If you're the new GM...

forgive my loose use of football terms, clearly i dont have a full grasp of their meanings and usages. Smith may not be getting 'doubled', but the oppositions' coverage schemes still key on him. Example: the reason Armanti was wide open against the Skins was because the coverage was drawn towards Smitty underneath. Whether its rolling the coverage his way or whatever, they are primarily concerned with Smitty and no one else - Smitty is still the only guy that scares defenses. And back when he was in his physical prime, there was Moose and Keyshawn on the other side. We have no one who scares the opposition other than Smitty. Olsen could, but hasnt gotten there yet and there's nothing to suggest he will take that next step.

 

because that's what coaches are for. LaFell is solid, not saying he isnt, but his ceiling is as a #2 WR IMO. I want a deep threat to take the top off the defense.

 

Oh god...

 

Which even proves the point that much more that you can't build from just the draft or even majority from the draft. You must look at all avenues to build your team, and if you ignore part of that more than a year, you are setting yourself up for failure. You just have to make sure you do a good job at both.

 

If you believe that these kind of changes are endemic, then you have a whole set of other questions. There is simply no way of knowing what a new staff might believe in. Perhaps it will be a coach who wants a 3-4 defense, rendering a lot of the Panthers' personnel obsolete. Maybe the offensive scheme will be a West Coast-- there's simply no way to know.

 

agree. Which, the team had done well at times over the last few years at roleplayers, and that's the type of thing that they're going to need for a year or two.

are you okay? This is dead on. Worrying about anyone in the slot or a 2nd TE or an edge rusher (BTW, sensitive subject I know, but I do absolutely love Collin's ideal of a midrounds edge rusher, a guy like the Upshaw type player I pined for but who knows if the trend toward overvalue will continue there)
for the 3-4, or anything else, is premature to a point. Even things like what type of WLB (or if Anderson became that player for a more rush-forward SLB, which would've benefitted this particular defense well) is an assumption on what's current when odds are it won't be current in the future pot.

 

I took my Cymbalta.....

 

sure. FWIW, I'm not against this team going without Godfrey OR Edwards (without Edwards of course, you would want to amend your own DT analysis). Neither are critical. But my worry is, if you're 10 mil over, and you had to cut one starter to be able to afford to cut another starter, you're not any less under the cap and now you've gotta replace two starters without any real resources and you haven't done anything else that really helps.

I'm not against dropping $7 mil of salary at DT to start competely over there, despite solid play, but it won't be inexpensive to supplant that with anything competitive longterm without a very high draft pick. Agree that it shouldn't be forced (and I didn't really ever advocate any of the DTs in 2012 despite worries it was a bigger problem, compared to the ends I touted), but it also may be tough to come up with good interior play without at least one veteran of some worth.

 

For 2013, sure, but I'm not worried about 2013. I want to throw 2013 completely in the trash before it even starts, all for being able to legitimately get things going in 2014 and beyond. The Panthers' salary cap is the worst mess in the league by far. I imagine that the front office will be more inclined toward your gradual approach where it hangs around the team like an anchor for a few years, slowly working to free the roster of one bad contract after another. I'd rather just rip the band-aid off, get all the bad contracts out at once, and deal with one amazingly bad season to have 2014 be unfettered. Of course, there's nothing guaranteeing that the new regime would do smart things with cap space in 2014 and beyond, but I have to hope. Getting rid of 1-2 bad contracts before 2013, 1-2 before 2014, and 1-2 before 2015 just means playing with a handicap for even longer.

 

good points. Im assuming we keep the same basic schemes offensively (Croyel) and defensively ('attacking' 4-3). I like the offense, just not its practical application in our case, and the defense - moreso because of how much work it would take to switch to the 3-4. Rivera reviewed the roster and thought 4-3 was the way to go two years ago and i dont see how anything has changed in that department. This is not a team that needs to completely rebuild IMO, just one that needs some fine tuning. The financial limitations are really the only thing making this retuning difficult...