Panthers Top 5 Remaining Unresolved Issues

if Coples somehow falls to us in the draft he is a multi-positional pass rusher (can never have too many of those guys) and plays the run well (also at multiple positions), if not maybe Ingram or Stills. I know we have a lot of concerns on our back 7 but we’ve seen before that it is possible to help a secondary with a great pass rush. Down the line we continue to build our secondary and improve. I just believe great defenses are founded on D-line play and pass rushing. With the offenses we face in this division we’ll never have enough corners on the field to stop the Saints for example…we gotta hit the QB and disrupt the backfield.

I’m not against some of the fine secondary players in this draft, I just think stocking up on pass rushers is the best option if you can’t land an elite DB this high up the draft.

as awesome as that would be…cost of cutting Mare will be steep. IF it somehow happened i think we replace him with the rookie we brought back later in the year or a kicker we bring in training camp.

Nope. He’ll be 31 May 19th.

can get the job done, period. I think it would be much smarter to focus our efforts on the part of our team that is broke….the Defense.

they seem really, reallllly high on Barnidge though, and my guess is that it would be cheap to keep Brockel or Hartsock in the need for a blocking TE (or someone who can line up as one at least) in case Shocks is too expensive, but Barnidge isn’t too good at blocking. I’d love to see him stick around one more year though, even if only for the attitude and fire he brings to the team…it had been too long since we had that

‘cept he put one in the ____ and three in the ____. That’s just how he rolls.

Byron Bell is still learning, but we definitely are solid with GW (1 of the big reasons I believe this is because the panthers signed him to a 2 year extension prior to the end of the season). The staff knows better than your or I what they have with their players and I trust their decisions.

What if say we draft Reiff and Otah comes back healthy and BLOWS people away in camp/pre-season?

Do you bench the rookie? Do you move Otah inside?

i don’t think you can say limit WR to the first two rounds…Gettis was a 6th round pick. Colston a FA for the Saints was the last pick in the draft. Im not saying it is common but you can find damn good talent deep in drafts. Hell i trust Hurney more in rounds 6th and 7th then i do in the 2nd

Seattle maybe

They changed that rule under the new CBA. The Packers either have to a) franchise him and keep him, or b) let him walk as a free agent.

We don’t have a NT. Fua is tiny, and gets destroyed if he is double teamed. I’ve watched some early season games over again, watching the DT play, and he literally gets pushed five yards off the ball at times. If Ron Edwards comes back, he could play the position, but he would be better suited as a NT in a 4-3.

We don’t have two 3-4 DEs…CJ and Hardy would be undersized, and it would lesser their roles as pass rushers. Neblett and McClain aren’t tall enough, but are the closest things we have to 5 techniques. You need these guys to be 6 foot 4 and 300+. We just don’t have the horses.

We don’t have two OLBs who are big enough. Anderson, Gaither, Davis, T. Williams, and Senn are all 4-3 guys. CJ and Hardy are not accustom to dropping into coverage, and probably would be liabilities if they did, so they wouldn’t work either. Applewhite, Norwood and Keiser would be okay, but are they good enough at this stage to be your primary pass rushers?

We don’t have two 3-4 MLBs, either. Beason is at his best when he can run from sideline to sideline—which he could do if we found him some serviceable DTs. He is not going to excel when he has to smash into guards all day long. One of the 3-4 MLBs is the Mike, the other is usually the Jack. The Mike needs to be at least 250lbs. He will take on interior offensive lineman on most snaps, so it’s imperative that he has good size. In some schemes, he is essentially a third DT. The Jack is more often in coverage, so maybe Beason could do that, but he would still have to take on lineman now and again. If we draft Burfict, or someone like that, then maybe it’s a sign that Rivera wants more formation flexibility.

But as I see it, we will continue to run a base 4-3, because 75%+ of our personnel are exclusively 4-3 guys. Occasionally we would lineup in a 3-4 last season, but it was used as a gimmick. When we were having trouble getting pressure, we would go to it once or twice in a effort to get a free rusher by confusing the OL. It never really worked, though.