KB_fan

Yeah, I was blanking on some of last year's rookies like Thomas-Oliver & Roy. I had to really work hard to pull those names out of my brain along with a few other guys who played last year. Also, I totally forgot about DaQuan Jones (even though I was excited when we signed him), and guys like RB Trenton Cannon... I guess I need to do some conditioning too to get in top season form! LOL

I'm glad it wasn't just me...! Thanks!

Feels like the Panthers' brass must have really laid down the law with the beat writers. The amount of detail coming out of OTAs or minicamp is just tiny compared to other years. (Including from Panthers' own media, it's not just that they're hogging content for themselves. ) Definitely increases the likelihood that I'll go down to Spartanburg for a few days to watch the team myself.

Who do you peg as #2 RB? Chuba? For now until seeing them live at camp, I have no sense of the pecking order / depth chart behind CMC. Chuba, Bonnafon, Cannon? Rhule has shown he isn't hesitant to play rookies...

It's a valid perspective. But I'm thinking that beyond the top 45 or so guys, there's still quite a number of open spots on the roster and real competition, especially on offense (at least 2-3 spots on the OL, a back up RB, maybe 2-3 WRs), and also maybe at safety and at least 1 spot on the D line, that makes knowing at least the top 60 - 65 guys worthwhile. I find it more fun following training camp if the guys are more than just names I barely know. I'm sure that I'll never be able to rattle off all 90 names any time soon. If I get to 65 that I can remember and be a bit knowledgeable about, I'll feel I'm doing well. Gone are the days when we were returning a very high percentage of our prior season's 53 man roster and there were fewer new guys to get to know.

Yikes. I'd do even worse with numbers. I guess I might be able to get 15-20 numbers correct AT BEST. (Players changing numbers and the NFL changing the rules about which position groups can have what numbers doesn't help either!! LOL).

Hey all, I'm genuinely curious about something. I'd love for others to take 10 minutes to try and write a list of everyone on the Panthers 90 man roster right now. Wondering what the average number of players is that other Huddlers can name. I'm not sure whether it's age / tiredness, post-Covid brain fog, or just all the turnover and youth of our roster with so few guys who've played for the Panthers for more than 1-2 seasons (probably some combo of all of the above). But I'm really struggling with remembering the names of a lot of the players. Today for fun, I tried to make a list and I could name 50 (and a couple of those I struggled with). And the weird thing is that those 50 I could remember are not even necessarily the top 50 most likely to make the roster. It includes all the drafted rookies (whose names are a bit fresher in my mind from recent weeks) and a few others perhaps unlikely to make the team. There are a bunch of guys who were on the team last year and likely to make the roster that I totally forgot. Hoping that somehow I'll start feeling more connected to this roster. So many guys I'm still just "who's that?" when I see his name (like today's practice report about an interception by JT Ibe. I'm like "Who? Never heard that name". Are others in the same boat?

A very encouraging read. Thanks.

It's hard to imagine using a PS spot for a snapper, (and there's always a risk of a "Butker part 2" - though presumably demand for snappers isn't as high as for kickers) - but in this instance, I'd agree it might be a good option. Let Fletcher learn from JJ for a season and let JJ play out his contract. I also hope Shi can be our returner. He seems like he could be a weapon for us, something we haven't really had consistently in the return game for awhile.

And also to build up your Rolodex of emergency contacts of guys you might add if God forbid you have an injury crisis at a certain position and burn through your depth. (Was it 2013 or 2014 where for like 5 weeks we were bringing in RBs off the street on a Monday who would start the following Sunday. That was a wild time!)

I'm not sure if there are still Covid protocols in place that limit try outs. That could also be a reason why they have to churn a bit more than might seem normal just to give guys they're considering a look.

Agree!

Exactly. My sense of connection to the team was getting pretty thin given the turnover at all levels, players, coaches, FO. Just felt like I didn't have any sense of who any of them were. Corona made last season so much worse... no locker room interviews, everything remote... To now get this kind of behind the scenes access definitely helps in rebuilding that sense of connection, even small things, "inside jokes" - like Matt's wife's text about Chuba - I'm slowly starting to feel more like "it's my team" again. Last year for so many reasons I just disconnected. Watched every week as best I could with my limited internet service, but just didn't really engage. That's changing. There's a lot to look forward to I think.

Wowza. It hadn't quite hit me how young and cheap most of our players are. I mean I knew it, but seeing it broken down in black & white.... One word comes to mind. HUNGRY. All these guys on such cheap contracts are going to be hugely motivated to make names for themselves and get big paydays in the future. Should make for some very fun football, I hope.

I have really missed these write ups. Thanks for the comments and the pix. Love what we're hearing about Horn, Shi and Tremble. Cautiously optimistic about Sam. Pretty sure I didn't know we had a guy named Sam Chandler on our roster. It seems every recent write up by every beat reporter there's some guy where it's like "who's that? I've never heard of him, swear I've never seen that name before..." Gone are the days when I could recite our full 90 man roster in my sleep. I've got a lot of work to do to learn about these guys. But thankfully I should be able to do some of that work by watching them in person at training camp! Less than 1 month until I'm wheels up and on a plane to head Stateside for a 6 month home leave. Very ready for a break!

He's definitely laid back, very So Cal kind of guy. That's gonna take getting used to after Cam's drip and energy. (I didn't watch all that much of Teddy's press conferences. Last season I was busy and distracted....) Hopefully Sam will speak loudly with his play, and once the team starts winning, he'll be a bit freer with some fun quotes. But for now, I'm ok with him being quiet and just focusing on learning our offense.

I really liked the rapport between Rhule & Fitterer. Had to keep reminding myself Fitterer was very new. He seemed like a natural and so comfortable in his first draft with the team, first draft as a GM. The calm, cool & collected atmosphere surprised me a bit. I expected a bit more tension during the trade downs on Night 2 as guys we liked got picked, but they seemed very confident in their plan. I like it. (Obviously we didn't see everything.... but still, the chemistry seems real and I like the sense of their being a clear plan and confidence in the plan from all involved.) I was surprised by the emotion Jaycee showed stepping onto the field and seeing the Jumbotron. As the son of an NFL player, groomed for the NFL, I expected him to maybe take it for granted a bit, but he didn't. And seeing Joe Horn in Panthers gear never gets old! I love the fact that we kept the Saints from getting Jaycee!

Agree! the 35 minutes flew by. Really well done!

Loved Fozzy!

One thing I will be curious to see when I dig deeper into the details of the Athletic article will be whether there are patterns by team. Did rebuilding teams with lots of holes produce more rookies who were solid contributors? Certainly there are lots of opportunities for new guys on the 2021 roster. We have lots of holes. Whether the rooks can be coached up to seize the opportunities remains to be seen.

Yup! He had that one catch for a crucial 1st down where he basically flipped and landed on his head. Still not sure how he didn't end up in a wheelchair! Edit: link here https://www.panthers.com/video/brenton-bersin-17-yard-catch-19947813

Definitely appreciate those encouraging us to have reasonable expectations of this draft class. It is way too easy to get over-hyped about rookies this time of year, and I definitely can fall victim to that. Along the same lines of thought, there was a good article in the Athletic today reviewing rookies contributions (based on Pro Football Reference AV metric) over the past 5 seasons. 19.1% of rookies played meaningful roles as defined by Approximate Value of 5 or higher. So expecting 2-3 of the newbies to make a meaningful contribution is maybe much more realistic than the 5-6 guys I mentioned last night! (Though I do wonder whether rookie contribution numbers vary from rebuilding to veteran team. We have a lot of holes rookies could help fill. The Bucs or KC, not so much...) I've started a new topic to discuss the article, but here's the link. https://theathletic.com/2580954/2021/05/18/what-do-the-numbers-tell-us-about-reasonable-expectations-for-nfl-rookies?source=user-shared-article

Forgive the recency bias, but Efe Obada and Mike Davis come to mind. Great guys, exciting to watch. Loved it when they made big plays.

I know last night I posted something about expecting about 5 - 6 of our new rookies to be contributing on a meaningful level this season. Based on this i probably need to temper my expectations to 2-3. Though, if I recall correctly AV metric is pretty heavily weighted to pro-bowl / all-pro votes. Rookies can perhaps still make a big contribution in ways not likely to show up in AV. I'll try to dig deeper tonight...

Good article today at the Athletic looking at rookie classes over the past 5 years and breaking down the rookies from each year who made significant contributions. (Analysis is based on Pro Football Reference Approximate Value calculation) For now I just have time to post the link. Later today I'll try to post a summary for those who don't have a subscription, and some analysis/ conclusions. https://theathletic.com/2580954/2021/05/18/what-do-the-numbers-tell-us-about-reasonable-expectations-for-nfl-rookies?source=user-shared-article Among 2016 - 2020 rookie classes: "This spelled out to 19.1 percent of draft picks (243 of 1,271 players selected) receiving a 5+ AV, 12.8 percent in the 5-7 AV only category, 3.5 percent in the 8-9 AV only category and 2.8 percent in the 10+ AV only category. That’s about a 6.3 percent rate where a draft pick finished his rookie season as a top 270 (or so) player in the past five years."