who they want in the upcoming draft. Still both of them gave some ideas of the type of player they wanted and what strategy they may employ. Here are excerpts and a link to an article by Yasinskas.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/34023/ron-rivera-panthers-want-quick-impact

“We're not like where we were last year,’’ Rivera said. “We had the pick of the litter. Now we've got to react to what's happening -- who goes here, who goes there and then we'll decide who fits us best and who's going to help us immediately. We're not taking a guy early to have him develop. We're taking a guy early to put him on the field and have him help us right away. That's what the expectation is.”

If you want to read into that, you might think the Panthers could be leaning toward players like Mississippi defensive tackle Fletcher Cox or Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly. Most draft experts say Cox has more polish than the other highly-rated defensive tackles -- Memphis’ Dontari Poe and LSU’s Michael Brockers. Those same experts also say Kuechly is by far the best linebacker in the draft and should be able to make a quick impact in the NFL.

Here is Reed's take on the conference call:

http://www.lockerpulse.com/NFL/Panthers/

The Panthers aren't like a lot of NFL teams - they're interested in moving down in next week's draft, not up.

General manager Marty Hurney said Thursday in a pre-draft press conference that Carolina - which has the ninth overall pick - doesn't have the ammunition to trade up after dealing this year's third-round pick to Chicago for tight end Greg Olsen last July.

''Probably not,'' Hurney said. ''It would cost more than we would be willing to do at this point, especially given our situation.''

However, Hurney said trading down is an option he'll consider.

The rest is nothing new.

I couldn't find a transcript from Hurney's interview on Moving the Chains today. Maybe someone else can, but this is what I remember. He discussed having a number of options. He discussed moving down if the right offer came along. They asked him about a DT and he talked about all of the positives and how he felt like getting Edwards back would be big. He said they were pretty excited about Neblett and Kearse and felt that McClain and Fua would be much better after having starting experience.

They asked him about players coming back from injuries and mentioned Otah and Beason. Hurney mentioned that Otah was all the way back and ready to play this year. He said Beason wasn't as far along but said he was working hard and they were optimistic. No mention of Davis either way. Ryan mentioned the need for corner and Hurney didn't disagree. He discussed the need for a pass rush but didn't specify from where it would come. He mentioned that they were happy with their wide receivers and felt LaFell and Gettis were ready to step up. He also mentioned said he felt Pilares would be good in the slot and that this was the year that Edwards would have to step up if he was going to. He also mentioned Darvin Adams as a possible contributor. Ryan mentioned that he felt one of the biggest moves last year was trading for Greg Olsen and they talked about how hard it is to find someone like him in the draft. Seemed to suggest that the 3rd rounder they gave up for him wouldn't have gotten anyone close to Olsen's ability if they had kept it and used it on a tight end this year.

That's all I remember........

[Ivan The Awesome]

Starting to think we're going to go DL in the first two picks, barring someone falling. Then address the CB position in the 4th, OLB, 5th, P, so on and so forth.

I'd live with this draft

Cox

Perry/Jones

Josh Robinson/Josh Norman

Terrell Manning, Emmanuel Acho

Punter

TE

BPA

[LinvilleGorge]

Seemed to suggest that the 3rd rounder they gave up for him wouldn't have gotten anyone close to Olsen's ability if they had kept it and used it on a tight end this year.

This is for sure. I don't regret that trade one bit.

[LinvilleGorge]

Starting to think we're going to go DL in the first two picks, barring someone falling. Then address the CB position in the 4th, OLB, 5th, P, so on and so forth.

I'd live with this draft

Cox

Perry/Jones

Josh Robinson/Josh Norman

Terrell Manning, Emmanuel Acho

Punter

TE

BPA

I don't think there's a chance in hell that Robinson is there in the 4th. If we wanted him, we'd have to take him in the 2cd. Hell, I think there's a chance he's not even there then. Someone could fall in love him. You can't teach 4.29.

Norman is a possibility. Also maybe Chase Minnifield.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

Not at all. Olsen was a popular pick to the Panthers the year Beason got drafted...in essence it was a 1st rd pick...back in time.

[CPF4LIFE]

I have noticed how they have never mentioned Hardy in any of there comments and Rivera was also talking about how CJ starting having back problems toward the end of the season from a heavy work load. I think we are gonna draft Coples or a WR.

[koolkatluke]

I have noticed how they have never mentioned Hardy in any of there comments and Rivera was also talking about how CJ starting having back problems toward the end of the season from a heavy work load. I think we are gonna draft Coples or a WR.

Or a wr really. After mentioning every Wr on the roster.

[Kuech the Sneak]

I think the first two rounds could be either CB/DL or DT/DE. We do need another corner badly, we has encouraging DT play at the end of the year, but it's always good to have solid rotation along the d-line

[toldozer]

7 of 31 visits from wr's so yes really. Immedite impact would be Floyd or Blackmon. Accept that it is a real possibilty.

[Yaboychris28]

I have a weird feeling about Floyd, would like to see us stay away from him

[KendrickPanther]

We brought in tons of WR that are expected to go in the first. You don't waste that many visits unless you're thinking about it. Hurney said he had like 9 guys in his head. Mathematically it's impossible for all nine to be off the board. I feel like that was his logic. He also said there are certain guys he would outright take and certain guys he would entertain trading back and taking someone else.

[KendrickPanther]

I'm just really open minded about this. Anything but a QB, RB, FB, K, P, LS, and C in a BPA situation would have some logic to it.

[koolkatluke]

7 of 31 visits from wr's so yes really. Immedite impact would be Floyd or Blackmon. Accept that it is a real possibilty.

Yeah OK Floyd wouldn't beat out Lafell nor a healthy Gettis. Plus it's not like we will score 45 points a game if we do so where is the impact?

[Dash Global]

With that said I think it will be Coples. Every down DE that can move inside on passing downs