Panthers interested in CB Channing Stribling

[TheSpecialJuan]

Michael Rothstein ESPN Staff Writer 

Michigan CB Channing Stribling is meeting with the Saints prior to his Pro Day on Friday and has a visit set up with Carolina on April 7.

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[LinvilleGorge]

Makes sense. Fits what we look for. Big corner with limited speed that will probably knock him down the draft board for a lot of teams. But our zone scheme doesn't require a CB to be blazing fast.

[uscgamecocks]

In one of the most athletic DB classes we've seen, DG is interested in the least athletic CB in the class:

https://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings/cb/

He's in the 0.7% among NFL CBs by pSPARQ.  I don't care how many interceptions he had last year - a percentile of 0.7% should make him undraftable.

And if you think athleticism doesn't matter at corner, go check out last year's pSPARQ ratings:

https://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings2016/cb/

Jalen Ramsey - 99.3%

Vernon Hargreaves - 97.3%

James Bradberry - 93.4%

Jalen Mills - 73.7%

Daryl Worley - 55.0% (being slightly above avg among NFL athletes is good)

Zach Sanchez - 21.5%

I'd say they were fairly predictive of on-field performance.

[YoungPanthers89]

[The Lobo]

2 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Makes sense. Fits what we look for. Big corner with limited speed that will probably knock him down the draft board for a lot of teams. But our zone scheme doesn't require a CB to be blazing fast.

Well said. That's why safety is key for our pass d. Getting Adams would be yuge.

[LinvilleGorge]

3 minutes ago, uscgamecocks said:

In one of the most athletic DB classes we've seen, DG is interested in the least athletic CB in the class:

https://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings/cb/

He's in the 0.7% among NFL CBs by pSparq.  I don't care how many interceptions he had last year - a percentile of 0.7% should make him undraftable.

And if you think athleticism doesn't matter at corner, go check out last year's pSparq ratings:

https://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings2016/cb/

I'd say they were fairly predictive of on-field performance.

What was Norman's SPARQ score? I'm betting it was pretty low.

I'm betting that this is exactly why we're looking at him. He may fall a lot further down the board than a lot of the pundits think. If he does, we'll have done our homework on him.

[TheSpecialJuan]

[uscgamecocks]

5 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

What was Norman's SPARQ score? I'm betting it was pretty low.

I'm betting that this is exactly why we're looking at him. He may fall a lot further down the board than a lot of the pundits think. If he does, we'll have done our homework on him.

I get that we are going to do our homework, but 0.7% is really, really, really bad.  

The database I use doesn't show Norman's SPARQ (it doesn't go back that far).  Does anyone else have it?  It would be very interesting to know.

Anecdotally, Norman's combine results look incredibly similar to Daryl Worley's.  So I would guess that Norman tests as an NFL-average athlete - and his prepartion and anticipation make him into the all-pro CB that he is.

It's not just about athleticism - plenty of the top SPARQ guys go undrafted, and deservedly so.  I think athletic testing should be used to supplement the scouting process.  If a guy has good tape but is a 0.7% athlete?  That's a big red flag.  If a guy has great tape and is a 50-75% athlete?  He can probably keep doing it at the NFL level.  Great tape and a 93% score?  Draft that guy in the second round, even if he comes from a small school like Samford, because he's probably going to be a stud.

[uscgamecocks]

9 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

Even his highlights aren't very impressive.  On at least two of his picks get got beat and was bailed out by a terrible underthrow.  Another pick was the result of a bad overthrow in the middle of the field.  One of his highlights was a PBU that resulted in a DPI flag.

Lance Zierlein saw the athleticism as an issue in reviewing his game tape:

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2017/profiles/channing-stribling?id=2557932

The Panthers FO clearly knows what they are doing, but that SPARQ score is a huge red flag in my opinion.  If we like him, I hope it's as a very late pick / UDFA pickup.

[LinvilleGorge]

The key from the link you posted:

"There are defenses who will prefer Stribling's physical traits and ball skills, but he will be limited by scheme fit."

We like big CBs with great instincts and ball skills. Those types of guys thrive in our system. We're not going to ask the guy to line up opposite of Julio Jones and follow him everywhere he goes. That's not our scheme.

[Saca312]

Think it's more a red flag than not type of deal, as in just look at our options.

Gettleman already showed he prefers athletic corners who thrive in zone systems as well. 

[Mother Grabber]

what's his madden score?

[Major wRecktum]

Yet again, Rivera and Wilks are the guys who are doing the preferring....

[LinvilleGorge]

For those of y'all ready to jump off a cliff over us bringing a prospect in for a visit, might I suggest a beer or a puff or two of the green if you'd prefer?

We won't end up drafting the majority of the guys we visit with.