Positives and Negatives from the starters?

[PantherPhann89]

15 hours ago, Manther said:

When Seymour was getting burned deep over and over against the Bills  last week, that one player makes a huge difference.  Offenses are going to pick on the weak link, and Worely/Seymour was that link last year.  Is Jackson the only player on the field? No.   Did he plug a leaking hole...yes.

I'm not saying that Jackson won't be good or that he isn't one of the best CB's on the team. I said that he got picked on because he played off of the WR that gave up quick hitters. I also said that it may be to hide his man cover skills. I hope that he does pan out to be the best CB on the team, it'll make us better....

[Shocker]

On 8/18/2018 at 7:03 PM, CPF4LIFE said:

 there is no end to this long drawn out 8 year discussion. 

Exactly...this isnt a new thing.  What was Cams percentage in the regular season last year?   Very simple why this keeps being dicussed unless your heads in the sand.

BTW...I still think Cam is on track for the hall...but he is inaccurate compared to the top guys.

[kungfoodude]

On 8/18/2018 at 1:50 PM, top dawg said:

Not sold on Gilbert yet. For my money, the battle is still too close to call. 

Heinkie vs. Gilbert is a battle that no matter who wins, the Panthers lose. Hopefully we can remedy that before the season or perhaps next offseason. 

[kungfoodude]

On 8/18/2018 at 10:34 AM, SOJA said:

I've been a huge critic of Hurney. That being said he's had a pretty great offseason. 

But he had a two massive fug ups. 

One trading away Butker and going with Gano was a terrible decision, but he doubled down on that by paying Gano big bucks this offseason. Butker is better, younger, and cheaper.

Two not addressing depth at the OT position in FA. Idk who we could have got but at this point nearly anyone would be better than Kalil. I know Gettleman poo the bed signing Kalil (still not sure how much of an influence JR had on that) but we needed a contingency plan. We don't have one. Maybe Moton was it, if so I'll give Hurney is credit there. 

There weren't many good options in free agency and supposedly the draft class was trash for OT's. It is still hard for me to fathom how someone wouldn't have been an upgrade over Matt, however. 

I think next offseason might end up similar to his offseason. Just too many holes too fill for us to be able to address all of them.

[KB_fan]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

think next offseason might end up similar to his offseason. Just too many holes too fill for us to be able to address all of them.

Hmmm. Kind of crazy to think about next year's off-season when we're still in this year's preseason. But I'll play along!

Possible holes:

Oline is the obvious glaring need. Daryl Williams contract situation, Ryan Kalil"s retirement, and Matt Kalil being a problem.  Hopefully guys like Moton, Larsen, VanRoten and Mahon will have developed given they're currently being forced into the fire. Maybe Sirles too. I forget how long his contract is...  

QB2 - probably still going to want / need to upgrade.

RB: CJ Anderson is only on a 1 year deal, so he would leave a hole.

TE: should be good.

WR: Funch could walk. Not quite sure if we have any other similar big guys behind him, so even while we're deep at WR right now, this could still be a hole.

DE: Pep likely gone. Hopefully one or two of the new young guys steps up. But I see this more as a need to fill in free agency while also drafting a young guy as depth, if possible.

DT: good.

LB: TD likely gone.  May be ok if Jermaine Carter is a stud 

S: Adams ancient. Big need here. But we say that every year. Sigh! May be Gaulden gives us some hope.

CB: We could be in good shape with Bradberry and Jackson... but better depth or an upgrade to Bradberry might be nice 

So likely holes: 2 OL, QB, WR, DE, S, RB.  Manageable IMO. 

 

[kungfoodude]

On 8/20/2018 at 6:50 AM, KB_fan said:

Hmmm. Kind of crazy to think about next year's off-season when we're still in this year's preseason. But I'll play along!

Possible holes:

Oline is the obvious glaring need. Daryl Williams contract situation, Ryan Kalil"s retirement, and Matt Kalil being a problem.  Hopefully guys like Moton, Larsen, VanRoten and Mahon will have developed given they're currently being forced into the fire. Maybe Sirles too. I forget how long his contract is...  

QB2 - probably still going to want / need to upgrade.

RB: CJ Anderson is only on a 1 year deal, so he would leave a hole.

TE: should be good.

WR: Funch could walk. Not quite sure if we have any other similar big guys behind him, so even while we're deep at WR right now, this could still be a hole.

DE: Pep likely gone. Hopefully one or two of the new young guys steps up. But I see this more as a need to fill in free agency while also drafting a young guy as depth, if possible.

DT: good.

LB: TD likely gone.  May be ok if Jermaine Carter is a stud 

S: Adams ancient. Big need here. But we say that every year. Sigh! May be Gaulden gives us some hope.

CB: We could be in good shape with Bradberry and Jackson... but better depth or an upgrade to Bradberry might be nice 

So likely holes: 2 OL, QB, WR, DE, S, RB.  Manageable IMO. 

 

OL: :This could be bad or worse. Ryan Kalil gone, Amini clearly not the long term answer, Matt Kalil potentially gone, Williams coming back from a serious injury and also a free agent. At the absolutely best, we probably have to look for 2 starters. At worst, we have to replace 3 and rebuild our OL depth almost completely. Major, major concern.

QB: This needs to be addressed. Gilbert might be a reasonable QB3 but we have no honest option after Cam. This could get taken care of before the season starts but I doubt it with the continuing issues on the OL. I am not hopeful we get a reasonable #2 QB option before the start of this season. Major concern.

RB: We should be good here. CMC looks like he is "the guy." Anderson could be extended or replaced, depending on performance and the options available. Minimal concern.

TE: Thomas looks like he might be the guy. If that is the case, and we can keep Olsen around for one more year, we can punt on this and not worry about it next offseason. Minimal concern.

WR: This could really go either way. Worst case Funch leaves in free agency(likely anyway) and the rest of the new and improved WR corps ends up being underwhelming. I tend to think that will not be the case and perhaps we are just replacing Funchess in the offseason. Minimal concern.

DE: With Peppers retiring and some of our depth looking more like project players than contributors, this could be an area that needs an overhaul as well. At the minimum, we will need to rebuild/retool the depth behind Horton and Addison. I am not sure I want to roll into 2019 with Hall, Haynes and Cox as my depth chart. Horton is due for a new contract, as well. Moderate concern.

DT: With the addition of Poe and having Short and Butler under contract, the biggest concern is what to do with Kyle Love. At his age, I can't see us being willing to shell out much money, so we might end up having to add some depth here. Minimal concern.

LB: If Thomas Davis leaves, and that is a big if, considering his recent statements then this could be a concern. Mayo and Jacobs are also free agents in 2019. If Thomas Davis retires and Mayo leaves, we would need some of our recent draft picks to step up immediately or make some moves in free agency/draft. Moderate concern.

S: This is an area of major concern. Adams is 37 and a free agent next season. I cannot see him being brought back unless we are left with no other options. Searcy is only on contract for one more season and is currently out with a concussion. After that we are left with Jones and Gaulden, which is pretty rough. Objectively, we really need to be searching for two starters here unless Gaulden makes huge strides or Searcy proves to be an able starter. Neither seems likely in the short term. Major, major, major concern.

CB: This position has the greatest potential to swing in either direction. If Bradberry becomes a capable #1 option, Jackson makes a quick adjustment to the NFL  and Munnerlyn regains his old form, it will give us time to wait until Cockrell gets healthy and potentially let someone like Elder get adjusted. On the other hand, if Bradberry's sophomore slump extends into this season, Jackson turns out to be raw and Munnerlyn looks like he has exhausted his usefulness, this could be a disaster. Worst case scenario, we are probably looking for another starting nickel and possibly a #1 CB. Moderate to major concern.

 

I agree it is early to look at next year but it's pretty obvious we have a lot of holes in the roster as is. And that is not accounting for free agency, expected and unexpected retirements and other sources of attrition. I said during this offseason that I was very worried about the next 2-3 seasons because of the amount of turnover that looked imminent and the 2-3 straight very, very unproductive drafts we had. We have just enough talent to be able to retool and move forward but are close enough to the edge on a few key positions that we could easily slide into a rebuilding mode if we have another 1-2 unsuccessful offseasons. This offseason appears to be headed in the right direction, even despite the OL being in complete shambles and secondary looking shaky. We have bolstered our WR corps, improved our running backs, possibly gotten a real successor to Olsen. Let's just hope we get more hits than misses over the course of this season.

[trueblade]

On 8/19/2018 at 8:38 AM, twylyght said:

Can't believe this negative has yet to surface:

Did anyone else think Mixon looked all but scared out of his pants when interviewing Tepper?

Also, who the hell says "lathered up", "crowd is aroused", "ample hands" and "glazed [anything]" in any other context outside of doughnut talk?

The end of the interview was great. Tepper grabs Mixon's tie. 

DT: we've got to get you a Panthers tie. What is that, pink?

MM: Fuschia (or something). My wife picked it out. 

DT : it looks like your wife picked it out.