Chris? Does 2 weeks. 2 weeks. And the Panthers’ future will be forever changed in 2 weeks. Who shall we get In a world Let’s get this sucker started. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews locker room insight. Let’s huddle up for Panthers Playbook. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee. Dennis Cox here with you. Chris, we are 2 weeks away from the draft, and folks, again, leave your thoughts in the comments about potential draft scenarios for the Carolina Panthers coming up because Chris. Two weeks away, we’ve seen people in the comment section. You and I have mentioned it as well. People say, hey, best thing to do in this draft, trade back, trade, back, trade, back, trade back. It’s always a two-way street. Someone has to be willing to move up to take somebody and obviously in order for you to trade back. But Chris, you also don’t want to trade back just for the sake of trading back. You don’t want to move back from number 8 to 18 to where Seattle’s picking and only pick up like a, a 5th round pick in the process. That’s not worth it. Even just a 3rd round pick in the process is not worth it because you’re moving that much further down the draft. So, There is a rumor floating around. That A team that wants a quarterback is gonna have to get ahead. Of the New Orleans Saints at #9. And who picks before the New Orleans Saints at #8, Chris? Who, who, who, who, who? The Carolina Panthers, the Carolina Panthers. This is why I think The first, like, really the 1st 3 picks of the draft is gonna dictate so much because if Shador Sanders goes in one of the first, you know, let’s say the 2nd or 3rd pick, either to Cleveland or to the New York Giants, it changes everything. It changes everything. And this is where Dan Morgan and everyone has to be ready to react. The consensus feels like #1 is gonna be Cam Ward, but if it’s Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter going 2-3 somewhere, you know, one’s 2, the other’s 3. Everything changes as Shadoor Sanders slides down to the draft, and this is where Carolina Kris can be poised to really make a big deal. Going back to how you started off everything, you just don’t trade back just to trade back, um, you know, you’re saying that you’re insinuating that, um, there’s so much to just kind of consider, and you just never know. We don’t know who the Panthers have on their big board, who they’re considering, right? They also might be in a situation where there’s a guy that they’re looking at that we may not know that they’re looking at. That happens to fall to them that they feel like number 8 is a is a great value for that person, it may not be worth us trading back because this guy won’t be there if we trade back to another number. Um. And what if, you know, I doubt it’s gonna happen. What if Abdul Carter falls? Then, then you are stumbling, falling over yourself. You are running up to the microphone, taking it from, from the commissioner going, we are taking Abdul Carter right now, please and thank you very much. But thank you, Roger Goodell. You can step aside. We’re announcing our own pick, you know, and, and that’s, that’s the whole thing. So you really have to figure out what’s happening the day of the draft, which is, you know, why I feel like right now the best teams, all teams, even if they’re not the best teams, are going through their scenarios right now, um, you know, and and they’re they’re not. Done with their scenarios, but they’re already kind of putting in place what some of those scenarios would be. Uh, teams are still having, uh, their 30 visits. Carolina Panthers are still doing their, so they’re still figuring out who they like and all that. I would, I would guess that they already have their rounds 1 through 3 plan for the most part fleshed out right now, uh, but you just don’t, uh, you know, go back just to go back. And um, you know, there’s something I wanna shout out um at Panthers analyst Edgar uh Salmingo Junior. He’s a good follow if you follow him on Twitter, um, X, whatever. Um, he was talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Who have painted themselves in a corner. They lost both of their starting quarterbacks from last season to the state of New York, right? Um, they don’t know what’s gonna happen with Aaron Rodgers. And do you really want to take a chance on the guys that you already have on your roster? Dennis, do you want to take a chance with those guys on the ride? No, no, no, no, no, I really don’t. Like yeah, Mason Rudolph, no, that’s, that’s not the answer. So, uh, the Steelers, uh, who pick number 21, could possibly, especially if Shado Sanders falls, doesn’t go in the top, uh, you know, 3, they could possibly be in position to trade up now. That’s a possible, right? I kind of feel like the Steelers, who are an organization that is You could argue to say they’re one of the best, if not the best, as far as how they run their day to day operations. They may not, they may have other plans in mind. They may feel like there’s probably somebody else we can find with our 21 pick. We don’t have to give up a bunch. So we really can’t even, we can’t count on that, right? Like the Steel characteristic. The Steelers, uh, aren’t typically in that position. And I don’t see them just going out and just jumping out the window and doing something like that. But this one, using a trade chart, uh, this is what uh Mr. Salmingo has. If the, the Steelers were to trade up, Carolina would get their 21st pick, 21st overall pick. A third round pick, number 83, 5th round pick 156, and a 6th round pick number 185 for this year and a future 1st and 3rd. Right? The Pittsburgh Steelers would get the the #8 pick and a future 7th round pick. I’m sorry, if they come to us with that package and like we feel like we can wait a little bit. I’m taking that all day, but you can’t count on that because you’re essentially getting uh 3 extra picks for this year, which will push your total up to 12 and then 2 future uh picks, the first and the third. That’s amazing, but I wouldn’t count on that, and I don’t know if the Steelers would ever make that type, as you said, that will be a very uncharacteristic move for the Steelers, but that kind of deal is worth it. That kind of deal in my mind is worth it 100% because you gotta think that it’s a 1st, a 3rd, a 5th, a 6th this year. So it’s 4 picks you’re getting back. And then again a future 1st and a future 3. Now I anticipate that future 1st and future 3rd being in the bottom half of the round just because Pittsburgh always finishes at 500 or better. That’s just what they do. So you have to anticipate that, OK, well, the pick might be 21 again in the future. That’s OK because it’s a future first. You can still use that. To make other moves that you could potentially do, and moving down to 21 might be a good spot because Now you’ve got the extra 3rd. You already have 3 50s, so now you have a 4th 5th, and then you have an extra 6 to go on top of it. 1234. You can make that happen, but you can use those to potentially move up in other rounds like move up further in the 7th, move up further in the 3rd, move up back up further in the 1st round pick if the guy that you like, maybe he is sitting there at 18 or whatever it might be. That’s the kind of deal 100% worth it. Now, if it was just, hey, move down to 21 and you just get a 3rd and like a future 2 next year, that’s not worth it in my eyes, because again, the quality of player, it’s 8 to 21. There’s a significant drop off between 8 and 21 in the draft. But I’m with, I’m like, but that scenario, that is 100% worth it. And you know, if you, if you get there, then, then do it. I just don’t know if the Steelers, as you said, would put themselves in that situation because this is an organization that really, really prides themselves on drafting and developing. I mean, you talked about people dropping off between certain numbers. This is the same team that got Antonio Brown in the 6th round and he turned into what he turned into. And it’s not just because of who Antonio Brown is, it’s also because of the development of the Steelers, right? Like they just have that knack and that ability. The Panthers haven’t shown that yet. Nope. Maybe they can turn into that, um, but the Steelers with that in the back of their head, plus others. I mean, that’s, that’s not the only one, but that’s the first one that really comes to mind. The Steelers with that in mind, could look at us like we’re just at 21. I’m sure there’s somebody else we could find. Jalen Hurts was drafted in the 2nd round. There could be somebody, there could be somebody, maybe Miro. You know, that we could possibly pick up uh at 21, so we’re fine, we don’t have to reach out and do something crazy for it, but if it’s there for the Carolina Panthers, do it, but it’s not something that you count on. Um, you don’t, you don’t count. I’m sure your parents have told you this, like, you don’t count your money before you get it, you know, you might get yours before they hatch. You might get that call and say. Hey Dennis, I want you to come and do 5, you know, lacrosse play by play, you know, games for us and, and in your head you’re like, 00, OK, all right. With this, I could get this, this and that, and then all of a sudden you get the call and it’s like, actually, uh, take two of those out, and you’ve already committed a certain amount of money towards something that you’re not gonna get and you can’t do that, right? And the Panthers can’t do that with uh these hypothetical situations. So just make sure that you have your plan on if it is, what are you willing to give up the 8th pick for, um, if it’s not there. Then go forward with your with your different plans and then live life and go with it from there. From a first round pick standpoint. You can’t just look at it as, oh, you’re getting number 21. You have to look at it as, what player am I going to get? That’s where you have to really understand your board. OK, if I go to 21. What player am I getting? Like if, if everything that we like is gonna be available there or you anticipate it’s gonna be available there, then that’s what makes it worth it. But you might say, well, we have a tier of guys that we feel like after 18 really drops off to 30. Therefore, it’s not a good value for us potentially. You get those are all scenarios they have to play in your head and weighing all the potential, you know, future picks and stuff that you might get. It’s a fascinating what if, but, you know, Chris, when you think about the top of the draft. Like, what is best case scenario for Carolina? Because let’s say for example, the 1st 4 picks, again, let’s live in reality here, OK? Oh, the best situation is the 1st 7 teams all take quarterbacks and then you could take Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter. Again, let’s live in reality. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. So, let’s just say the 1st 4 picks. Let’s say #1, Cam Ward. Let’s say #2, Cleveland decides to go with Abdul Carter. Let’s say 3 of the Giants take a quarterback. Let’s say they go Shador Sanders, let’s say Travis Hunter goes #4 to New England. Again, but that, that type of scenario plays out. Then things kind of get a little tricky, because who knows what Jacksonville’s gonna do. Jacksonville might go with Jaylen Walker. They might go with Mason Graham. They could go an offensive lineman. It’s Jacksonville, you never know. Everyone is anticipating it feels like at #6 that the Vegas Raiders are going to take Ashton Denty, the running back, which I’m OK with that happening. Let’s say at #7, the Jets who need to rebuild their offensive line, also draft an offensive lineman. That could be one of the best case scenarios for Carolina because Now you’re looking at, oh, we can even potentially take either Mason Graham or Jalen Walker. We have the pick of the top pass catcher, whomever we want that might possibly be, whether it’s Tyler Warren, whether it’s Ted McMillan. We could potentially take the top corner if you wanted to in the draft, because neither of those guys were taken. That could be a best case scenario, or a team gets desperate and go, oh crap, we gotta get Jackson Dart. We know New Orleans wants it at 9. Again, those kinds of things can help push some really good players down the board and depending on where things move, that could be a best case scenario. I think, Chris, if again, Shadoor goes in the top 3 or 4, that I think will push some guys down and a team just might get desperate for Jackson Dart and make the move up there at 8. For me, um, my best case scenario is just if, if Jaylen Walker happens to be there. The, the things we keep hearing about what type of a leader this guy is, um, and we already know what he can do on the field. Um, he essentially is somebody who can potentially go in there and literally change the temperature of the Carolina Panthers just by Uh, his, his mere presence, right? We used to have those guys. His name was Cam Newton. His name was Luke Keechley, right? Luke was quiet, but Luke changed the temperature when he walked in the room because people saw one, how hard he was willing to work, and two, how he backed it up on the field and just how everybody got better when Luke Kuechly was on the field, right? And if you’re talking about Jaylen Walker potentially being that guy, listen, I like um Uh, JC Horn, I like Derek Brown, I like those guys, but we know this because we’ve been in a locker room. They’re more quiet leaders, they’re more like, you know, lead by example type of guys, right? If you’re gonna have that guy that’s gonna be the one to like, who’s gonna really rally the troops and it’s gonna be the one that everybody’s really gonna just kind of stick around, and you know that that guy has a great chance of falling to you at number 8. I’m sorry. Unless, unless that scenario that we just read before, unless that scenario comes to you or you’re getting that many picks in return, I’m not moving off of 8, because Jaylen Walker helps me do 3 things, right? One, we need some more pass rushing, and we could put him on that edge and he could, he could be there. He also can be a great tackler as well, and we can have him roaming and be a middle linebacker as well. So there’s all kinds of things you could do with that guy. Uh, and that’s, that’s the second part, he can make the defense better. And then the third part, just what I said before, having that leader in the building that we need. Now we have Bryce on one side, you have Jaylen Walker on the other side, you need those guys uh that fans in the locker room can rally around, and I’m sorry, everything I’ve been reading. Jaylen Walker is is that guy unless like. Less folks are just lying. Yeah, which, unless folks are just lying about him. Yeah, I mean, I honestly, the word coming out of the people from Georgia, like, hey, he’s, he’s the alpha dude among that team, like he is. And Dan Morgan talked about, hey, you want, you want dogs, right? Not just Georgia Bulldogs, but dogs. And it’s everything we’ve heard about fits that profile for Jaylen Walker on top of being a damn good football player. So that might be it. If you were to, hey, look. We might get offers for number 8, but that guy can change our franchise in a positive way, not just because, yes, you can find a good football player at 21, but if you have conviction that number 8, if it’s, let’s say it’s Jaylen Walker or Mason Graham, whomever it is, that guy can change our franchise, then you stick there. Then you stick there. That’s what I’m doing, yeah, because here’s the thing. Sticking at 8 ain’t a bad thing either, if, again, your guy falls. Now there are worst case scenarios though, Chris, let’s let’s think about this too. There are worst case scenarios. Let’s say Cam War goes 1. Let’s say Abdul Carter, Travis Hunter go 23. See at number 4, New England’s like, hm, OK. Let’s just take the best player available. Let’s say they have Jaylen Walker as their next best player available. He goes at 4, even though they have a whole bunch of other needs, let’s say he goes at 4. Let’s say at number 5, Mason Graham goes to the, uh, goes to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let’s say at 6. The Raiders, they decide, you know what, let’s, we’re not gonna go ahead and take Ashton Genty. Let’s take, who’s the next best available player? Let’s take Will Johnson, let’s take the corner out as well. And then let’s say at #7. Tyler Warren gets drafted. Let’s say, let’s say the Jets go tight end. Now you’re like, well, wait a second, top corner’s gone. Like the top two edge rushers are gone, one of the top pass catchers is gone, the top interior defensive lineman is gone. Two top corners, I guess you can say or pass catchers, however you want to define, you know, Travis Hunter, now you’re kind of like, mm. And the team’s not willing to trade up to 8 to take Shaddoor. That’s kind of like a worst case scenario in my mind, because now you’re kind of stuck. You’re like, oh dang it, not now do I take Tech McMillan. The only best players available are offensive linemen and then If no one’s willing to trade up to go get, you know, Will Campbell or, or somebody like that, they might just be like, oh crap, uh, now we gotta take uh. I don’t know. You can, you know, now we gotta take Michael Williams or whomever it might be. That could be a worst case scenario. I, I was gonna say if you’re in that scenario, I have a hard time seeing that exact thing happen, happening, but it could, right? Like you never know the draft, you never know what could happen, uh, but it very well could happen, um. You still go defense, so, you know, Michael Williams or, you know, who whomever that you that you happen to like. I’m with it, but like I still think in that in that case, like defense is there. Um, um, if you’re in a situation, Tyler Warren is the tight end, right? Yeah, Tyler now, if you’re if you’re in a situation where, um, Abdul Carter, Jaylen Walker, they’re both gone and Tyler Warren is is there at 8, right, that’s where you go. You know, here’s the thing as well, that’s where you go, but in the 2nd round, give me some defense. If, if no one’s ready to or willing to trade up to number 8, or they’re lowballing you offers, again, don’t trade back just for the sake of trading back. Say, hey, we got an extra 5th. That’s not worth it. But You never go broke taking a profit. You never go broke taking a profit. If the best player available on the board is Tyler Warren, and that is what you have, then you take it. You never go broke taking a profit. People are like, well, you just drafted JT Sanders and you resigned Tommy Tremble. Um, last time I checked, Dave Canalas rotates his position players a lot, like his skilled players rotates them a lot. And guess what also gives you? Offensive versatility. Again, so again, options, options, options are gonna be out there. Again, that was a worst case scenario, but Dan Morgan has to be thinking that too. He has to be thinking that too. I’m, I’m sure they’re gonna go into the draft with, you know, 20 or more different scenarios, you know what I’m saying, like, you’re and you’re gonna have to because you’re gonna have to, you know, just plan for whatever that is. You don’t want to be stuck and you have your 5 minutes and you don’t know what you’re gonna do, uh, once you get there. So, um, you know, get weird in the draft. Like no one last year expected at number 8, the Atlanta Falcons to take Michael Penix. No one saw that coming. No one did. No one thought 6 quarterbacks would go in the top 12. So people are like, ah, why would anyone trade up to 8 to take Jackson Dar? Did you see last year? It only takes one team and one owner of a team to go to his GM and, and his head coach and go, find us a franchise quarterback, make it happen. All it takes, all it takes is just one. Got to expect the unexpected. All it takes is one is how uh Colin Granger kind of um You know, got his, his whole opportunity, right? That’d be unexpected. That’s crazy, right? Um, basketball player, you know what? That’s, that’s one of my my favorite stories just in general, and not because we do this show and we talk about the Carolina Panthers, just in general, this guy last played his last college basketball game on March 4th for Coastal Carolina. On April 7th, he signs a contract with the Carolina Panthers. A month and 3 days later as a tight end. Um, so, you know, I, whether this is a good signing or not or whatever, uh, we’ll, we’ll we’ll see later on, but the story is pretty cool. So, uh, this guy using his COVID year, already done with school, uh, Colin Granger says that, uh, about a month before the season was over, he gets a random DM from George Fant, uh, from the Seattle Seahawks. And he’s like, who is this guy? And he’s saying like, hey, do you want to try football? And he hasn’t played football since 8th grade, so, you know, he goes to his page, it’s, man, it’s OK, this is verified. Let me look up and see who this guy is. Oh, OK, he’s he’s an NFL football player, OK. Um, and he gives it a shot after he’s done with the season, he goes up to West Virginia, starts training uh with George Fant. Let’s take this back a little bit. Pant, um, also played college basketball for 4 years, did 1 year of college football, had no stats. Zero stats, Dennis, but in the pro day, as he was helping out his teammates, pro scouts were there looking at him like, wait a minute, he has some pretty good measurables. Seattle Seahawks bring him in as a, uh, tight end. It doesn’t quite work out, but they’re like, you’re big enough, why don’t you switch over to offensive linemen? And there he goes. And he’s been in the NFL what for 8 or 9 years? I can’t remember, um, you know, what it, what it’s been for him. And so now Pant wants to basically pay it back, and he had seen uh some film on uh Colin Granger. He pegged him as his guy, like, hey, I’m gonna go after this guy and uh sent him that DM. Then, uh, you know, they work out for a few weeks. I think a week ago, a week or so ago, uh, maybe a week or two ago, there’s, he has a workout for 5 teams including the Panthers. Eagles were a part of that as well. Dan Morgan, who knows Pant’s story from the Seattle Seahawks. That’s right, he was there. He was there. He saw it happen. He saw the workout. He saw the workout, he knows what’s going on with it. He saw something in Granger and that I would guess looked similar to Pant and took that chance, 6’9, 245 pounds, and uh hasn’t played football since eighth grade, and now he’s here with the Carolina Panthers. We’ll see what happens. I’m not expecting him to do anything, but if this is somebody that they can, um, you know, just grow and groom. That would be amazing. The last story I remember about that, remember like that from the Carolina Panthers really is FA Obama. Uh, last person that they really brought in who hadn’t played football, you know, FAO Bada came through the NFL Europe or NFL, I can’t remember what the international program, yeah, um, they had him on a practice squad for a while, had a decent couple of years on a 53, got signed over to Washington and I believe he’s still with the commanders, so that’s a, that’s a good story. Right there, um, that has gone well for somebody who hadn’t played football before. Uh, and so maybe Colin Granger is the next guy. Hey, you know what, 6’9, former basketball player. Hey, Bryce, throw alley oops in the red zone. 6 red zone alley oops, 69. Like just imagine if he somehow or another gets switched off on a 5-10 dB. My God, my God, good luck. Again, just throw the ball to the, throw the ball to the crossbar and jump up there and go get it. And as a center, he he knows how to box out too, right? So. What a story. Let’s go, Colin. What a story rooting for that guy. I’m rooting for each and every single one of you. That’s why I want you to leave comments down below. Chris, we’ll have another episode next week, one week. In one week we’ll have another episode, 2 weeks is the draft. Chris, I think next week if we, we should give our pick for number 8. If the Panthers stay at 8, let’s give our pick next week. I may have spoiled mine already, but I, I have. It could change in a week, we’ll see. It could, but We’ll make our pick next week. You all leave your pick in the comments, and we’ll see you all next time.

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