Off-season so far ....

[ForJimmy]

2 minutes ago, CRA said:

If there was a 3rd option of C that was: push/about the same I think it would have gotten some votes.  Did the worst team in the NFL attempt to get better? Sure.  So did teams 1-31.  

last year our main problem IMO was nothing fit together offensively.  Coaches that preferred X or Z.  QB suited and needing Y.  Talent didn’t pair well with any of it.  Bad marriages.

I still feel like the coach, QB and talent don’t sync up.  

Not sure every team got better.  Some are bound to be worse.  Hopefully we aren't one of those teams because our floor was pretty low last year.  

The good news is our offensive coaching staff was all created by one person this time.  Canales brought in his guys.  I think if he can't make things work with Bryce that he will bring in his own guy at QB next year.  The good news it Morgan looks to be building a better roster to put Bryce or another QB on.  The draft needs to be a hit this year still.  

[MHS831]

I mean, better is a pretty low bar.

[Navy_football]

Are the Panthers a good team now? Probably not. 

Are they better than last season. Absolutely. 

Edit: on paper

Edited March 29 by Navy_football

[amcoolio]

Need a center in the 2nd round, and another weapon (either WR or TE). Do that and we are improved on paper.

 

Only downgrade on that list is going from Burns/Luvu to Clowney/Wonnum, but we saved a shitload of money in the process. Every other "departure" was below average and I suspect most will be out of the NFL soon

[amcoolio]

Also, every year there's a team seemingly out of nowhere that is the worst team in the league, this year it was our turn unfortunately. And every year one of the worst teams has a massive improvement. I highly doubt, as pessimistic as a lot of you are, we are the worst team next year. I can see a team like Seattle, Denver, Tampa or Minnesota just absolutely imploding their way to 2-14

[top dawg]

It's been a good off-season. The only blip is the return on Burns, but it was a fait accompli. At the end of the day, we took the savings and spent it wisely---really in such a way that gives us the possibility of being competitive next season which many didn't think was remotely possible. If we can be as good or better in the draft, there's no way we can be any worse than last season (yeah, I know, famous last words). 

[ThPantherFan]

On 3/29/2024 at 8:37 AM, rayzor said:

if the season started next week would we be better off than last year?

It looks good on paper but we wont know until pads are introduced in training camp.  I believe we have an improved line and some key potentials.

I'm not ready to place a heavy bet just yet.

[MHS831]

14 hours ago, amcoolio said:

Need a center in the 2nd round, and another weapon (either WR or TE). Do that and we are improved on paper.

 

Only downgrade on that list is going from Burns/Luvu to Clowney/Wonnum, but we saved a shitload of money in the process. Every other "departure" was below average and I suspect most will be out of the NFL soon

You say two things that I find to be rather interesting.

I have been of the mindset that they think they have a center in Corbett.  However, they would say that until they draft his replacement, so this issue will be interesting on draft day.  I understand that they are going to groom Cade Mays to be the backup center, but Corbett is in the final year of a deal, so drafting a C early could be something they do.

As for the Burns/Luvu comment, I think Luvu was used mostly at ILB last season, not OLB.  I think, if you consider that we get WILB Thompson back, we will have Thompson and Jewell at ILB when Luvu and committee (Gruiger Hill) were playing ILB last season.  Burns, Haynes, and Yeter Gross-Matos were the primary OLBs in 2023, and they are all gone.  Now we have Clowney, Wonnum, Chaisson, Barno, DJ Johnson, and Leota at the OLB spots--hard to say they would be better. 

Biurns (8), YGM (4.5) and Haynes (1) produced only 13.5 sacks last season.

Clowney (9.5) and Wonnum (8) and Chaisson (2) produced 19.5 sacks on three different teams last season.  If you consider the plan is to develop the impressive athleticism of Barno and Johnson and continue the development of Leota, I am not sure we lost ground.  I should note that Clowney and Wonnum's sack totals were career highs, so we should probably expect about 7 from Clowney and probably around 6 from Wonnum--which equals the top 3 Panther OLBs in 2023.  I expect Chaisson to be developed here--I would not be surprised to see him become a significant rotational player.

Furthermore, Derrick Brown played all the time (more than he probably should have) and he forced sacks to these edge rushers.  This year, with Brown and Robinson inside, I expect more collapsed pockets, increasing the sack production for the edge rushers.

Luvu is the variable here that must be considered.  He had 5.5 sacks.  New Panther LB Josey Jewell had 3 in Denver.

So if you include Luvu in the Panther sack total the OLBs, The Panthers had a total of 19 sacks from their 4 top contributors.  If you throw Jewell into the mix of the four top additions to the Panther roster, the total is 22.5.   So the sack production from 2023 actually increased by 3.5 sacks. 

I do not think sacks, however, is a fair assessment of the overall productivity, but we actually are in a better place in terms of potential sack production.

Edited March 30 by MHS831

[amcoolio]

6 hours ago, MHS831 said:

You say two things that I find to be rather interesting.

I have been of the mindset that they think they have a center in Corbett.  However, they would say that until they draft his replacement, so this issue will be interesting on draft day.  I understand that they are going to groom Cade Mays to be the backup center, but Corbett is in the final year of a deal, so drafting a C early could be something they do.

As for the Burns/Luvu comment, I think Luvu was used mostly at ILB last season, not OLB.  I think, if you consider that we get WILB Thompson back, we will have Thompson and Jewell at ILB when Luvu and committee (Gruiger Hill) were playing ILB last season.  Burns, Haynes, and Yeter Gross-Matos were the primary OLBs in 2023, and they are all gone.  Now we have Clowney, Wonnum, Chaisson, Barno, DJ Johnson, and Leota at the OLB spots--hard to say they would be better. 

Biurns (8), YGM (4.5) and Haynes (1) produced only 13.5 sacks last season.

Clowney (9.5) and Wonnum (8) and Chaisson (2) produced 19.5 sacks on three different teams last season.  If you consider the plan is to develop the impressive athleticism of Barno and Johnson and continue the development of Leota, I am not sure we lost ground.  I should note that Clowney and Wonnum's sack totals were career highs, so we should probably expect about 7 from Clowney and probably around 6 from Wonnum--which equals the top 3 Panther OLBs in 2023.  I expect Chaisson to be developed here--I would not be surprised to see him become a significant rotational player.

Furthermore, Derrick Brown played all the time (more than he probably should have) and he forced sacks to these edge rushers.  This year, with Brown and Robinson inside, I expect more collapsed pockets, increasing the sack production for the edge rushers.

Luvu is the variable here that must be considered.  He had 5.5 sacks.  New Panther LB Josey Jewell had 3 in Denver.

So if you include Luvu in the Panther sack total the OLBs, The Panthers had a total of 19 sacks from their 4 top contributors.  If you throw Jewell into the mix of the four top additions to the Panther roster, the total is 22.5.   So the sack production from 2023 actually increased by 3.5 sacks. 

I do not think sacks, however, is a fair assessment of the overall productivity, but we actually are in a better place in terms of potential sack production.

 

I don't believe the Corbett thing for a second. They said that so they don't telegraph to teams on draft day that they have an obvious glaring hole at C. There could be a high quality one at 33, and if not I would trade back and get a second tier one.

 

On the sacks, I agree, and I was more than fed up with Burns on run plays and really any other play where he's not rushing the quarterback. I just don't think a situational pass rusher is worth spending that much of your cap on. Honestly would rather have a 30M/yr wide receiver.

[DaveThePanther2008]

Offensively, we added two really good Guards and a solid WR.  We are giving Young more time to throw and at least one more reliable WR to go with Theilen. IMO this will improve our offense a lot. 

Defensively, we lost a couple of really good names, but we address our entire defensive front outside of Brown.  All of these additions are really good at stopping the run. Our Achilles heel.  We've added some good DBs and add them with Horn we'll be strong on the backend.  I also like that 3 defenders we added were players that formally Evero players. 

On paper IMO we look much better than 2023.  At minimum our defense will be equal to 2023 and offensively we should be better now that the O-Line is greatly improved and Young shows us that the O-line, lack of weapons and terrible scheme was his issue not his talent.  

Edited March 30 by DaveThePanther2008

[PantherPhann89]

The only player I really wanted to keep was Frankie Luvu... I do think that we're better but I think that we would've ben better better with Luvu with a diverse rotation.

[DeadpoolPanther]

Just the o-line improvements alone make us better. The difference between a bad o-line and good o-line can’t be understated, big improvement. The trade for D. Johnson was a pretty big deal too. If Mingo takes even a small step forward the wr group is much better. That’s two important groups getting an upgrade.

Defense, I feel like Frankie was our only big loss, but Jewell helps make up for that a little bit. Clowney/Wonnum makes up for Burns for the most part. Not as improved as the offense, but I don’t think we got worse.

Add a good draft and I say we should be much improved. A lot depends on qb play now.

[Dreally]

3rd or 4th in the division still. Worst HC hire out of every new head coach. Wrong GM instead of bringing in completely new blood and Tepper staying out of it while he runs the team. Poor additions and bad trades to go along with a bust at QB. This team is not really better. The voting is the best case of drinking the Kool Aid ever. 

[rayzor]

6 hours ago, Dreally said:

3rd or 4th in the division still. Worst HC hire out of every new head coach. Wrong GM instead of bringing in completely new blood and Tepper staying out of it while he runs the team. Poor additions and bad trades to go along with a bust at QB. This team is not really better. The voting is the best case of drinking the Kool Aid ever.