Before I answer that question I'm first going to address the reason for this post, the three part series by Bill Voth summarizing his recent interview with G-man at the Senior Bowl. Voth didn't get the Panthers GM to reveal anything new on the hottest topics, something he admits up front in part 1, and for that I thank him for saying so. The series instead stuck to philosophy and in that Voth got Gettleman to describe his philosophy on a couple interesting, pointed topics.
I'm going to go straight to my favorite part, from the second post regarding how he targets free agents:
Using Gettlemanisms to Learn From 2014's Receiver Makeover
Here’s another Gettlemanism: "Say you have an unrestricted free agent. I’m really interested in this UFA. He can help us. I don’t turn around and say, ‘We’re going to pay this UFA X amount of dollars.’ I’m going to ask, ‘Where does the UFA fit at his position?’ "If that UFA is a second-tier player, I’m going to pay that UFA second-tier money. I’m going to pay market value. I’m not going to pay top-tier money if the UFA doesn’t warrant it. That fails the litmus test, doesn’t it? It’s about value."
So it's not about where the FA is coming from, what they did last season or prior in their career or what the market is saying the player is worth, it's about where the FA fits in our depth chart, where that players talent grades out. Based on what he's done to date I would say he lives that philosophy, whether you like it or not.
Yet Voth does a good job of boiling it down:
Would LaFell have been a better option than Jerricho Cotchery this past season? Probably. Would Ginn have been helpful as a returner? Yup. Would Nicks have been more productive than Jason Avant? Sure. But were the three worth a combined $9.75 million? That doesn’t seem like a good value.
So how much better do you think the Panthers would have been with LaFell, Nicks and Ginn versus Cotchery, Avant and Philly Brown/Brentson Bersin? Even if you say emphatically 'A Butt Ton!' to all three swaps $10M does seem like a lot when the cap is $120M...to me anyway. If only because I don't see any of those three changing the outcomes of many of our games this past season. Maybe the first Seattle game or the Bengals game. Finishing 8-7-1 or even 9-7 doesn't change a thing for the Panthers final season results. So Gettleman truly saved around $7M or so by not overpaying his free agent vets.
So that segues into the next point about free agency in 2015. G-man mentioned this recently but he adds a probability factor to it:
Trying to Understand the Panthers' Offseason Plans - BBR
2. Free agency will be about value.If there was a buzzword for our chat, ‘value’ was it. Gettleman always wants a good value, but it will be important to remember that when names like Randall Cobb and Darrelle Revis hit the open market in March. The Panthers may be stepping up from ‘the dollar store’ to, say, Target, but they want to fill multiple trouble spots instead of spending big money on a guy who would possibly cover up just one problem.
Gettleman: "In the ideal world, your unrestricted free agency period sets you up for your draft so you can take the best player. That’s the goal. If you accomplish that, you’re in a great position."
'In the ideal world' suggest to me it's a Nirvana Gettleman is not counting on to happen, to fill all of his roster holes in free agency. I think he's been lucky in his first two Panther drafts in that BPA intersected a primary need in the first round. Picking Star Lotulelei was an easy picks two drafts ago and Benjamin looks like a much better pick after his 1,000 yard highlight reel rookie season.
In the 3rd piece of the series I want to highlight a couple late season revelations G-man apparently likes as starters going forward:
Dave Gettleman's Philosophies, Part 3: On the Offense - BBR
"Who doesn’t want to win 45-7?" Gettleman answered. "We’re getting there, and I like where we’re going. You’ve got a right tackle, a right guard, a left guard, two wide receivers that are puppies, and Cam is still growing as well."Let’s break that down: Gettleman likes his right tackle (Mike Remmers), his two guards (Trai Turner, Andrew Norwell), two receiver "puppies" (Kelvin Benjamin, Philly Brown) and Cam Newton. You can also assume he’s good with Stewart, fullback Mike Tolbert, tight end Greg Olsen, and center Ryan Kalil. That leaves the obvious holes at left tackle and receiver.
The guards and rookie draft picks we knew he liked but he also confirmed he likes Remmers and Philly Brown. Brown was brought into camp as a UDFA expected to compete as a kick returner. He instead became too valuable as WR depth to take kicks. He certainly showed me enough he can be a legit deep threat, something the Panthers lacked last season when Brown was injured.
I think Voth took a good tact with Gettleman and got into things rarely discussed in today's bite sized media stream. I think it will help me better set my expectations for what the Panthers might do this offseason.
Back to the question I posed at the beginning of the post. Did defense win SB49? It certainly depends on how you look at it. The game was billed as the Seattle Defense vs the Patriot Offense yet it was the Patriot defense that made the deciding play. So in my book Gettleman's mantra remained true, it was defense that won that game.