Position by Position analysis

[panther4life]

QB, Starter :cam: His 35 total touchdowns ranked him 5th overall and his combined yards of 4758 ranked him 6th in the league.

Backup: Derek Anderson needs to and should be resigned. He cost us 1.3 mil last year and I am sure will get roughly the same this year.

3rd Stringer::jc:, no comment.

HB: Starters: Deangelo and Stewart. both had great years at 5.4 ypc. Still the best combo in the game. Williams edged Stewart out in total yards because he got 13 more carries. Deangelo also had 7 to Stewart's 4 TD's.

Deangelo remains the scarier big play threat. He had a 74 yard TD and 11 runs over 20 yards vs Stewarts long of 32 and 6 runs over 20 yards.

Stewart was more consistent and accounted for 15 more rushing first downs(47 to Deangelo's 32). In addition Stewart was far superior in the receving department.

3rd string: Goodson and rookie Josh Vaughan are under contract as of right now. Of the 2 I think Vaughan has a better chance of returning, especially if we find a scatback to handle returns.

FB: meh, but Brockel the highlight reel is a free agent.

I posted a bunch of receiver stats about everyone on our team in this thread I made earlier about every position on the team. Anyway heres the stats from that thread

[quote=

Receivers:Steve Smith was back to him old self. He was Cam's favorite tagret

Lafell apparently learned the playbook later in the season and surpassed Naane as the # 2 recevier(thankfully).

Heres a list of Target% and cacth% for Cams 7 favorite receving weapons.

Steve Smith 34 61

Lafell 15 64

Olsen 13 50

Naane 11.5 57

Shockey 11 59

Stewart 10 77

Williams 02 61

and now the deep threats. I am going to put them in order of average air yards per reception.

Total Air yards and average per catch.

Smith 920, 11.6

Lafell 390, 11

Olsen 327,7.48

Shockey 270,7.29

Naane 293, 6.81

Stewart -106, - 2 (yes negative, screen plays behind line of scrimmage)

Williams -30, 1.625

and now have a look at who racks up the most yards after the catch.

Average yards after catch

Stewart 11.04yards(mostly screens as his average air yard was -2)

Williams, 10.31 yards

Lafell, 6.2 yards

Smith, 5.9yards

Shockey 5 yards

Olsen, 4.7 yards

Naane, 3.9 yards

So as you can see Naane is the weakest link by far. Naane also killed the offense with 6 penalties for 60 yards. He's a free agent and I have no problem with us not re-signing him especially when we have Gettis coming back. Shockey on the other hand needs to be reatained at least 1 more year. Granted he he will likely cost about 4

mil per season.

Offensive Line: As a unit you can tell by the stats above they did a great job. The weakest side was also our injured side(RG/RT). However we got very fortunate to have Hangman come back and found a nice lil undrafted rook in Bell to fill in for Otah. I personally think we are OK on offensive line, especially since Hangman can backup Kalil as well.

2 most important player to reatain Derek Anderson and Shockey. Cost to do so, roughly 5 million.

Defense

Secondary: Gamble bounced back much like Smith did on his side of the ball this year. QB's had the 2nd lowest QB rating when throwing his way this year. Munnerlyn was the complete opposite where teams had the 2nd highest

QB rating when throwing in his direction. Couple that with the fact he often plays on the same side of the field as Sherod Martin and that spells major trouble for us. Our safties both sucked at tackling(among the leagues worst in missed tackles). No major free agents coming up here besides Stanford and Cletis Gordon. I'd try to retain Stanford for depth if hes cheap, and cut Gordon loose. As far as depth goes we are okay here with Hogan and Butler competing with Munnerlyn for Nickel and Dime corner. We will certainly need to add at least 1 more safety through free agency/ draft or move a corner to FS.

Linebackers:

Starters will be fine and amongst the leagues best core once we get everyone back from injury. I know we can't count on Davis coming back so we are best served re-signing Senn just in case. Also may want to devote a pick there as additional insurance. It wil also suck not having a true backup for Beason if Connor leaves, but due to salary cap constraints and Davis' prior injury history i'd make sure we re-sign Senn.Cost to keep him? I'd guess around 750,000 to a mil. Granted if the market is slow on Connor and he wants to come back I'd be glad to keep him.

Defensive Line: The Ends

Charles Johnson was a beast last year against the run and pass. I look foward to seeing him to continue to improve and live up to his contract. Hardy on the other side, played more than anyone so he had more opportunity to inflate his stats. Not accusing him of such but he did get killed against the run(worse than our DT'S did). He may improve with a full offseason and I hope he does. Question is to we want to count on that? IMO I would upgrade his position if the right opportunity comes along (which it very well could come draft day). Also Keiser came in and played like a beast in limited time. He had as many sacks as Hardy (4) in less than a 3rd of the playing time. Applewhite is a free agent and I would'nt be upset to see him back at the right price.

Then theres the much debated DT'S.

Ron Edwards is a starter. He got starter money 3 yrs. 8.25 million. Last year was a freak and rare injury for him. He is nothing but a space eating, run clogging machine. The Chiefs and their fans were sad to see him go last year. I think Neblett, Fua and Mcclain will fight it out for the other starting spot. Neblett probably has the inside edge going into training camp. He only appeared in 12 games and 4 starts but led all defensive tackles in tackles for a loss and sacks. I just dont see a need to use a first or 2nd round pick on DT this year.

Assuming we keep Applewhite and Senn it may cost us 1.5- 2 million to do so.

Couple that with the expected to cost to Keep Shockey and Derek Anderson were looking at spending roughly 6.5 million against the 2012 cap. Then you have our draft picks which will likely cost around 5.5 million against the cap. So just to retain a few free agents or even replace them with similar talent and sign our draft picks we need about 12 million in cap space. I think we can come up with that no problem but to think we will have much else to spend on upgrading positions that are not in dire need would be silly.

EDIT:accuracy of stats.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

At first thought some might say your crazy in thinking DT is a solid spot for us. I have warmed to this over time and agree with you for the most part. I thing the secondary is 1 and 1A priority and then get solid rotational bpa guys.

Also, I don't necessarily agree with everything 100% but like the overall analysis as it is well thought out

[rayzor]

Then theres the much debated DT'S.

Ron Edwards is a starter. He got starter money 3 yrs. 8.25 million. Last year was a freak and rare injury for him. He is nothing but a space eating, run clogging machine. .

he's a starter because he's getting starter money? sorry. bad reasoning. keep money out of the equation. size of contract does not equate to quality.

he is an unknown commodity here, despite what he did elsewhere.

DT is far from solid until proven otherwise. no way should they act as if this is a position that is settled.

[Kurb]

I just dont see a need to use a first or 2nd round pick on DT this year.

We need reliable talent in the DT spot. Not only do we need a decent FA I would argue a early pick on the DL as well. DL MUST be a position of strength to win when it matters.

[JawnyBlaze]

Other than disagreeing about DT, the only problem I have is I don't think Shockey will cost $4mil to re-sign. He seems happy here, happy to have a young, elite QB and I doubt he'd get a $4mil offer from another team, I think $2-3mil would be more realistic.

[KillerKat]

Yea, we don't need to upgrade at DT, LB, or CB. Gotcha.

[KillerKat]

he's a starter because he's getting starter money? sorry. bad reasoning. keep money out of the equation. size of contract does not equate to quality.

he is an unknown commodity here, despite what he did elsewhere.

DT is far from solid until proven otherwise. no way should they act as if this is a position that is settled.

Not only that but he's old and big. He won't be able to play a lot of consecutive snaps. He's like half a starter.

[panther4life]

he's a starter because he's getting starter money? sorry. bad reasoning. keep money out of the equation. size of contract does not equate to quality.

he is an unknown commodity here, despite what he did elsewhere.

DT is far from solid until proven otherwise. no way should they act as if this is a position that is settled.

So if we signed Mario Williams we should not count on him because he's an unknown commodity since he has never played for us? Thats very extreme I know but just wanted to solidify the point.

I can agree that it's hard to say what we have for sure at DT. I at least want to give the rookies a chance to prove themselves and same for Ron Edwards. We obviously thought highly of him since he was the biggest target form another team in last years free agency other than Mare.

I am not willing to write the rookies off yet either.. I did not keep track of who was guilty of it but many on here called Lafell; Lafail, baby hands, bla bla. Now look at everyone singing his praises. He was a 3rd round pick just like Fua and Mcclain. So thats an example of why I am in favor of giving them one more shot. If DT was the only position of concern on the team then I would think differently.

And yes Ron Edwards is 31, he can not play forever but I think the next/final 2 years of his contract are a reasonable expectation.

[Urrymonster]

Our Dts need something. Whether its bringing in someone via free agency/draft or having someone on the roster step up, we need improved performance from this position.

Pass rushing was woeful, all our DTs combined didn't come close to individual DTs such as Williams. One we let go (Landri) also blew our current rotation away in performance for the Eagles.

Run stopping was even worse...

[OneBadassCat]

We need to sign a good free agent DT. Just one would help a lot.

[panther4life]

Yea, we don't need to upgrade at DT, LB, or CB. Gotcha.

Its well documented in the draft section that I rank our 2 biggest needs as CB and DE. These are our most glaring holes imo. If you read the post or even watched any games last year you know Captain should never start again at # 2 corner.

I'll say it again, Hardy was the worst individual player in the front 7 against the run last year. His pass rushing is solid but not great. Depth behind him and Johnson under contract is Keiser and Norwood(if he's even still considered a Defensive end.)

So ideally we can fill those 2 needs with our first 2 picks. Then we have other positions where it would not hurt to have upgrades such as:

FS(replace sherrod),LB(insurance and depth),DT(the uncertainty factor),OT(Insurance over Otah or if Bell does not progess), WR(Smitty's getting older, no gurantees on Gettis).

All of those are all luxuries that can't be afforded to a team already over the cap and only 2 picks in the top 3 rounds. Granted we can probably pickup decent competition @ FS cheaply and maybe one other position. Then of course we will fill out the rest of the roster with depth but not guranteed starters over what we already have.

Bottom line I want as many positions to be upgraded as possible but I am also not dillusional enough to think we can afford several high priced free agents or come up with more early enough picks to draft impact players without trading ur future away.

[OneBadassCat]

I think Sherrod bounces back. The talent is there to be good. Godfrey sucked at times for a while too.

[Udogg]

Sherrod has gotten progressively worst over the last 2 years. Everyone has given him a pass until the last few games of last year. The obvious stinker against New Orleans was the eye opener for most people. Godfrey has gotten better every year. People keep waiting on him to be Troy Polamalu are never going to be happy, but Godfrey is a good player. Martin is not.

[Munch4455]

I think we need to be on the lookout for a starting caliber LG as well. I have a feeling that if the panthers cant restructure Wharton, he and his $9 Mil salary will be cut. Compared to Jahri Evans, making avg 8.1 mil a year, thats completely insane. I don't think he is even in the top 30% of G's in the league. If I was drafting, Coples, Decastro, or Reiff in the first, best corner available in the second, then BPA rest of the draft, but grabbing that punter from georgia in the 7th. That is, if i wasnt able to trade down. I would be all for Trading down to 16 or 17, and picking up that teams first round next year.