Does Quinton Coples Represent Occam's Razor for the Carolina Panthers?

I hated Peppers because he was a OVER paid quiet dick who got his stats against bad teams and disappeared for weeks at a time which is unacceptable for somebody making that much money and having that much talent. But i do agree marking him Peppers 2.0 before he plays a snap in the NFL is a bit premature. Time will tell. If we do go with him in the 1st id still like to take a DT in the 2nd. Poe or Thompson would be a upgrade over Fua and McClain and allow them to be the rotation guys they need to be

The further down the draft you get, the less likely people are going to be there you would like to draft. IMO if for some reason Coples drops to us then you have to take him. This guy is a freak of an athlete. The new Rookie pay scale allows us to take more chances for those who believe he “takes plays off” and “disappears”. How do you “disappear” in games and are still the highest ranked Defensive End in the draft? Doesn’t add up to me.

Neither Crick or Coples will probably be elite pass rushers in the NFL, both being more natural 3-4 DE’s.

I disagree. Coples can be an elite pass rusher if he applies himself.

That I would rather have Crick, Mercilus, or Branch, but I don’t think any will make it out of the twenties. That means we would have to make a trade, which I think is easier said than done or take one of these talented defensive lineman at #9. If we can make the trade we can have our cake and eat it too. If not we might get that store bought cake that looks great and tastes like plastic.

We forget that he was often the one that took the double team, or the chipblock, that opened up others. He blocked a number of feild goals, he made some big plays in big games, and I still remember him chaseing down running backs from behind and across the field. He may not have looked it but I do not think he sat on his hands.
There was an easy about him on the feild that made him look effortless.I would have to compare it to Cam running style. Most do not see the speed because of his length, but he had has it and he plays with heart.

As for Couples I am takeing the same wait and see appoarch. He has the measurables and we have to wait till next seasonto see if he has the heart.

the damn man! People hating on him slays me.

I don’t believe in Padded Stats in the NFL, these guys are all professionals. Padding Stats could be said for every QB in the NFL, every RB, basically every position. It’s a stupid way of looking at players.

Peppers was the best Defensive player we have ever had, and if Coples is the same player then we are getting a hell of a deal at the 8th or 9th pick. IMO

he was up against melvin ingram and fletcher cox, and loafed through the drills and was all smiling and laughing, and still only lost to ingram by a second. it just confirmed everything i know about coples. he doesn’t really care to get in a hurry, yet always seems to get where he’s going.

What if Coples, Claiborne, and Blackmon are still there at #8? What do you do?

This time I’ll make it clear that I’m not trying to correct someone.

I just find it really funny how language evolves. Moot originally meant that something could be argued, and would be argued in a “moot” or a meet.

Eventually, in England law students argued hypothetical cases in “moot court” because the cases were all hypothetical, a moot point came into the culture as something that didn’t really matter because it wasn’t real.

A “moot point” is now being referred to in increasing frequency as a “mute point”.

I’m a nerd. I love the history of linguistical change.

they seem a lot alike. the unc connect just cements it. with q, i think he might be more coveted if he played somewhere else, especially since the d quit on withers last year and was torn up the year before… think what he could’ve done lining up with marvin austin. that would’ve been sick. with him, the sample size hurts him in our eyes, i’m sure. if we just saw highlights it would be on and popping with him.

more excited about him. Folks seem to either like the Heels, or hate the Heels…not too many “meh” responses out there for them or their players.

For example, Zach Brown is a badass, hustles his heart out, incredibly talented linebacker. But bring him up and the pervasive opinion around here seems to be shrug

where he went to school. He is the highest rated DE in the draft. Kiper has him as the 2nd best Defensive player. Are we not after upgrading our defense? I think because he went to UNC is the reason a lot of people are knocking on him. Regardless of where he went to school, he is a similar pick to Cam last year. People on both side of the fences. I was wrong about Cam, I wanted Peterson. But I will gladly eat crow. I think we go with potential again. That is if for some reason he gets past Jacksonville.

He gets compared to Peppers because he goes to UNC, thus people hate him more because of our history with Peppers. If he went to Texas A&M instead, the communtiy as a whole would be a lot more open to him because of his upside.

I think one problem we all (well, most of us anyway) have here is that, because he does play at UNC, we have seen him play on almost every weekend for the last four years due to local television contracts with the ACC. Growing up here in the Tarheel State, I know it was forced down my neck all the time! So I believe we have a lot more vested interest with Coples because he went to UNC. If he were from, say Texas A&M like your example, I don’t think we would know as much about him as we already do. That is why there is such a division when people wonder whether to draft him or not.

In my mind (and the minds of a lot of others), Coples is the best Defensive Lineman, and the best pass rusher in this draft. And that is an area that needs to be addressed.

But if he went to Ohio State, I wouldn't like him as much.

The Tarheels used a very basic base defense. They did not blitz often and when they did it was mostly with Zach Brown (LB) and/or some form of zone blitz. It seemed predicated on generating pressure with the front 4, dropping the rest into zone coverage and waiting for the other team to make a mistake.

They did move Coples around on the line both sides at defensive end and had him play 3 technique DT quite a bit (where he tends to excel). To my untrained eye the offensive line would typically slide their protection to his side or at least use a chip block or help of some sort. It was uncommon for him to get one on one matchups unless it was a three step drop or they were cutting him. Most of his pressures came from beating his man or the double team and where coverage held up for what would be a reasonable amount of time. In other words, don’t expect him to destroy a double team in under 2 seconds and pummel the QB. But if your coverage holds up for 3-4 seconds and it is a double team there is a good chance he will pressure the QB with a bull rush and his length to get in the passing lanes. On a single matchup he was infuriatingly inconsistent. Sometimes he would comically toss aside all-american candidates like they weren’t there, other time some third strong scrub would stonewall him. At the same time when VaTech triple-teamed him on plays he’d hulk out and destroy the backfield. Made no sense at all.

I think their stock to a hit partly because of a lack of production and partly because of poor coaching. Every player on the UNC D-line struggled with pad level. They don’t use good technique and play too high. When one is 6’6" it’s hard to get good pad level, but Coples needs to get much better at that.

I don’t mind taking Blackmon if he falls to 8/9, but dear God please don’t trade up for him. We can’t afford to give away picks.

multiple hypothetical situations then the premise with the fewest assumptions is usually right. Seems to me that the amount of assumptions it would take for DK and Brockers to fall without being drafted before we could pick them both is kind of the exact opposite of the principle, isn’t it?

Questioned Cam’s intangibles and football IQ. If I recall correctly, those were two of his biggest question marks leading up to the draft.

What?

6’6 280lbs, 4.7 Speed. It doesn’t get much better than that.

People are still bitter about Peppers, and they’re taking it out on Coples because there are a lot of similarities between the two.