kungfoodude

The staff even acknowledged that Christensen is basically a guard. Talking about letting a top OT in the NFL go IN HIS ABSOLUTE PRIME for a third round utility lineman with zero NFL experience, is pretty crazy. I genuinely hope we re-sign Moton because it is going to be pretty fuging angering to have to dish out "I told you so's" when Moton is playing at a high level elsewhere while we struggle at OT.

I remember how hype everyone was(including myself) about that unit. That front 7 looked amazing........on paper.

Fair but you have to be sold on Fields and it just doesn't sound like our FO and staff was. Right or wrong, I definitely don't want them picking a guy they don't believe in because it makes financial sense in the long term.

Okay, well let me give you a plausible scenario for 2022 if we DON'T sign him. You have a roster filled with solid to mediocre backup offensive lineman and now need five starters(last year of Paradis is 2021). Right now we have one very good OT in Moton, one starting quality center and then a mix of busts, journeymen and rookies. So, no Moton and no Paradis means we may very well be facing needing an entire starting offensive line in 2022.

I would say I wouldn't be at all surprised if our secondary is only a minor upgrade from 2020, a moderate upgrade from 2020 or a massive upgrade from 2020. All of those are equally plausible scenarios to me. In fairness, Jackson could continue to be injury prone, Horn could basically be a standard rookie, Bouye could prove to be over the hill and our promising group of young backups could all prove to be mostly depth guys and little else. If any one of those things happens, it limits the ceiling. For us to be a GREAT CB unit in 2021 a lot of things have to go really well for us. I don't think we specifically need that to happen for the long term. If we can see Horn show he clearly was a top 10 caliber prospect(even if he is up and down), and then 1-2 of our other young guys show they can be a #2 or #3 starter for a few years, I'm good. That shows a bright future at the position.

Yes. In 2019 our defensive line. On paper, it was supposed to be one of the most talented and dominant in the NFL. In reality, it was one of the worst we have ever fielded.

So you believe you have a better grasp of what we did on defense in 2020 than say, Phil Snow? Because Phil Snow specifically said that Chinn was a starting linebacker in 2020 but "...then we have packages where he plays in the back row, in the secondary." Interesting flex.

Completely disagree. We only have two bloated contracts on the roster currently(CMC and Shaq) but without Moton we are going to be bad for quite some time.

If Marshall is as good as advertised, that is the ideal scenario for us. DJ and Marshall outside and Anderson in the slot.

There is also an amount of mileage that eventually catches up. So will your physical maturity and experience hit before your body starts to betray you. At some positions, you start to see a broad decline by 30(RB being the most obvious). We lost guys like Luke and Dan Morgan to injuries in their prime but Thomas Davis had a very long and very productive career after multiple serious injuries. The strength is the last thing to go, you are definitely right about that. It's the speed that goes first. You see the same in other professional sports, as well.

Just based on his personality, I am sure Cam was a pretty awesome guy to play with as a teammate(except maybe in practice as a defender).

Rock Hill would be a cow pasture without Charlotte.

Agreed and that is why I said "for a variety of reasons." His future is at safety but he may have to take a step backwards to start taking big steps forward. In the end, if he adjusts well and becomes an elite safety for 8-10 years, no one will really remember the slump/transition year.

In fairness, most of those positions are basically open. The only one of those that wouldn't be a surprise is Marshall. He seems like a pretty solid favorite to be our #3 WR.

IMO, the biggest thing he needs to clean up is the missed tackles and the mental errors. Other than that, he consistently improved as the season progressed. Why do you say YGM? He really didn't produce at a high level so a slump for him would be pretty bad.

I don't think he is gonna get nearly the playing time in 2021. People forget, he actually started 8 games in 2020 and played 50% of all our defensive snaps. We are a lot deeper in that position this season. I don't think he is exactly a shoe in for that #4 CB spot, either.

If you look at him on film he was actually in good postion more often than not, he just wasn't making plays on the ball. It might be a stretch but if he can improve that, he could be a solid CB. He wasn't get toasted all the time, just wasn't completing plays. That's what I saw, anyway.

He also may have some time adjusting to safety. I think it is possible he struggles a lot more with the big increase in coverage duties. But I am also not necessarily using "slump" as a strictly negative term. I am not using slump as a strictly negative term for the purposes of the post, but it does typically have a negative connotation. Brown is a good candidate but I genuinely expect him to improve in 2021 as he gets more experience. Plus, I think his 2021 line-mates are better suited to help him shine. If he has a slump from 2020, I would be pretty disappointed.

I think we are just using the term "slump" a little differently. I am being a little more broad with my use of it. I expect to see an obvious production loss in 2021. To me the biggest thing to actually worry about is that Chinn wasn't terribly good in coverage in 2020. I do have a little bit of concern that he might get picked on while he is learning.

Exactly. It would be interesting to see what the sweet spot is for different positions and see if there is an obvious trend. And, yeah, ultimately it is just about making the right decisions the majority of the time. Historically the Panthers have leaned fairly heavily towards paying players at exactly the wrong time or just plain paying the wrong players. That's something I hope we will get a lot better with under this new regime.

It isn't uncommon to see a rookie have a slight or major dip in production during their second NFL season, for a variety of reasons. Which of our 2020 rookies do you think will see a slump in production and/or PT in 2021 and why? For reference: Derrick Brown Yetur Gross-Matos Jeremy Chinn Troy Pride Jr. Kenny Robinson Bravvion Roy Stanley Thomas Oliver My picks: Jeremy Chinn(INB4 incoming stream of illogical and irrational hate. In 2020, Chinn put up exceptional numbers including making the NFL record books(back-to-back TO's returned for TD). However, he did rack up gaudy tackling statistics at a position where you would expect that, linebacker. In 2021, we expect to see him shift to playing in the secondary and we also improved our front seven. I suspect we will see his numbers fall almost across the board with this position change and less opportunities for tackles at the second level with our offseason roster changes. Troy Pride Jr. The 2020 Carolina Panthers defensive backfield roster was thin and lacking in overall talent. This allowed one of our more "boom or bust" picks in Troy Pride to get ample playing time during the season. As a raw rookie being forced into early and often action, Pride Jr. was a mixed bag in 2020 but showed some occasional flashes of solid play. Enter 2021 and the CB roster is much deeper and more talented. This could lead to Pride Jr. being forced down the depth chart as more talented or more experienced players ascend the depth chart. I expect he will get SIGNIFICANTLY less playing time in 2021. Bravvion Roy See Troy Pride Jr. Stanley Thomas Oliver See Troy Pride Jr.

I think it's just a much more interesting article if you eliminate the guys on rookie deals. It also requires a lot more effort to write. Then you get to get into guys who are outperforming their current deals, cheap free agent signings, etc.

https://www.footballdb.com/leaders/season-passing-tdintratio

Agreed. I think that is probably a much more interesting thing to break down than basically just a list of rookies. He kind of missed the mark on that article in general. Reddick was the guy I had in mind, as well.