Brockers to visit with the Panthers

[panthers55]

That is a good point. DT vs. CB is going to be a toss up. We have one star CB who is 29, Munnerlyn, and possibly a promising player in Hogan.

At DT we have 1 solid DT in Edwards who is 31 on a 3 year contract. Two 3 third round rookies who we are not sure are going to amount to anything yet(being minimalist here), some decent guys in Shirley and Kearse.

But if you look at the rest of the NFC South and WR's we are going to be up against, (Julio Jones, Roddy White, Colston(?). It is important that we can match up on those players. Leads me to believe that CB would probably be the pick. We at least have day 1 picks already invested in the d-line from last season and if Hurney is smart he will sign a good DT to help us out.

I think NT is covered at this point. You could make a strong case for a tweener like Brockers who could play tackle or potentially DE particularly in a 3-4 lineup which we will employ at times this year. When it gets down to it the DT/DE on a particular side of the ball really do work in tandem. A great DT who can take up 2 blocks and also penetrate in a one gap scheme makes any DE lined up next to them better. One of the reason Rucker was a force was having Kris Jenkins next to him which required double teams meaning Rucker wasn't double teamed much at all. The best thing we could do for Hardy is put a dominant DT next to him.

I am warming up to the idea although I am still in favor of a stud DE/corner in the first. I am not sure if a guy like Couples has the drive to be great or whether Hogan is going to be good enough that we don't need to go corner in the first. I hope the coaching staff has this figured out in the next month or so.

[KillerKat]

Why would we take an OT in the first round? I just dont see it. Looks like Riley Reiff is falling some and Johnathan Martin is not worth the pick either in my opinion. We have great depth on the OLine. Even if we did take an OT in the first, he would probably backup the whole year.

If we take OT in the first, Otah is done.

[Yaboychris28]

I think we should take Coples over Brockers if he is still on the board

[CPF4LIFE]

Go ahead and turn the card in Hurney. lol

[rippadonn]

We haven't had talent at DT since Kris Jenkins and that's sad. The Panthers look like they get it so far, we'll see. I liked the fact that they reached out to him first.

Brockers is a manchild, we gotta get this kid!

[frash.exe]

Lol do u know what manchild means

[panther4life]

Newton was a huge gamble according to the talking heads.

We gambled away our 2010 first on Brown in 2009. In 2008 Stewart was coming off surgery and was a big unknown. Davis was a safety we converted to a LB. With Beason he wasn't a gamble but we did trade down and risk that he would be gone when we made our pick.

Hurney is a gambler in the Bobby Beathard school of thinking. he takes some chances but for the most part they have worked out. But like any gambler sometime you get burned.

Just because the talking heads were weary of Newton I would not consider him a gamble especially after all the time and research dedicated to him. The analyst who thought he was a huge gamble,thought so because they misinterperted his entertainer and icon comments,and concerns about his work ethic. Wrong as hell on both accounts.

Stewart was not a big unknown either imo, our own team doctors did the surgery so we knew more than any other team about how that went.

So while I agree the guy is not afraid to gamble(no pun intended) I don't think citing those 2 players are good examples.

[frash.exe]

Remember guys, at this point last year Newton's lower body mechanics were not up to par, he had an underwhelming combine performance, and i only remember us and the bills reportedly being the only two teams in the top 5 that were willing to take him

He was far from the consensus BPA and a gamble which many people on here were not on board with taking

Let's not rewrite history

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

Lol do u know what manchild means

i would assume not based on context

[panthers55]

Just because the talking heads were weary of Newton I would not consider him a gamble especially after all the time and research dedicated to him. The analyst who thought he was a huge gamble,thought so because they misinterperted his entertainer and icon comments,and concerns about his work ethic. Wrong as hell on both accounts.

Stewart was not a big unknown either imo, our own team doctors did the surgery so we knew more than any other team about how that went.

So while I agree the guy is not afraid to gamble(no pun intended) I don't think citing those 2 players are good examples.

They were great examples. In addition to what RB brought up, we believed in Newton but it is always a gamble picking a guy with little pro-experience coming from a spread offense. What we gambled on was that Newton would be driven to work his butt off and that Chud and Shula could bring him along and develop him.

As for Stewart regardless of whether we knew the surgeons or not, there is always risk in taking a guy who is coming off surgery especially when there were many other guys out there who had no issues at all. Hurney took a risk and it paid off.

[bleys]

Why would we take an OT in the first round? I just dont see it. Looks like Riley Reiff is falling some and Johnathan Martin is not worth the pick either in my opinion. We have great depth on the OLine. Even if we did take an OT in the first, he would probably backup the whole year.

because you can lock up a future LT and move Gross over to finish his career at RT.. with 1 pick you solidify 2 spots on the OL and have no reason to bank on depth to start from the beginning, or Otah to play a full season (or even half)...

[panther4life]

Remember guys, at this point last year Newton's lower body mechanics were not up to par, he had an underwhelming combine performance, and i only remember us and the bills reportedly being the only two teams in the top 5 that were willing to take him

He was far from the consensus BPA and a gamble which many people on here were not on board with taking

Let's not rewrite history

Our next coach whoever the hell he is will hopefully not be in possesion of a pick this high again. Therefore it's at least time to go look at some Cam Newton highlights

edit:1 other thing to consider, not every prospect has an nfl comparison, so dont hurt your head thinking he's vince young, or any other qb...he's his own man

I'd have to go cam at this point. High risk/high reward. But i buy into what Rivera has said so many times about finding coaches who are teachers and that we need to find a franchise qb. So much is made of him not knowing how to play in a pro system and what not but last years draft kind of debunked the importance of that. Bradford and Clausen!

Cam obviously has all the physical tools to get it done. He's apparently a good leader on the field and seems to really enjoy the sport. Does he have some learning to do? Hell yeah he does. But i believe he can be taught the basic fundamentals and would probably beat out Clausen in camp his first year. I'm sure we'd win a few more games this year and be more exciting and fun to watch with Cam at the helm. People with the leadership skills and physical tool set like Newton dont come around very often, so in a year where theres no clear cut slam dunk of a number 1 pick, take a risk.

If you wanna go safe then you have to take Peterson or Green. I think both of these guys will be good to great players at the next level. They have the combination of physical tools and proven performance on the field. I just wonder how much one of these guys can really improve our team even if they meet their full potential, if our qb play is still holding the team back.

Other considerations would certainly be on of the dt's. I dont have an extreme preference on either of them. I think Dareus would be safer but either one of them could bust just as easily as Cam can.....Look at past draft results, it happens alot.

Then of course you have Bowers and Quinn. Bowers looks to be pretty good but so did Gaines Adams and countless others who failed to reach their pre-draft hype at this position.

Bottom line is this, Green or Peterson are hands down the safest bets right now. I argue against Peterson cuz our corners were far from the reason our season went so bad last year. I think Green is an amazing talent and will go far in this league if he's hooked up with a good qb, otherwise he's a calvin Johnson pre-stafford.

Ndamonkung Suh and Calvin Johnson's team last year would have been alot better had their QB, Stafford been healthy all of last year. I mention them because they are 2 of the best prospects to come out in the past few years at their positions. So even if Green and Dareus or Fairely are as good as either one of them, it still doesent have the potential to make us light years better without a qb in place.

I'm sure we could grab a Blaine Gabbert-type qb in the top 15 next year,whereas a talent with potential like Cam may never be available to us for several more years.

So If Cam is a bust, oh well, half of the other players mentioned above will probably prove to be not worthy to even be considered inside the top 10 in the future. Everyone of them are a risk and the safest ones Peterson/Green aren't clear cut favorites to be number 1 for a reason too.

\\

How has your opinion changed if at all on the following players?

Cam Newton

Marcell Dareus

Patrick Peterson

A.J Green

Nick Fairley

and any other highly rated prospects?

Me personally, I have been on the Cam bandwagon for a while but I didnt start that way immediately. I thought man what a great risk/reward guy but the more I learn about him I see less a lot less risk. Initially I was convinced he was too raw to develop, but his work ethic and other glowing reviews of his ability to learn have me feeling really good about him.

Dareus, wasnt even in the conversation for me until probably the last month and half or so, but now he's somebody I could embrace pretty easily if the Panthers draft him

Patrick Peterson..I'm really indifferent on this guy. Just dont see any corner being worth #1 overall. Think he'll be good for somebody but not the best value at # 1 overall

Green was my guy for a long time, back when I still held out hope for Clausen and before it was clear we'd have the # 1 pick. Yes I would have always taken Luck ahead of him, but always thought Green was the next best option.

Now I feel Green is still a good option and would prefer him if we dont get Newton # 1 overall

Fairley I liked alot at one point but and wouldnt be totally upset if we drafted him but like Peterson I think he's a reach at # 1 overall

Can't use that argument with me. Thats just a sample of some post I made from the day Luck decided to go back to school and up to early march in chronological order. As you can see I did not just blindly jump on the bandwagon either.The closer it got to april and draft day I was even more convinced that he was the best and only choice for us. There's countless others, Teeray comes to mind, I think you, Rayzor, P55 and many others liked him as well too. The others were just butthurt over Luck ,fail for TRD's stupid antics, or read Narwocki's terrible assesment of him.

[bleys]

Can't use that argument with me. Thats just a sample of some post I made from the day Luck decided to go back to school and up to early march in chronological order. As you can see I did not just blindly jump on the bandwagon either.The closer it got to april and draft day I was even more convinced that he was the best and only choice for us. There's countless others, Teeray comes to mind, I think you, Rayzor, P55 and many others liked him as well too. The others were just butthurt over Luck ,fail for TRD's stupid antics, or read Narwocki's terrible assesment of him.

unfortunately because a few heads on a message board thought Cam was great has absolutely no relevance to scouts or various others who actually get paid for their analysis...

[panther4life]

They were great examples. In addition to what RB brought up, we believed in Newton but it is always a gamble picking a guy with little pro-experience coming from a spread offense. What we gambled on was that Newton would be driven to work his butt off and that Chud and Shula could bring him along and develop him.

As for Stewart regardless of whether we knew the surgeons or not, there is always risk in taking a guy who is coming off surgery especially when there were many other guys out there who had no issues at all. Hurney took a risk and it paid off.

If you want to over analyze it then of course every pick not named Andrew Luck(according to the so called experts) is a gamble. I just think they were calculated risk they the front office, coaching staff deemed a worthy risk. When I think of the word gamble I think of rolling the dice and hoping you get lucky. I think those decisions are better described as calculated risk that we deemed worthy.

Its okay to agree to disagree anyway. Better than wasting our time trading stupid insults on a internet forum.