Greg Cosell names his three most needed upgrades for Panthers

[Matt62881]

1 hour ago, Icege said:

OL: Turner and Moton can hold down the right side. Paradis was awful and there's an opening at LG. LT we have Little and Daley to compete, which doesn't make me feel great, but I'd rather draft a center to free up the cap space Paradis is occupying. LG can be an FA or another draft pick. I'm super high on Creed Humphrey out of Oklahoma and Nick Harris out of Washington. Either one of them can be a huge boost to the interior.

DL: I had been thinking that Poe would be cut, but with him and KK coming back from injury I can see the team wanting to address the run defense a little more. Vernon Butler showed to be an ok pass rushing DT, but there were a lot of occasions where he was blown up out of his gap. Along with his meltdown to end the season, I don't see him coming back. I would LOVE to retain Gerald McCoy and give the 3-4 another look, but he isn't going to sign unless he thinks the team can compete. Kyle Love has been great for us as a rotational guy, but I think the team would be better looking to bring in a DT of the future in round 1. Derrick Brown (Auburn) or Javon Kinlaw (South Carolina) are looking really, really good at #7.

CB: Too early to give up on Jackson. Year 3 will be make it or break it for him. I really liked Cockrell as a depth guy. Gotta retain Bradberry. Reid is amazing. I would have never thought these words would come from me, but I think we should extend Tre Boston. He was an emotional leader for the back end of the defense and played relatively well. He's going to make mistakes, but providing some stability somewhere on this team will go a long way.

It's all about the trenches, a good DL will make a average secondary look elite especially if they don't have to worry about the run, brown is my pick at 7.

[1of10Charnatives]

1 minute ago, kungfoodude said:

Well, that kind of move would involve a definitive transition and it would also create an immediate need at safety and probably not be more than adding a backup/depth/situational player at LB. As poor as he was in coverage, I don't think we are going to get better as a team with him at LB, nor is it a given that he would even be starting caliber. And you are also probably going to have to get him on board with a positional switch which could potentially be problematic. 

As you said, it's going to be a transitional year, so I would probably just focus on trying to get a better player there in the next couple of offseasons. Cutting him in 2021 nets us a nice $7 mil in cap savings, so I think that is probably the move there. 

Yeah you're probably right. The first thing is, unless he's willing to try it, it's a non starter, no argument from me there. I just loved that Tepper told the NFL to go fly a kite when he hired Reid and football aside, would love for that move to be vindicated more than it has been, aside from the fact that I want my team to win. I was hoping he would come in here and make Pro Bowls and that would show how obvious and absurd the blacklist was, but it looks like that's unlikely at best. I think it's still obvious to anyone actually paying attention that it was still absurd because he's still clearly better than any number of guys sitting on benches elsewhere, I was just hoping it would be a slam dunk.

The guy is clearly a talented athlete, it's just frustrating that isn't translating to more of an impact on the field. Sorry I didn't suddenly change the subject to Jackson. I agree given that he's at least serviceable, there's a cap hit, and we have far more pressing needs that we keep him in place for now with an eye towards eventually replacement. I'm just trying to think outside the box and say hey since next year is likely written off wholesale anyway, why not try some risky stuff to see if something works?

[kungfoodude]

52 minutes ago, Harbingers said:

The dude sucked in coverage and everyone knew that, the game planned around it in fact. It’s why when ever he dropped back past 10 yards the ball went his way. He’s not suited to play safety anymore. I would accept him at OLB. 

The reason his tackles were so high is the run getting to the second or third level. With Luke stuffed by an OL it came down to him. 

The difference in targets was stark between Boston and Reid too. Boston was targeted 16 times, allowing 8 receptions and Reid was targeted 58 times, allowing 46 receptions. To put that in perspective, he allowed the second most receptions in the secondary, a mere 3 behind James Bradberry who was targeted 82 times. 

[kungfoodude]

3 minutes ago, 1of10Charnatives said:

Yeah you're probably right. The first thing is, unless he's willing to try it, it's a non starter, no argument from me there. I just loved that Tepper told the NFL to go fly a kite when he hired Reid and football aside, would love for that move to be vindicated more than it has been, aside from the fact that I want my team to win. I was hoping he would come in here and make Pro Bowls and that would show how obvious and absurd the blacklist was, but it looks like that's unlikely at best. I think it's still obvious to anyone actually paying attention that it was still absurd because he's still clearly better than any number of guys sitting on benches elsewhere, I was just hoping it would be a slam dunk.

The guy is clearly a talented athlete, it's just frustrating that isn't translating to more of an impact on the field. Sorry I didn't suddenly change the subject to Jackson. I agree given that he's at least serviceable, there's a cap hit, and we have far more pressing needs that we keep him in place for now with an eye towards eventually replacement. I'm just trying to think outside the box and say hey since next year is likely written off wholesale anyway, why not try some risky stuff to see if something works?

The rap on him coming in was that he was going to struggle in coverage. He's really an old-school, hard hitting box safety. The problem is that the league has trended away from the kind of offenses that he would excel against and the NFL has cracked down on the sort of physical play that he is best at. It's disappointing how poor he has been in coverage but I think we can survive his weakness if we just build a better defense as a whole. He wasn't the sole reason we were getting smacked around and despite his obvious targeting the secondary was pretty solid.

[rippadonn]

55 minutes ago, TheRed said:

I would not say Reid has been "amazing", but the angst is overblown. Overall there have been a number of players on our defense who have been disappointing in different ways. Even fan favorites like Luke. That's the point. Reid only has two years left on his contract and will likely be gone after next year at this point and he isn't making particularly much anyway. He's really amongst the least of our worries big picture.

Not great, not amazing but a very solid guy. He doesn't always wrap up but he can really thump with bad intentions, great body type for the position. Slightly bigger than traditional safeties thus the coverage issues. Worth the roster spot and a very good value.

Whiney whiners hating on every and anything not fired yet with no regard to us needing more guys not less.

[Harbingers]

1 minute ago, stbugs said:

I wouldn’t say he’s a very good value. We could have drafted Chauncey Gardner Johnson instead of Grier and paid a poo ton less and had a better safety. He was mentioned a bunch in the draft threads. Again, another great pick by the Saints while our amazing evaluator gets a pass.

I don’t understand why we don’t put a 2-3 round into a safety and call it good. Oh wait... 

[My Goodness My Guinness]

1 hour ago, TheRed said:

It's funny how standards around here change for different players depending on the last name.

Reid has 96 solo tackles, 129 comb, 33 ast, 7 tackles for a loss, and 5 QB hits.

Luke has 81 solo tackles, 144 comb, 63 ast, 4 tackles for a loss, and 5 QB hits.

Yet all you hear about is how bad Reid is. Meanwhile we now have over 100 hundred million dollars tied up in two linebackers. But reeeeeeeeeeeeee Eric Reid is so awful!

I can empathize with what you are arguing when fans point to Luke's tackles as a sign for being great, but come on man Reid was terrible this year. He misses so many tackles, not from getting out played, but from terrible technique.

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, Harbingers said:

I don’t understand why we don’t put a 2-3 round into a safety and call it good. Oh wait... 

Fair point. Not sure this is the guy we want drafting safeties. 

[Icege]

The only reason anyone would think Eric Reid isn't amazing is strictly due to bad politics on their part (not Reid's).

He is a SS with the ability to play center field if needed, but operates best in the box and covering tight ends. Without Eric Reid, our historically bad run defense would have been even worse. Is he as strong in pass defense? Nah, but is he a "liability" as some would have us believe? Nah.

Y'all didn't have that energy when he was stripping possible TDs out of WRs hands and stopping first down conversions because he has his assignment taken care of. But cook.

[Moose Hoover]

don't have to worry about corners if pass rush is good enough...oh...wait...

[raleigh-panther]

5 hours ago, cmichd said:

Can't fix the whole line but the whole line isn't the problem.  Left side an I am willing to give Little another year but if one of the top LT's is available and we signed Bradberry I go with taking one of them and a Center in either the 2nd or 3rd round.  Maybe Turner gave up during the season but the past two years he has not been the monster on the right side before he got paid.   Maybe we should have let Turner go and kept Norwell,

 

Little has had two concussions and an ankle injury, in what, three starts?

that does not  bode well   
 

with my number 7, go get the biggest, nastiest, able to both run and pass protect 

get it done   It hasn’t been done since Gross   It needs to happen now 

little can be a floating back up  

 

[1of10Charnatives]

2 hours ago, Icege said:

The only reason anyone would think Eric Reid isn't amazing is strictly due to bad politics on their part (not Reid's).

He is a SS with the ability to play center field if needed, but operates best in the box and covering tight ends. Without Eric Reid, our historically bad run defense would have been even worse. Is he as strong in pass defense? Nah, but is he a "liability" as some would have us believe? Nah.

Y'all didn't have that energy when he was stripping possible TDs out of WRs hands and stopping first down conversions because he has his assignment taken care of. But cook.

Dude I'm wholly with Reid politically and applauded Tepper for having the sack to bring him here, but I didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling out of his coverage play this year, sorry. I also felt he's behaved as a bit of a loose cannon on the field, picking up several questionable penalty calls. I would love for him to be playing lights out for us right now, but at the moment I cannot agree that his coverage play hasn't been a liability. I would greatly prefer for that not to be the case, but I am calling it like I see it.

Do not fall victim to the notion that the only reason one can be critical of Reid's play is due to political reasons. That is a flawed premise from the beginning.

[Sgt Schultz]

This is going to be a tough offseason.   I honestly hope we are not very active in the FA season.

As this list and discussion indicates, we are not one or two players away from being a contender.  We are nearly and entire OL and some major pieces of a defense away from being a contender, and I won't even get into positions that are going to see attrition in the process (for example, TE becomes a question).  I feel okay about WR and obviously good about RB, and have questions about our QB situation not only due to Cam's health, but a new regime coming in and their view of the position being a great unknown.

Job one is the trenches.  Our OL is horrendous and our DL ineffective against the run.

But FA signings have traditionally been to fill gaps, and for us last year they were all about 2019 (with the exception of getting Cam a backup, which we somehow forgot about).  We need to take a longer-term view of the roster this year, because we need to rebuild.  We have too many gaps.  That makes FA signings tough, because with rookie contracts structured as they are, the FA pool is generally people who have been pushed out or made expendable by younger, cheaper players.  That is the opposite of what we need.

I am not expecting great things in 2020, and I am prepared to suffer through that.  It is not pessimism, but acceptance.  It is a process (or needs to be) and we (you, Marty) have to approach this with an eye on 3 years from now, not next season.  Otherwise, the rebuilding mountain will only get taller and steeper.

[cmichd]

1 hour ago, raleigh-panther said:

Little has had two concussions and an ankle injury, in what, three starts?

that does not  bode well   
 

with my number 7, go get the biggest, nastiest, able to both run and pass protect 

get it done   It hasn’t been done since Gross   It needs to happen now 

little can be a floating back up  

 

Not going to disagree.  Get a center and the line will be fix for 2 to 3 years and then someone to replace Turner down the road.  But if Okudah is there....you got to take a minute and say is it worth it or wait to next year for your shut down CB.