"It is sometimes better to be lucky than good": Some Panthers draft grades

[panthers55]

and why did we struggle to sustain drives? Weak OL and too often no one to throw to.

and let's leave the RB corp out of the conversation for now. Who are our TD scorers? <insert deal with it gif>...but Smith is more of a yardage guy inbetween the 20s now. We are still a deep vertical pass O with a spotty OL play and no vertical WR.

Smitty said it months ago. He, LaFell and Olsen were open many times but Cam was running for his life. The O line was the problem last year, plain and simple. We have very good playmakers but a vertical offense requires time for patterns to develop. Plus you have to look for Smitty early and late as he runs into a seam or outmaneuvers the early double team. We have vertical receivers in Smith, Gettis, and Ginn (who can be more than just a returner with coaching). We have slot guys in Adams, Pilares and either running back. Our Oline was hurt due to injuries and guy moving out of position each week. Much of that will be solved simply by Kalil coming back and developing consistency with the guys we have playing each week in their regular positions. The defense was the problem and it is getting fixed.

[top dawg]

There is no way Allen was worth a 2nd as evidenced by him dropping into the third round. There were some guys who might be worth taking but it wasn't Allen. But lets not beat that up again, every team passed on him in the second. The bigger issue would be taking a corner or safety in the second when there was lots of talent to be had. Still Gettleman has evaluated our talent at corner, safety and wide receiver and likes what he sees or thinks he can get playmakers in free agency still. What he couldn't get in free agency was arguably the best nose tackle in the draft and on his boards the best pass rushing 3 technique DT in the draft. I really can't blame him at all. D Edwards is here for 2 years tops and we have no real run stopper in the middle. He hopefully addressed the middle of the defense for the next decade. I can see people being mad because we didn't address skill positions later in the draft although we clearly went BPA, but the first 2 picks were really very good in my book.

Time will tell if Allen was worth that pick. Before Allen got hurt, there was a right smart amount of him being the first-rated WR in this draft. His stock slid once he got hurt, and slid even further with the slow 40 time which was rationalized as a result of his injury. In my eyes the slide was precipitated by his injury---nothing more, really. So to say with surety that him dropping to the third round is evidence that he wasn't worth a 2nd round pick may be bit of a stretch. But, like you said, I am not beating that up again. I really wasn't an Allen guy, but it wouldn't surprise me if he ultimately ends up having a better career than everyone on our roster except you know who. That's more of an indictment of our guys than tacit approval for him, by the way.

[CRA]

Smitty said it months ago. He, LaFell and Olsen were open many times but Cam was running for his life. The O line was the problem last year, plain and simple. We have very good playmakers but a vertical offense requires time for patterns to develop. Plus you have to look for Smitty early and late as he runs into a seam or outmaneuvers the early double team. We have vertical receivers in Smith, Gettis, and Ginn (who can be more than just a returner with coaching). We have slot guys in Adams, Pilares and either running back. Our Oline was hurt due to injuries and guy moving out of position each week. Much of that will be solved simply by Kalil coming back and developing consistency with the guys we have playing each week in their regular positions. The defense was the problem and it is getting fixed.

I said OL.

Who is our vertical threat? A gimmick Ted Ginn?

[panthers55]

I said OL.

Who is our vertical threat? A gimmick Ted Ginn?

And I said O line will be fine. I still like Gettis until he shows he can't recover. Ginn is still very fast and may be good in the slot or stretching the field. Lets see what they do this year before writing them off. Even Olsen runs a 4.56 40 time. He is a mismatch for most people.

[chef17]

We averaged approx 23 points over the course of the past two seasons. (one of which was with a Rookie QB/HC)

I know that hurts your cherry picked argument, so we can ignore that if you wish.

Last season the top 5 scoring teams.

Pats: 34

Broncos: 30

Saints: 28

Skins: 27

Packers 27

Consider, those teams consist of 4 HOF QB's (Brees, Rodgers, Manning, Brady) all of which are 5+ year veterans in the league. RG3's numbers are great, especially when you consider his WR corps aren't exceptionally better than ours. The Skins, however, run a much more efficient scheme than we did last season. They used lots of "easy" throws and let Alfred Morris (who should have gotten more cred as OROY) carry the load.

This offense can blossom with what is here, with better scheme and execution.

Which is one of the reasons I was banging the drum to bring in a Chip Kelly if Rivera was let go.

Also your examples include the Seahawk's and Bronco's. Two of the better teams in the league defensively.

More TD's are always welcome. ONE way to do that, is to punish the other teams offense. On paper our D-Line is getting really really close to "Punishing" and before you get into the "Herp Derp our secondary suxxx" debate, welp QB's hate getting sacked so much they start throwing like garbage.

The Giants won a pair of Superbowls with poo Secondaries riding on the heels of an Amazing Dline and solid LB corps.

And none of that is relevant. You asked if scoring points has been an issue. Season average doesn't change the fact that the team lost multiple games because the offense couldn't score 20 points. (which you know answered the question you asked about scoring points being a problem)

Pats- 1 game less than 20 points

Denver- same

Saints- 2

Skins- 4

Packers- 2

Those team are consistent with their scoring. Huge difference between scoring 25 every wek and putting up 35 one week and 7 the next. Yeah the average is still +20 but those 35 in one week don't help you win the next.

[CRA]

And I said O line will be fine. I still like Gettis until he shows he can't recover. Ginn is still very fast and may be good in the slot or stretching the field. Lets see what they do this year before writing them off. Even Olsen runs a 4.56 40 time. He is a mismatch for most people.

You think Piggy and Bell will be fine? You don't think Pihgu continues trending downward

[panthers55]

You think Piggy and Bell will be fine? You don't think Pihgu continues trending downward

First of all Bell suffered when Kalil went down and we moved Hangartner to center and had a turnstile of folks come in at right guard. One game we even moved him there and tried Williams at tackle. To have a consistent line you need chemistry to develop which doesn't happen if you have major injuries and are shuffling people every week. Amini will be better this year and Kalil will instantly help whoever we use at RG which will help Bell quite a bit at RT. They all work together. That assumes no one breaks into the starting rotation which could happen also. I also read somewhere that Chud would use the read option and make pass blocking look completely different from run blocking which telegraphed what we did and made defending us way too easy. Hopefully we figure that if it happened just like I had heard that Henning always hiked the ball on the first signal to avoid confusion. How stupid is that??

[CRA]

First of all Bell suffered when Kalil went down and we moved Hangartner to center and had a turnstile of folks come in at right guard. One game we even moved him there and tried Williams at tackle. To have a consistent line you need chemistry to develop which doesn't happen if you have major injuries and are shuffling people every week. Amini will be better this year and Kalil will instantly help whoever we use at RG which will help Bell quite a bit at RT. They all work together. That assumes no one breaks into the starting rotation which could happen also. I also read somewhere that Chud would use the read option and make pass blocking look completely different from run blocking which telegraphed what we did and made defending us way too easy. Hopefully we figure that if it happened just like I had heard that Henning always hiked the ball on the first signal to avoid confusion. How stupid is that??

So who is the RG? Piggy or the rookie will be an issue, correct?

Piggy was a train wreck prior to the Kalil injury. starting the rookie will be a worse version of the problems Amini created bc he won't be sandwiched between 2 pro bowlers

[panthers55]

So who is the RG? Piggy or the rookie will be an issue, correct?

Piggy was a train wreck prior to the Kalil injury. starting the rookie will be a worse version of the problems Amini created bc he won't be sandwiched between 2 pro bowlers

Think we won't add anyone else given it almost May and the regular season starts in 4 months. Or are you just starting the bitching early this year??

[CRA]

Think we won't add anyone else given it almost May and the regular season starts in 4 months. Or are you just starting the bitching early this year??

Right now this is what we have...

Am not certain we add a starting RG...we have plenty of other spots our limited resources could use to add talent

[PantherAZ]

How much longer can Smith carry this corp? You take him out and we have what is undeniably the worst corp of offensive weapons in the league.

He can't much longer, but after Star fell (which was a bigger need than an "offensive weapon") there wasn't much point in taking a receiver. We weren't going to find a potential #1 outside of the first round this year (unless its someone that no one saw coming). I was hoping that Patterson would drop to us in the second. We don't need more career #2 or #3 receivers. We need our future #1. How do the receivers coming out next year look? We are going to have to find him soon.