BlitzMonster

We're deep at veteran WR. And our rookie WR Terrace Marshall looks like a stud that could (and should) handle more playing time. So I'd guess the trade would be a vet WR for an LT. Maybe the Panthers will combine two problems into one: trade Robby Anderson and let him do a contract extension with his new team ? But what NFL team has so many competent LT they can afford to give one up ?

Ian Thomas would be a very expensive 2nd / 3rd TE if he makes it. I'll guess he will be a cap cut.

I just looked up Smith's draft profile. He has a history of blood clots in his lungs. Obviously the issue could have been a medical red flag for more than a few teams in the NFL. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/trey-smith/3200534d-4976-4701-9935-2cd0c0d35dd1

Another way to look at this question - if put on the PS, who among the deep backups would be grabbed immediately by another team. Those players would have to be a lock for the Panthers final roster. I'd say Deonte Brown and maybe Shi Smith are in that category.

Thanks for this kungfoodude. The Athletic writeups really are well done and worth the $$. I'd make only one change to these rankings. With all the positive chatter about Tremble in camp, he's more likely to be an "immediate impact" guy. Maybe not as a starter but he will play often between TE and occasional FB as a run blocker. That's going to be an important role in our offense next season.

I do think the plan was for Moore to transition to a new position - Center. Maybe it became quickly clear that wouldn't work. Small school guy. No football last season. Short & chubby. Has to learn a new spot on the OL. So realistically Moore's early exit shouldn't be that much of a surprise. I am most disappointed that Moore didn't even stick with the practice squad. I would have loved to see an underdog player like him succeed.

Dan Arnold - is he catching the ball well ? - does it look like he's developing a good rapport with Sam ? - can he be effective in the red zone for the Panthers this season ?

OG Deonte Brown didn't get drafted because there were questions about his motivation for the NFL. He showed up to the Senior Bowl as a fat lump. So it was not that surprising he fell in the draft. But Brown has rare natural size and he played on a national championship team for Nick Saban. If Brown gets his act together & comes to camp in shape, that shows he IS motivated and all those questions go away. A bunch of NFL teams would then likely be interested in him. He's just too high profile. So, as you said, there's no way he goes on the practice squad. He would be poached immediately.

Brady Christiansen will be starting somewhere on the OL by season's end. That I'm pretty confident in. Where he starts (OG vs OT, left vs right side) and when he starts (first game or mid season) is to be determined. He's just too good and our OL is too unsettled for it not to happen.

As to Paul Posluszny - he was actually fairly athletic with a RAS of 8.7. https://ras.football/ras-information/?PlayerID=7961 He had a 40 of 4.7 which means he could run with the TE. And his vertical and 3 cone were excellent. The biggest knock against him was his height at 6-1. So Posluszny was a lot more NFL ready than Paddy Fisher.

Paddy Fisher is going to be an interesting case study. His RAS was abominable at 3.36, putting him in the bottom 1/3 of LB drafted in the modern era. https://twitter.com/MathBomb/status/1382405795749445639/photo/1 But the guy had over 400 career tackles and won the 2020 Big Ten Linebacker of the Year. That didn't happen by accident. I think MHS831 is correct in that there may be a role for Fisher as a run stuffing MLB strictly between the tackles. His good size and great instincts may allow success there. No sideline-to-sideline stuff, just stay in the 10 yard box. The real question becomes what will the Offensive Coordinators do when they gameplan for the Panthers. Do they run lots of pass plays right through the middle to exploit Fisher's lack of mobility ? Can Fisher adjust & keep the game in a phone booth, where he will excel. Does he have enough athleticism to succeed at special teams (where young backups need to play) ? I am curious how it will all pan out.

I forgot about holding for FG / XP. I was only thinking about punting where Draguicevich has a cannon for a leg. So yeah, at least it will be a real competition at punter this camp . Which is good. That brings out the best in the players.

I looked over Moton's Combine numbers and wasn't too impressed. But then I remembered he was an OT, who have some of the worst performances of all. When looking at his RAS ranking, it's actually pretty good. https://ras.football/ras-information/?PlayerID=14965 Moton was 12th in his OT draft class for his RAS score. And most of the 11 players above him were never even drafted. Moton was in the top 4 OT RAS scores for those who actually made it to the NFL.

Definitely a fun thread. Especially here in the deep off-season where nothing much else is going on. It's a great opportunity to learn about some of the UDFA, one or two of whom might find the field next season. I wouldn't be that surprised if Oscar Draguicevich were our starting punter next year.

Outside of Hoskins, Draguicevich, Stokke and Paddy Fisher, I really didn't know too many of these names. However, with the PS now being 16 guys, a number of them may stick around.

As a general comment on the graph I'll say that many of the very top NFL draft prospects tend to be younger since they leave school early. So each year youth is disproportionally represented in the first round. The junior players who are college football stars put their names in the draft as soon as they can. It's a self-selection based on talent. Since the most talented players in a draft class are generally younger, your model may be showing a talent effect more than an effect based on young age. Here talent could be a confounder, could interact with age, it's hard to say without a careful review of the data. But it's definitely something your discussion should consider (or, at least, clearly rule out).

Derrick Brown was the #7 pick. A defensive player selected that high is expected to be a Pro Bowl talent who can change games and force offensive coordinators to scheme around them. Whether a DL gets sacks or just soaks up blockers for others to make the sack is not important. The key thing is how the player contributes to the overall defense playing well. For example, Patriots DL Vince Wilfork was a beast - a 5x Pro Bowler. In 2006 he had 1 sack and the NE defense was #2 in the NFL for points scored.

With Haason Reddick and DaQuan Jones joining the team this year, Brown will have some help up front. Not to mention the improved back end with Horn, Jackson and Bouye should also give the DL another second or so of coverage - which could lead to more sacks. It's going to be a good year for Derrick Brown.

Part of Carolina's desire to have a lot of draft picks in 2021 may have been to handle the dead money problem this year. Rookies are cheap and this allows the team to clear all that dead money off of their cap. The 2022 team cap will look great because of this strategy. ************************************************************************************** 2021 PANTHERS DEAD MONEY > 1M Teddy Bridgewater QB $17,062,000 Kawann Short DT $11,017,000 Luke Kuechly ILB $7,132,514 Tre Boston FS $2,666,666 Stephen Weatherly DE $2,000,000 Graham Gano K $1,537,500

How has UDFA LB Paddy Fisher looked ? He was a tackling machine in college but there were questions about his athleticism and long speed for the NFL. Does he seem to have the agility / speed necessary to stick around ?

Length as in arm length ? Because Christensen is 6-5 which is plenty big enough for a LT.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. I'd rather keep Moton at RT and let Christensen battle Cam Erving for LT. At least LT is a position the rookie already knows well.

Many players have commented on how surprisingly difficult it is to switch sides on the OL. Every instinct the player has must be reversed. After 4 years of playing LT, I could see changing over to RT being a real challenge. My understanding was that coaches were beginning to realize this and, to make rookie adjustment easier, just keep players at their college position whenever possible if they were expected to start immediately. If he's going to be a backup / learn on the bench his first year, the coaches can then be more flexible about shifting players around to different positions.

from Christensen's draft profile : "With short legs, a longer torso and a big barrel chest, Christensen's play strength at the point of attack is NFL-caliber and he has enough movement to get to most blocks that are asked of him." "Powerful upper body to punch and lock out." Bench Press 30 reps (86th percentile) All that sounds like a possible RT.

Rhules statement on Christensen seems odd since the team had him graded higher as a G than as a LT. Christensen has great athleticism which usually goes with LT (or a highly mobile, zone blocking interior lineman).