Games this year and what we need next year?

[rmoneyg35]

I know we have lost very close games to some great teams and I can't help to wonder if its our game plan that is costing us games. I say this because we are running the ball succesfully but we are not running the ball enough when we are ahead to take time off the clock. Instead we let cam throw it which has its ups and downs. This makes me wonder if we are just planning on tanking the season to let Cam learn the pass game more or just suck to get a good draft pick. I know it sounds dumb to say but honestly I don't feel that we are making the right plays to win. We have the talent to win but we just cant pull it out.

This comes to another question.... What do we need to get in the draft? another WR? Gettis is coming back next year and LaFell might be ready to be our #2 if Gettis isn't. Our O line is good but we have Gross and Wharton getting older and a replacement would be nice to have, Running backs are set, Shockey is here for another year which leaves it to Defense. We have two young and very talented defensive ends, we have two rookie DTs that have their ups and downs but could improve with time, as well as Edwards coming back next year. Linebacker is a problem this year but Beason will be back, Anderson is pretty good and Davis is still great but will he be back? Godfrey just signed a big deal and the coaches love Pugh, I personally Like Martin the most, which leaves us to Cornerback, Gamble is having a good year and Munnerlyn has some great plays (mainly against slot recievers) but Munnerlyn also has made some bad plays as well. Butler looks decent and we don't know what Hogan will do for us so in my opinion our needs are in this order

DT

CB

LB

WR

Are there any great DTs in this draft worth a top 5 pick? CBs usually don't go early so I would say a 2nd round pick, Do we get a WR? I honestly think we are okay with what we have but we do need Smiths replacement.

What do you guys think we need to do in the draft next year?

Also aren't we missing our 3rd round pick this season?

[ncbobcat]

We need a stud DT, healthy LBs, a legit #2 WR and CB, Cam to get accurate and better tackling on defense/STs. That's it.

[Panthers4lyfe]

yeah dont have our 3rd this year traded it for olsen. i say we need dt and db but it's way too early to tell. hogan is active to play after next week so lets see what we have in him before we jump to conclusions also. he was a guy highly regarded the year before he came out and woulda went higher last yr if not for off the field issues

[BeasonBeastingBacks]

There doesn't appear to be any elite DTs in this upcoming draft

We'll probably be picking in the top 10, which we'll feature mainly QBs and WRs and some DBs.

We don't know what we have with Hogan yet, so we may or may not need a CB in the first.

So in the first I could see them picking WR or CB, 2nd would probably be a DT, and the other to shore up LB and other spots.

[SevenSixes]

I know we have lost very close games to some great teams and I can't help to wonder if its our game plan that is costing us games.

No. Two of our 4 losses came to teams who won the Super Bowl in the past two years. Not to mention that the Bears were in the title game last year. This isn't a disgrace for a team that went 2- 14 last year.

I say this because we are running the ball succesfully but we are not running the ball enough when we are ahead to take time off the clock.

We have ran the ball when it made sense too. Don't forget that the offensive line has been banged up and was mostly incomplete for 3 of those games. For the O line the choreography needed to block correctly depends on knowing how each other works and we haven't had that for most of the games. Additionally, we have next to no talent in the backup positions. To make the leap that play calling is the issue we don't run when you think we should run shows your just too used to "Foxball".

Instead we let cam throw it which has its ups and downs. This makes me wonder if we are just planning on tanking the season to let Cam learn the pass game more or just suck to get a good draft pick.

So you take perhaps 10 plays over 5 games you think we shouldn't have given to Cam and we are inexplicably in "suck" mode with more than 2/3 of the season remaining. That logic is so twisted, I can't help you with that one..

I know it sounds dumb to say but honestly I don't feel that we are making the right plays to win. We have the talent to win but we just cant pull it out.

We don't have the talent to win when you give up 27+ points per game.

Period.

[rmoneyg35]

I forgot to mention special teams is a huge need and is whats costing us a lot of games. The question is do we fix special teams with unproven rookies or do we go out and sign players that we know can play well on special teams but pretty much can't play anything else.

[KDawg004]

Don't like any of the DT's in the draft this year. I wouldn't mind signing Kendall Langford or Adam Carriker in FA. Then, Jeffrey or Blackmon in the 1st and a CB in the 2nd. This draft is deep at CB. Have to figure out what to do with TD also.