Post draft - Panthers biggest positional weakness

[UpstatePanther]

I'm honestly of the mindset that we are pretty set at the starting positions. The one question I have, which isn't really and I'll explain why, is Oher. I believe he has been healthy for months now and there's been no reason other than easing fans minds to report that he is healthy. It played into our hands on draft day cus it kept teams off our strategy. I predict Oher will be good to go and we will have quality OL depth that we haven't had in years. Will it be stellar? No. But I think it will be adequate for what our new offense need. I think the days are gone where Cam has 7 step drops and needs 5-6 seconds to make a play. When the line only has to block for 3-4 seconds, their jobs will get a whole lot easier. I don't think they'll manhandle anyone, but they will be able to stand their ground, which is all we need them to do. I also think Matt Kalil is gonna work out better than a lot of fans think.

people will say DE and I hear that, cus it's basically a geriatric ward. But those are some spry old-timers we have there. And in rotation, they will stay fresh which will be the key to their success. I think what we have is gonna be a great stop gap until next offseason when we can make more moves for DEs. 

Safety shouldnt be part of this conversation imho, since people have brought it up. Igo asked about starting positions and frankly, our starting safeties weren't this talented even in 2015. I know Mike Adams is old too, but I've heard it said that he is Harper only better, and I agree. Plus he puts Coleman back in his natural position where he had almost 10 interceptions in 2015. ME F*CKING LIKEY. 

Wide receiver is another position definitely in the conversation, but I think that group is gonna push each other hard in training camp. Not sure how many guys we'all end up keeping, but I fully believe it's gonna be one of the most stacked wideout corps we've had in years. There are guys in that unit with starting caliber talent that are, unfortunately, gonna get cut. 

Sure, I may be looking at this with Panther-blue colored lenses. And I'm fully okay with that. I have never been this excited for a season. Not even after Super Bowl 50. These guys are hungry, and the pieces seem to be falling in place for another special season. Couple that with our recent trend of on-year, off-year play, this is gonna be an on-year. 

My only real concern is depth at Safety, Defensive End, and Tight End. But that's  not what Igo is asking about lol

[grimesgoat]

My biggest concern is QB play.  As Cam goes, so go the Panthers.  As long as he is happy, healthy, and totally on board with any kind of evolution taking place, we should be ok.

[jdpanther5]

We have Pro Bowl players in every position group aside from receiver and corner. Obviously the corners looked very good as rooks and may get to that level sooner than later, but receiver is a bigger question. Funchess is still very young, and Kelvin has moments, but we lost our best receiver to the Saints...definitely my biggest concern as far as starters. Even OT I think will be solid as far as starters go, but depending on Oher depth may be questionable.

Overall my biggest concern since before the draft has been backup outside CBs. Elder was a nice pick where we got him, but he isn't playing outside. At this point our backup options are Teddy Williams and Jeff Richards.

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[shaqattaq]

2 hours ago, hepcat said:

Safety easily. Two veteran starters and zero experience behind them. Been a weakness for the Panthers since as long as I can remember.

I agree with you that our biggest weakness is safety DEPTH, but the question was only referencing starters. Adams and Coleman are very solid starters. As for starters, I'm mostly worried about OT. Between Oher's health and Kalil's lack of prior production, I don't really have a clue what we have happening at that position come game 1.

[ncfan]

OT at the top

 

1 OT. Kalil has hype but None...Zero.....0 of our OTs have proven anything. Starters and backup. Williams a former 3rd rounder who started a few games last but has yet to prove anything has to compete with this years #64 pick.. LT Kalil hasnt done anything to really impress anyone recently, there is hype around mainly due to his ability. Former top 5 pick and probowler as a rookie. And behind them we dont have anything.

 

2. WR, Benjamin had a solid rookie season pre ACL injury. Last year he didnt seem to be back, seemed lazy not giving the effort at some times. He also has come in pretty overweight this offseason, just adds to the question about his motivation. Funchess we traded up in the 2nd to get had hype coming in. But has struggled, hasnt come close to starting even with the injury to Benjamin last year. Our 2 FA pickups, 1 known for his ST play and the other while a good athlete couldnt crack it in a horrid WR group in Minn that was in much worse shape ours has been recently. Some coupd argue that our top WR this year could be our 2nd rounder who's never even fully played the WR role. Was a hybrid RB in college.

 

 

Safety yes we dont have the depth behind the starters, so knocking on wood that we dont have injuries.

But at least we proven starters which sadly we cant say with the OT and WR role. Coleman is just a season removed from having a probowl season and #2 in the NFL in ints. Adams the other starter is coming off back to back probowls and is a vet, something no one in the WR and OT group come remotely close to.

 

DE i think is fine now. They have 1. Depth solid 4 man rotation Plus Hall 2. VETs. and they do have a young project they are grooming in Hall. This group is in as good a shape its been in awhile. Its the exact same as 2 seasons ago in the super bowl run. CJ is the same, Addison is playing better than Ealy was at the time (minus the freak luck superbowl performance by Ealy), Pep and Allen is pretty much a wash but some coupd argue Pep has the Leg up because freak athletic ability even still at his age. Horton Delaire wash. Hall had the same if not more abilities as Ealy so who knows how He'll do this year in his time on the field

 

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[shaqattaq]

9 minutes ago, jdpanther5 said:

At this point our backup options are Teddy Williams and Jeff Richards.

That's enough to scare the bejesus out of you. Richards spent a year playing arena football and 2 in the CFL (where he didn't start), and Teddy (IMO) is a boil on the a$$ of professional football.

[OldNorthPowell]

TE 2

[RumHam]

kicker

[JawnyBlaze]

Safety and CB. I'm confident enough Kalil will be able to do fine with the talent around him. OLmen are very codependent. He looked worse than he really is in Minnesota because of the poor talent around him, imo. Starter DEs are fine. Not great, but fine. And I think Hall will develop into at least a solid player. I think we'll be fine at WR because of the addition of Samuel. He's Ginn+.  At Safety I'm relatively confident Coleman will return to form back at FS, but it's not a lock that he didn't just benefit from Norman locking down half the field that year.  Hopefully Adams still has some gas in the tank.  Bradberry is good but we have little else at CB right now. We'll see about Worley but so far he has proven to be nothing more than a liability. Hopefully Cap is still a great NB. 

Thats a lotta hopefullys in the secondary. 

[gorillamilitia13]

6 hours ago, dpm0409 said:

People are just saying safety because of the lack of proven depth, which of course wasn't what Igo asked to start with.  He asked about starters.  And if you stick to that criteria the answer would be O line.  People are simply using the thread to elaborate on the lack of depth behind Coleman and Adams.

True that is a bit of a concern. Hopefully Marlowe and that other Belchen or somethig step up.

[Jimmy]

QB..we only have 2 that ever play the position...gah

 

[panthers55]

Given we talked about using 2 tight end sets and we only have Olsen we don't even have 2 starters because I don't think Dickson is a starter quality TE. If Olsen goes down we are screwed. Safety would be my next biggest concern although we have 2 good starters but not much depth. Obviously O line is still a question mark but I think Kalil and Williams will be solid.

 

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