4 weeks, Chris. 4 weeks to the NFL draft. Woo. 4, baby. Let’s count them. Let’s count them. 1234, get your draft board on the go. Alright, let’s uh OK, OK. You know what, let’s just get this sucker started. I don’t want to get into the weeds, first pun intended for you. Why, why, why me? Hey, you saw the comments last week. Let’s get this 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. We’re 4 weeks from the NFL draft, people. We are diving deep into it and about what potentially the Panthers could do in the 2nd round, because Chris puzzle. Folks, leave your thoughts in the comment section. Has your thoughts on who the Panthers should take at number 8 changed? Has that changed? Are you still in on Edge rush? Do you still in on Tet McMillan? Do you want Tyler Warren? Obviously a lot of people want to trade back. I would love to see that happen, but that might not be a realistic thing that happens, potentially, Chris, but When you look at the draft, Chris, there are a lot of teams that are, that generally when they pick in the top 10, They have that similar top 10 pick in the second round, and a lot of the GMs will start to think like, OK, if we’re picking at, for example, the Cleveland Browns at 2, they also have the first pick of the second round at 33. OK, what can we pair together? Who might slip and fall down? Who could we potentially move back into the first round and take that we really like? Kind of this like combo, who can we get at 12? There’s a large discrepancy or a large gap between where the Panthers pick at 57 and at number 8. It’s a little bit harder for GM Dan Morgan to navigate. Yeah, um, you know, that’s gonna be a very interesting thing, but I’m sure that they have everything together as far as where they have their draft grades and things like that for the folks that they want. You, you brought up potentially moving back earlier and, you know, let’s say there is a guy who they really want, but maybe he grades as more of a, you know, around pick 18 or 19 or 20, right? Um. And, you know, 8 is maybe a little too rich for that guy in particular, and you have somebody who’s trying to move up. Maybe you do think about um doing that and getting uh another second round pick. Or, um, you know, another pick, you know, later on in the round, just to make up for the fact that you don’t have that early second, right? Because when you’re talking about early 2nd round picks, you’re talking about fringe, you’re talking about basically guys who are 1st round picks, but maybe for one reason or another instead of running a 44, he ran a 45, but everything else is together or, you know, maybe there’s a small character issue. Uh, coming out of college or something like that, but he’s really a, uh, uh, you know, around one athlete. Sometimes you get because quarterbacks get overdrafted, that pushes people down the draft board a little bit. Yep. And, and we’ve already, and we discussed on prior episodes on how this is a deep draft, right? So, you know, guys who probably would go first round normally may go 2nd. Might go early 3rd or something like that. Guys who normally go 2nd round might go uh late 3rd or 4th. So there’s, um, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of value to be had, especially uh in those 1st 2 days. So, you know, any way that Dan Morgan can kind of maneuver around to add more value for the Carolina Panthers, I’m with just my thing in particular. First, that first pick, gotta get you a first-round pass rusher. We traded ours away, uh, you know, a couple of years ago. You need that first round pass rusher. I’m with it. I’m with you on that one. I just. For the simple fact, when’s the last time this defense had like a true dominant game changer? You know, on that on the front seven, like a true dominant game changer on on a play in and play out basis, because when you start to think, you know, for in Dan Morgan’s sake, again, you’re trying to combo 1 and 2nd round pick. All right, what can I get first round. But also still get something really, really great second round like do I go for a different position, whatever it might be. But if you’re picking at 57, where the Carolina Panthers stand right now, you know the top guys like Abdul Carter is gonna be gone. You know that Jaylen Walker, Mikel Williams, Mike Green, Jalen Pierce, Donovan EzaRou, I mean that’s 6 guys right there that all could potentially go in the first round. And then you’re picking in the latter part of the second round. Eventually you’re now do we want to take edge rusher number like 10 or 11? I mean, that’s something you really have to take into consideration. Yes, you could potentially trade back if possible, but again, it’s a two-way street. Who are teams trading up for? Now, I did see this scenario that’s been followed around by Mel Kiper, ESPN and some other people that are draft experts. What they’re hearing from other people is that New Orleans is potentially interested at Jackson Dart, the quarterback from Ole Miss at number 9. That’s the the word that’s been kind of floating around over the last couple of weeks. Interesting. Well, if a team really, really loves Jackson Dart, and they’re hearing that same thing as well, like, well, guess what, we gotta jump New Orleans. Who’s picking 8? Carolina, Morgan have that phone ready to go. And this is where I think this year’s draft is so unpredictable, Chris. I think it really is at the top because a lot of the assumption is Tennessee is gonna take Cam Ward quarterback. That’s, that’s the consensus where things are really starting to go. Cam Ward’s going number one. Who knows what Cleveland’s doing? Is Cleveland gonna take Abdul Carter? Are they gonna take Travis Hunter? They’re gonna take Shadoor Sanders. Then that, OK, the Giants are reacting, and then everything is just a reaction off that because each of these teams can justifiably go so many different ways, and Dan Morgan has to have all these scenarios played out in his head about what he has to do at #8. It’s, it really is fascinating. It’s not really cut and dry this year’s draft. It, it, it almost feels like it could be. Almost like that draft where uh what was that? 22 when Icky got drafted, where you had 6 offensive linemen in like the first like, I’m sorry, 3 offensive linemen within the 1st 6 picks or something like that. Um, if I have that correctly, I, I think that’s the draft I’m thinking about, but it was, it wasn’t, um, what was expected that particular year, right? Um, and it feels like it could shape up to be something like that where Um, we just, it what is conventional wisdom, what we think will happen may not happen. It’s it’s really gonna come down to what the teams seeing and the players that they’ve been looking at, bringing in on their, their visits, and what they’re valuing, uh, and the, the homework that they’re doing. And so, you know, it could really be one of those situations where Dan Morgan has a plan for anything that he does. If we decide to stay at 8, because let’s say that Um, it fell to us to where magically Abdul Carter fell to number 8 and we’ve, and he’s there. Well, we’re gonna, we have a plan to keep him. If not, uh, if there’s somebody else that we value at 8, cool, we have a plan to keep it there or whatever, or if These two players that we’re thinking about are already gone, and we’re already thinking about these 2 over here, and Team A needs to jump New Orleans to get the player that they want. Then we have these scenarios and there’s probably a like a a list of scenarios that they’re already working through right now, uh, because of that. And so it, it feels like this could be a very action-packed draft, uh, for the Carolina Panthers. Uh, mainly because they have so much, um, that so many picks, right? Like, you know, they could stay put and have this all, all of the same 9 picks, and then at the end of the draft have those, or they could end up getting more, or you could end up having a little less because you have the capital to move up in certain areas to get certain guys that you want. So, um, you know, it, it will be very interesting to watch, uh, to see how all of that kind of uh unfolds. So you’re talking about the 2022 draft with Ike Iwanu. There are three defensive ends and two corners that were taken in the first five picks. So, yeah, and so Iy Iwanu was like, oh, it’s kind of a blessing. They need a left tackle, and he just happens to fall right there. It’s like, 00, OK, great. Um, things was that was unusual at the time, right? There was like no quarterbacks. It was, you know, yeah, all the defense, yeah, all the defenses of I was in the 2022 draft. So if you look, for example, if Carolina is thinking, obviously they want a wide receiver. What a big body guy. Let’s see, for example, a lot of people throwing out Tet McMillan out there, but maybe Tet McMillan is not highly graded on their chart, all right, on their board. Maybe he’s more like, uh, pick 2025 or whatever it might be. That’s somewhere in that range. But hey, you know what, in the second round, we might be able to possibly get or even early third depending on how things fall. You can go for Jayden Higgins, uh, the wide receiver from Iowa State, 64, 214. 39 inch vert ran a 447, highly productive in college at at at Iowa State. Maybe that’s the guy. Hey, you know, in the, in the second round, if things are starting to fall because there might be a run of receivers starting in the second round. Well, if you look at the draft value chart, Chris, in the 2nd round they could move from 57 up to 50 with Seattle by trading one of their 4th round picks with it. So they take pick 57, 1 of their 4ths, and they can move up to Seattle at pick. 50 overall in the draft, so the middle part of the second round, maybe to go get the wide receiver that they want, that could be a possibility or if there’s a safety that’s sliding down they can use a little bit of that extra draft capital they have built up in rounds 4 and 5 to possibly slide up in the second round to go get someone that they want. This team has flexibility, which is something that is really, really nice for the Panthers in the draft because we’ve seen in recent drafts, Chris, where it’s like, oh cool, they drafted like 5 guys and and. That was it. And not a lot of high value picks in that regard. So I think this year’s draft, Chris, there’s a lot of flexibility for the Carolina Panthers, which is something that they haven’t had in recent years because of all the draft picks that were traded to constantly move up in the draft or the, the draft picks used to go get Bryce Young, whatever it might be. So much draft capital traded that they didn’t have the flexibility to maneuver up and down the draft board how they saw fit. We saw Dan Morgan do that a little bit last year. year training down in the 2nd round to move back up, end up getting 7 picks as a whole. So we saw Dan Morgan do that with 9 picks, especially 5 picks between rounds 4 and 5. That gives you some of that flexibility if you wanted to move up in round number 2 or possibly move up from your 3rd round pick into the late 2nd round pick because there’s someone that you really like. They have that flexibility, which is something that the Carolina Panthers haven’t had in a long, long time. Yeah, and, and along with that, he did so well. And is doing so well in free agency that you really don’t need to reach to to do anything that you shouldn’t do right now. Like, so, you know, there’s still a few holes, right, to fill, uh, nothing is complete and honestly, I’m not expecting this to be a complete roster and quotation marks even after this draft, right? Because, you know, I, I just, I’m not sure you can make that turnaround to the perfect roster in 2 years, but Um, it might be possible for some, but I don’t know if it is for the Carolina Panthers. Um. But along with that though, um, you, you make a good point where they can, they don’t have to uh reach for somebody that uh they shouldn’t take at at a particular spot. They can also, because they’ve already got that defensive line taken care of, uh, you know, very well so far, they can probably afford to uh do some of these. Non-traditional picks that I was called crazy or high for, not necessarily the one I was talking about, but whatever they’re valuing uh within the organization themselves because of, of, you know, how well they’ve done in free agency so far. We’ve already heard that uh they’re looking at uh more safeties. Nick Scott has signed back with the Carolina Panthers. They’re expected to bring back Sam Franklin. So that safety room we were talking about before is is uh getting filled out. There’s other safeties that they’ve been looking at. Um, who could potentially sign and by the time this is out, could have already signed. Um, so, you know, we’ll see how they end up filling out these different rooms that uh have have needs, uh, but I, I really like where they’re at. Chris, I’m also wondering if Dan, again, this is again, looking at how Dan Morgan and how how they see the board. If you want to get that Dynamic pass catcher. If you really want to have that offensive weapon, and if you really feel like there’s gonna be an edge rusher that slides down the draft board, you want to move up back into the 1st round or early in the 2nd to take somebody. Would you consider Tyler Warren at 8? To be that pass catcher that really can do a little bit of everything. To be honest, like you mentioned Jalen Milro last week about, hey, someone that could be, uh, sneaking on 4th down or push push. That’s what Tyler Warren did that at Penn State. Like he did those kinds, a lot of his wild cat and he’s also a damn good pass catcher as well, damn good tight end. Would you like, would you consider doing that to be the, the Taysom Hill on steroids, lack of a better term, uh, that you mentioned, like be that guy. And then, hey, I got a plan to move back up to like pick 30. Like it might cost you a little bit extra, but or maybe move up in the first round or in the second round to pick 37 if, if, you know, James Pierce or somebody slips down or whatever it might be. I’m wondering if Dan Morgan is thinking that because I could see the justification of that if I’m Dan Morgan, if you really believe that you can get a so premium defensive player that you can move up to go possibly get. I’m with that as long as my whole thing is within those first two picks of the draft, right? 1st round, 2nd round, or if you end up moving back up into the 1st round once again. You have to walk away with a pass rusher. You have to put somebody on that edge. So if you do get Tyler Warren at 8, sounds good to me, as long as with your 2nd pick, you’re getting someone to help rush rush the passer. We’ve seen. What it takes to not only win games, but win games at a high level in the NFL and it’s that’s like, if you’re, we know it’s quarterbacking, right? A lot of it’s based off of who your quarterback is and what decisions they’re making in their intangibles, then on the other side, how do you, uh, you know, really affect that quarterback, you gotta get to them, right? You gotta impact their protection, um, you know, it’s almost like The Quarterback, it’s become a game of quarterback and edge rusher slash defensive lineman. And, uh, you know, somebody as good as Patrick Mahomes looked very average in the Super Bowl because the Eagles got to. The Eagles got to him, and the, the one thing the the Panthers did not do last year was get to the quarterback. So that’s my thing. Like to me that is the most important, yes, they did a great job fitting that interior, right? But are we OK going into the season with Jadeveon Clowney, DJ Wanham, Patrick Jones. And DJ Johnson or Amari Barno, and feel like we’ve done our very best at getting better at that position. Possibly. Another name I’ll throw out there, Chris, if they decide to maybe move up in the middle of the 2nd round, hopefully again, I’m with you in terms of taking an edge rusher at #8. That’s just where I am I throughout that scenario. Xavier Watts, safety from Notre Dame. Might be like in that like 42 to like 53, kind of in that middle part of the second round. Highly productive safety, 12 interceptions over his last two years in college. Like that’s something that they need another safety to possibly go along with Tamani Richardson and Mori that they signed in free agency. I know Nick Scott’s coming back, but Nick Scott to me is a, is a special teamer. That’s what he is, and that’s OK. Like, what if Xavier Watts might be that guy that you bring in on the back end of your to, to go along with everyone else. Again, a lot of different scenarios for this Panthers defense that they continue to add pieces to that. Again, don’t ignore the offense, but I don’t know. This, this is, this is such a tricky draft for us in terms of just what, what they could do. I don’t know. Time will tell. We have 4 weeks. Tricky tricky is a good word because you, you’re kind of spoiled with the riches of having 9 picks and sometimes you can just, you know, have all your money. And make it rain in the club and come back and you have, you have nothing and you have nothing to show for all that money. So, uh, I, I just hope that Dan Morgan doesn’t just make it rain that he invests, you know what I’m saying? So like, let’s, let’s make sure that we’re getting some return on this investment in a few years. And then we can make it rain. And then we can, then we can make it rain. Make it rain in the comment section, folks. That’s what we need you all to do. Make it rain in the comment section. Um, again, let us know if your thoughts have been about the draft, if any of that stuff has changed over the last few weeks. Chris, it’s hard to believe that we’re 4 weeks out. Uh, by the way, Chris, uh, you and I have talked about, we’re gonna leave a little teaser here for the people about doing this live during the NFL draft. So in live instant reaction on YouTube, folks. We’ll see how that goes. Depends on how Chris has to work, but we’ll see. It all depends. It all depends. But hey, you know what, they move down, who knows, you might be on air at the time. Uh, might just kind of just might depend, folks, leave your thoughts in the comment section. We love each and every one of you until next time, till next week. Peace out, baby.

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