BlitzMonster

Daviyon Nixon is in the discussion for DROY

My guess is that most of this draft will play significant minutes this season. Starters: CB Jaycee Horn is a day 1 starter. WR Terrace Marshall and DT Daviyon Nixon will be in heavy rotation immediately OL Brady Christensen will be the starting LT or LG by the middle of the season LS Thomas Fletcher Backups who play often: TE Tommy Tremble RB Chuba Hubbard Significant minutes in packages: OG Deonte Brown in short yardage / goal line WR Shi Smith on special teams and as an occasional slot receiver

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/daviyon-nixon-caps-victory-with-a-pick-six/vp-BB1bf4vX

A key point this year is that during COVID there was a minimal combine, fewer team/player interactions and a lot of guys you just wouldn't have seen in person. So, in this situation, a pretty good draft strategy is simply taking the most athletic players possible at the positions you need. Then trust that your staff can coach these guys up. Rhule & company seemed to have done just that.

Another important point is that the Carolina coaching staff ran one of the Senior Bowl teams this year. So they got to see & talk with many of the players likely to end up in the mid to late rounds of the draft. In an off-season like this one, with COVID canceling the scouting combine, that was a huge advantage ! If you have much better intel on the players than the other teams you want to have a lot of picks to grab the guys you like.

JJ is 35 and he's not going to play forever. Is he going to retire ? Eventually the team will have to get a new LS.

I think Erving was brought in for LT: "they wanted me to come in here and compete to play left tackle. That's something I've been striving for and wanting to do for a long time in my career" https://www.panthers.com/news/panthers-offensive-line-rebuild-coming-into-focus The rook will be there as a replacement in case of injury or poor play.

I can't see Deonte Brown as a starter yet. The dude is a house but he still has some work to do. I'm sure he'll play in some packages as a rookie but I don't think he's ready to replace a 7 year vet like Miller who played decently last season.

Agree completely It's a job nobody notices until a botched snap ends a field goal attempt. Then everybody realizes the LS is worth his weight in gold.

The Carolina coaching staff had the chance to work with Fletcher for the entire Senior Bowl week. They got a good look at him and decided he would be a good fit in our locker room. That counts a lot for me, especially for somebody selected with a compensatory pick that was the 222nd overall in the draft.

The UDFA I'm really interested in is David Moore from Grambling State. The Carolina coaching staff had him try a few snaps at Center during the Senior Bowl practices. That's a whole lot of beef to snap the ball ! I hope he makes the practice squad as some type of interior lineman.