Matthias' Mock

[Matthias]

Trades:

Swap 1st round picks and to pick up a 3rd

DeAngelo Williams for a 5th

Releases:

Chris Gamble

Other guys

Free agent signings:

Sean Smith- CB

Terrance Knighton- DT

Ramses Barden- WR

Draft:

1st round (trade back)- Barrett Jones

With the trade back (assuming we are drafting 25 down), Barrett Jones looks to be the best player available at this spot. Even if John Jenkins and Jonathan Hankins were available at this spot, these guys look overweight, and would need time to develop to become something. Wide receiver is not as big an issue as we are making it out to be. I imagine Gettis will get a look in training camp, and will be on the roster next year fighting for the starting role. LaFell is a chain moving receiver, and Louis Murphy has speed. (If only he didn't have stone hands) I also added Ramses Barden to the roster in my free agency projection. So receiver isn't as big a deal, because we know Smitty is still better than most of the receivers in the game.

Jones can come right in, and start at RG for us. Suring up that position for a good while. By the way, I'm not through with dealing on the WR position in my mock. Sit back and relax on that one. ^_^

2nd round- Bacarri Rambo

The best ball hawk safety in this class. (I don't want to hear anything about that safety from Fresno State) Had Rambo come out last year, he would have been a first round pick. After his suspension this year, he came back and put up solid numbers. So we can finally get our guy here, in terms of a ball hawking safety. He's also a physical hitting safety.

3rd round (trade)- Kyle Long

This is most likely Gross' last year as a Panther. Originally we as Panthers fans wanted to move Gross to RT, and finish his career as a Panther. Yet Byron Bell is doing pretty good at RT, and can only go up from here. Kyle Long is a great prospect here, and a good candidate to be Gross' successor.

4th round- Devin Taylor

Another addition to our d-line. He has Pepper-esqe athleticism, he just don't know how to use it yet. I like his size, and I like his attitude. However, he will come in to the league raw. It's a good thing to have the kind of guys we do on our line, to help him develop. (Between Hardy's mean streak and CJs consistency, Taylor should develop into a man at DE)

5th round (trade)- Darius Slay

Has good cover skills. Most likely a late third-fourth round pick up, yet if he's still available in the 5th, we need to snag him.

5th round- Dan Buckner

Here he is! My secret weapon at the WR position! Mwuhahahaha! This kid has the size, and from the lone highlight I can find of him from his Texas days, he looks to be hard to bring down. So this will be a great addition to the receivers I already mention. We could have made the playoffs with the receivers we had last year, but I've reached into the bin and pulled out great prospects to bolster our situation at receiver this year. We are good to go.

6th round- Dustin Hopkins

A guy with a big leg and good accuracy.

6th-round comp.- TJ Barnes

A guy who can fight for position in camp

6th round comp.- Etienne Sabino

Another camp body.

Undrafted free agents:

Justice Cunningham

Mark Panu

Justin Jones

Roster projection (starters)

QB: Cam Newton

RB: Johnathan Stewart

FB: Mark Panu ®

WR: Steve Smith

WR: Toss up

TE: Greg Olsen

LT: Jordan Gross

LG: Amini Silatolu

C: Ryan Kalil

RG: Barrett Jones ®

RT: Byron Bell

DE: Greg Hardy

DT: Dwan Edwards

DT: Terrance Knighton

DE: Charles Johnson

LB: Thomas Davis

LB: Luke Kuechly

LB: Jon Beason

CB: Josh Norman

FS: Bacarri Rambo ®

SS: Charles Godfrey

CB: Sean Smith

K: Dustin Hopkins ®

P: Brad Nortman

KR: Joe Adams

PR: Joe Adams

[ZackAttack23]

Meh. You rate Barrett Jones and Baccari Rambo too high. Long too low. If we get an WR it should be round 1 or 2. So yea draft doesn't look that enticing.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

Barret Jones might barely be a 1st. Kyle Long will be gone by the 2nd. Rambo is a reach in the 2nd (or perhaps the 3rd even). Devin Taylor is a reach in the 4th.

Other than that its a great draft.

[Bwood]

There's going to be enough negative feedback on this one, I'll leave it alone.

[Matthias]

Meh. You rate Barrett Jones and Baccari Rambo too high. Long too low. If we get an WR it should be round 1 or 2. So yea draft doesn't look that enticing.

I disagree. Jones is a first round talent, and will go in the latter half of the first round. Bacarri is definitely first round talent, but will go in the second round mostly because of teams going after position of need.

[BigSyke]

who is toss up i never heard of that wr......

reach for some but good draft of postitons.

[SCMunnerlyn1]

Dont like the rambo and taylor picks. Taylor don't think he has the body for the nfl. He couldnt get in the backfield with Jerideau and Clowney eating up all but 1 OL really don't think he could do it here either.

[OHK]

We trade down from middle of the round to near the end, and only pick up a third? Who are we trading with, the Patriots?

Not a fan of the player selection either. I like Barrett Jones, but not as our first round pick. There's better talent available than that, and I'd rather just stay at fourteen if that's who we're picking. Rambo is taken far too high. He's more of 3rd to 5th round guy. I am actually a fan of Kyle Long, but I don't want to see Devin Taylor before at least the fifth round.

[JawnyBlaze]

Yea, my biggest complaint is trading down 11+ spots and only picking up a 3rd. Where are you guys getting these trade standards from? There's been a few speculated trades of moving down 10+ spots and picking up only garbage picks. If we moved down 10+ spots we're getting at least a 2nd in return, or two 3rds... If we're trading down, I want it to pick up significant picks, I don't want to trade down just for the sake of trading down.

According to the draft value chart I found at all the top google results, #14 is worth 1100, #24 is worth 740. #56 (theoretically, the 2nd round pick of the team that had #24) is worth 340. That'd be us giving up 1100 points, getting 1080. That's trading down 10 spots and picking up a 2nd. That's far more realistic than only getting a 3rd (or even lower in some other peoples' minds).

[carpanfan96]

Rambo has a late third round grade right now, he might be able to move up to the top of the third. Too many guys ahead of him for him to go much higher. He's ranked around the 90th overall prospect in the draft. Jones will probably drop because of the injury concerns and the fact he just had surgery. He's had a 2nd round grade before the injury was known. Kyle Long has a high second round grade as well. Devin Taylor is a middle of the draft guy with a probable draft spot in the 5th-6th round.

Buckner isn't expected to be drafted and is a borderline 7th round guy at best.

That's not to mention the trade valuation you placed by moving down 11 spots.....

There's some serious over valuation going on in this mock draft, you draft BPA not based on need. If the BPA happens to fit a need then so be it, extra value.

[mr beauxjangles]

As someone who watched every Georgia game this year from start to finish but is not a homer Georgia fan, I would absolutely have no issues taking Rambo in the second. The guy is a turnover machine. Every year we see players rise and fall, others going much sooner or much later than their supposed draft grades and projections. Would love to see Rambo as a Panther and would have no issues with him going in the second if the team pegs him there as well.

[BigSyke]

As someone who watched every Georgia game this year from start to finish but is not a homer Georgia fan, I would absolutely have no issues taking Rambo in the second. The guy is a turnover machine. Every year we see players rise and fall, others going much sooner or much later than their supposed draft grades and projections. Would love to see Rambo as a Panther and would have no issues with him going in the second if the team pegs him there as well.

how do you like shawn williams?

[IamSoClutch]

only thing i like is the idea of trading down. even though its hard to predict

[mr beauxjangles]

how do you like shawn williams?

I like him and think he's got a good career ahead of him, but I'm not sure that he's an NFL starter. He's often mentioned as being a good tackler with good instincts but those things didn't stand out to me this year as much as they did in the past. But the guy is seemingly always involved in the play. He's a respected leader - although his "too soft" moment this year led to some questions - and if I recall correctly, was a pretty good special teamer his freshman and sophomore year.

In short, I like Rambo better although I believe Williams has the higher stock at the moment. I was a huge Boykin fan last year and badly wanted to Panthers to take him. My friend that's an Eagles fan is really happy with that pick right now.