O-Line over Everything

[pantherclaw]

1 hour ago, Navy_football said:

Maybe they haven't ignored it so much as not made it a top priority. Seems they have been super complacent with allowing bad players time to "develop/gel" instead of just admitting they were bad and moving on to plan B. Amini was horrible. Bell was subpar. Chandler was... well that was a joke really. Making it a top priority means using a first rounder on the position.

How many first round dlinemen has this team drafted during the Rivera era vs how many first round olinemen? 

Lazy thinking. 

There haven't been a single lineman at our picks that was worth the reach over the player we ended up drafting. 

Maybe you can convince yourself it's worth reach for a player at a certain position,  but that is not how a team is built.  

 

[pantherclaw]

You also can't use first rounders at every position.  So I guess with your line of thinking, the Panthers don't make it a top priority for a number of positions.  

 

[1of10Charnatives]

3 hours ago, Rags said:

If the o-line sucks next season, it only sucks for next season.

This logic is flawed as hell. Not being able to stop the run is a huge reason teams could just pin their ears back and rush the passer. They knew if they got the ball back more than likely they could control the Time of Possession by running it down our throats. Our defense couldn't get off the field while theirs remained well rested. 

It doesn't matter if we get draft an all pro LT that ends up a HoFer next season if he and the rest of the O-line face constant blitzes and fresh d-linemen all game.

Do you not understand how having a crap oline next year dramatically increases the risk of losing to health or poor performance the only franchise qb this franchise has ever had?

The logic certainly appears flawed if you do not bother to read my entire post and digest what it means but instead pick out one line and try to refute it in a vacuum without context.

[Snake]

It amazes me how people think you just find a LT. Rivera spent almost 10 years trying to find one. You either draft a top 10 LT or you pay out the nose for one in FA. That's about it. 

[stirs]

Out of the 22 positions on the field, we need about 16 of them.

Given that situation, you NEVER go into a draft saying _______ over everything, even Oline

Maybe we keep Cam upright, but he will need to put up 50 pts a game for the win.

Hope his shoulder and foot are REAL healthy

[Diehardpanther02]

7 hours ago, WarPanthers89 said:

You can’t think this way. What if we sign or trade for a vet LT and draft a guard in the 2nd round? That’s a success to me. Then we have Dailey as backup G, and little as backup LT and we have someone who can start on defense with our 1st round pick. As bad as our O line was, we can make moves like this to help both sides out if we select DT 1st. Many forget we had absolutely terrible run defense last year. Free agency isn’t here yet so wait until that happens to say we have to pick a specific position. At 7 we need to go with BPA and about 7 prospects will fill a huge need for us in the 1st round. 

Fair enough, but how much is that Vet left tackle gonna cost? Somewhere in the Kalil range?  You see how that worked out. I would love to bring in FAs too. But these tackles look good this year, and oline should be our focal point in moving forward this year. Trenches are the only way we fix this. However it needs to be done, but financially, with CMCS contract coming up, we can't afford to pay for CMC and a 10-12 million$ contract on an old LT with 2-3 seasons left. We need to look for youth on the OLINE then add in the vets as needed for depth or stop gaps for injuries.

[Diehardpanther02]

5 hours ago, WarPanthers89 said:

Andrew Whitworth, Anthony Castonzo, Jason Peters. It would give us a stable presence at LT who is proven while giving us extra time to develop Little and make sure he can handle the starting role, while also being great depth....

Those guys are gonna cost money. All probably top dollar or close to top dollar contracts for the position. If a LT has a track record of being so of being solid their value never really decreases because it's so hard to find a good quality starting Tackle that will be healthy for an extended time and perform as well. I'm all for it on friendly contracts but if we start talking 10+mill for those guys I'm out. Who knows if you won't draft the next Jason Peters in the draft. But I'm of the company we should have been drafting left tackles every single year since Jordan Gross left.

 

All we've done is try and use stop gaps. See Michael Oher and Matt Kalil as of recent. The only time it worked was with Wharton and he moved from Guard after injury. He didn't come in as our tackle to start with 

[Diehardpanther02]

4 hours ago, pantherclaw said:

I can promise anyone, and everyone, that the Panthers staff have NEVER ignored the oline, or thought they could get by with a lesser line, because of the athleticism of Cam. 

That is straight up lazy thinking by fans, whom fail to comprehend how difficult it is to build and maintain a quality team in the modern NFL. 

Anybody in football, knows it begins and ends in the trenches. 

 

It's lazy thinking that maybe it wasn't priority enough that maybe it was time to drop some dime in a tackle. Maybe their evaluations of talent was suspect. Which leads to this point, they decided on the guys out on the field. If they didn't perform the coaches have to have ownership.  If they put a guy in that didn't perform, they should've drafted and brought in FAS every single year that could potentially solve that problem. Not put a band aid on it.

[WarPanthers89]

25 minutes ago, Diehardpanther02 said:

Fair enough, but how much is that Vet left tackle gonna cost? Somewhere in the Kalil range?  You see how that worked out. I would love to bring in FAs too. But these tackles look good this year, and oline should be our focal point in moving forward this year. Trenches are the only way we fix this. However it needs to be done, but financially, with CMCS contract coming up, we can't afford to pay for CMC and a 10-12 million$ contract on an old LT with 2-3 seasons left. We need to look for youth on the OLINE then add in the vets as needed for depth or stop gaps for injuries.

No way those vets cost that much esp at the age they are. I wouldn’t mind spending part of the $42 million (after the Poe cut) on one of the most important positions on the line for a short term deal (not Kalil 5 year deal). Also, are we writing off the LT we just drafted in the 2nd round last year? We should not go into the season planning on him to start 16 games after what he showed last year, but at the same time you can get a proven stop gap for a year so that he can continue to develop, and so that the coaching staff has a full season to determine if Little is the LT of the future and that he can stay healthy. He will also provide great depth so that we have two players capable of holding the left side of the line down. With as many holes as we have, we need to give Little a chance to battle it out at camp while having an option if he’s not ready. At 7 we have to go BPA and if that’s a tackle then go for it, but I highly doubt a tackle will be the best player on the board if we have a choice of Brown, Simmons, or Okudah.

[TheRed]

40 minutes ago, stirs said:

Hope his shoulder and foot are REAL healthy

I bet you do lol.

[TheRed]

I'm skeptical on any free agent OL signings after our run of luck with Kalil and Paradis.

Any additional depth will likely be added through the draft.

[SmokinwithWilly]

I think we need a serviceable LT and a much stronger interior. A good OC can help scheme to relieve some of the pressure. It doesnt do any good to have an all pro LT if defenders run right over your guards and center. 

A healthy Cam that can make deep throws accurately should dramatically open up the box allowing quick slants, screens and crossing patterns that dont take 3 seconds to develop. The biggest evaluation right now needs to be Little, Daley and Moton and how they fit into our new offensive strategy.

Ideally, I hope we can move down to 10 or 11, still grab Brown or Kinlaw, and add a center/guard in the 2nd or 3rd with the extra pick.

[Diehardpanther02]

3 hours ago, Snake said:

It amazes me how people think you just find a LT. Rivera spent almost 10 years trying to find one. You either draft a top 10 LT or you pay out the nose for one in FA. That's about it. 

He spent almost 10 years and approximately 2 draft picks in the late rounds. I wouldn't say he made that a priority. He tried yes, but his evaluation was obviously poor at the position.

[WOW!!]

3 hours ago, Snake said:

It amazes me how people think you just find a LT. Rivera spent almost 10 years trying to find one. You either draft a top 10 LT or you pay out the nose for one in FA. That's about it. 

It amazes me that ppl think you get a 1st round LT and Cam will be magically protected... I really want to know how many LT come in day 1 at a pro bowl level or even avg.. Every position has development time.. So just because you draft a LT in the 1st round doesn't mean Cam doesn't get crushed from a rookie developing year 1 and 2 ...