Chris The number is 3,057. 3,057. That’s how many rushing yards the Panthers gave up last season. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God, yeah. You think we should draft defense? No, no, no, no. We, we need, uh, what’s what’s my man’s name? Tet from uh Arizona. No, no, no, we need him at #8, yeah. 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 Coxster with you. Uh, Leave your thoughts in the comment section. Who should we take at 8? Who do you think we should take at number 8? I know there’s a possibility. Some people are saying that, Chris. All right, let’s dive right into that. There are a lot of people, a lot of fans out there who are thinking that Ted McMillan might be like the true number one receiver that the offense needs and the Bryce Young needs. I understand. I ain’t discounted the fact that there still is a need for number one receiver on this team. Ain’t gonna deny that fact. When you give up 3,057 rushing yards last season, I understand guys were hurt. But this team needs an influx of young talent, and I mean talent on defense. If you look, Chris, last year, At the projected 11 starters at the beginning of the year, before all the injuries and everything took place. You know how many actual guys were drafted by the Panthers that were supposed to be on the starting 11 at the beginning of last year? Let’s see, uh, Shaq Thompson. JC Horn, Brown, Derek Brown. That’s it. 3. That’s it. This team needs to draft and build up their defense tremendously. Before I dive more into their their recent drafts of of lack of defensive picks, Chris, I’m gonna turn the floor over to you. OK. So, there’s a reason why we’re talking about this today. Um, I like to interact with Panthers fans as do I. I honestly, in the comments, I love getting in the comment section with people. I love interacting. I’m not as good on YouTube comments. I need to be better on YouTube comments, but I do, uh, I look at, you know, Twitter, I look at Instagram, and so there is this, uh, there was recently a post from um a Panthers page. And uh it had a mock draft of the first two rounds where first round the the Panthers would have picked Ted McMillan. Second round, they would have picked Malachi Starks from Georgia. I’m not saying those are bad picks, but I jumped into the comments and I said, 2 rounds and no D-line or pass rush help, laughable. And boy did Panthers fans go off on me. Uh, and, and I’m, I’m wondering where did I go wrong? Because Yes, we need a safety. That’s good. OK, I get that. By the way, Malachi Starks is sitting there at number 58, and if we’ve drafted a defensive lineman, all for it, all for it. Yes, we need a safety. Yes, we need a number one receiver. But if you’re gonna do all of that and, and go back to that stat, what was that stat again that you said to me? 3, 3,057. Um, do we not just see the way that the Eagles won the Super Bowl by having a stout defensive line? Did we not just see a whole entire season of the Carolina Panthers defensive line getting pushed around? Do we not just see How you win games in the NFL. We, we just, we just fixed our offensive line. You went up front on both sides, and I had folks saying, oh, you can get that at free agency. You could. But what’s the best way, Dennis, to build in the cheap in the cheapest way? Do the draft. When you are getting young talent that you can uh develop and possibly be with you for the next 4 to 5 years, maybe even longer if they uh if you got the right picks, um, the best way to do that is through the draft. If you’re getting somebody through free agency, more than likely you’re gonna have to overpay somebody for what they’ve done before and what they’re projected to do, uh, and, and that is one of the things that’s kind of the biggest unknown. So with that, for me, I don’t know about you, Dennis, but for me, uh, if I’m looking at this draft, which is deep and and another thing that people said to me, oh, it’s deep in defensive line. Just because it’s deep in defensive line doesn’t mean that you wait to get the the 4th round talent. Yeah. If it’s deep, cool. That means that there should, there should be enough for us to get 1 and 2nd round talent, and maybe that 2nd round talent is good enough to be 1st round, it’s just that there’s so many of them cool. But within those 1st 2 rounds, there’s somebody that’s got. that defensive line somewhere close to to uh to Derek Brown, um, because that is, that is the biggest area of need. I understand if you want to draft the best available stuff like that in different parts, sounds good. Um, but if, if that is your biggest glaring weakness, and if you sign somebody in the, in free agency, cool. But also, let’s just remember, right, we signed Ahaw Robinson last year in free agency. Not that he’s bad, right? But did he make a a big splash? Did he make a huge difference in the Carolina Panthers line? Shot Tuttle was a free agent signing a couple of years ago. Jadeveon Clowney free agent signing, DJ Wum free agent signing, Josie Jewel free agent signing. Jordan we did that. Sounds like we did that, guys. Like, come on now. Come on, man. Like, we gotta get younger and younger. And you mentioned you’ve mentioned before our cap situation. What’s one way to push the cap towards the uh you know, our cap towards the highest part of it? It’s it’s to sign these free agents. What’s one way you can stay under that cap? Rookies. Rookie contracts. Now, you can make a couple of splashes. If you want to go, if you get Milt Williams, I’m all for it, but I still say you still got a draft defensive line. Because guess what? We found out last year. Once you get past the starting 11, there are other guys that still got to play. You rotate defensive linemen, you rotate in guys in your secondary, you rotate people. And what happened last year? You didn’t have a good starting 11 and then they all got hurt. Then they all got hurt. You gotta have depth too. You gotta have depth too, Chris. We just watched the team win a Super Bowl with the defensive line that they pretty much just drafted within the last 34 seasons. 4 years, yeah, depth guys that rotated, guys that rotated. They take the Philadelphia Eagles have taken a first round defensive tackle in 3 straight years. Drafted. Let me take it all the way back to 2015, Chris. All the way back to 2015. I’m gonna read you all the names down. I say premium picks are rounds 12, and 3. Those are premium picks, those are the top 100 picks of the draft. Those are premium picks. What are the premium positions in the NFL outside of quarterback? Offensive tackle, Particularly left tackle, but offensive tackle. Edge rusher and also the interior of said lines, right? Those are the premium positions, right? And then eventually on defense, you get to corner. But let me actually tell you the amount of people that have been drafted on the defensive front, I’m talking guys hands in the dirt since 2015. Well, actually, no one was drafted in 2015. We’re talking rounds 12 and 3. In 2016, they drafted Vernon Butler, first round. Didn’t draft another defensive lineman. In the first three rounds until Brian Burns in 2019. 2020 had Derek Brown need to Gross Matos. And then in 2023, you drafted DJ Johnson Turbo. That’s it. 5 guys that you’ve drafted in the 1st 3 rounds, but they actually put their hand in the dirt on defense. That’s it. That’s it. And we wonder why our defense stinks. If you actually look, there’s a massive problem, but you, you look on the offensive line. Look on the offensive line, since 2015, only 4 offensive linemen have been drafted in the first three rounds. Only 4. Taylor Moten, really good, solid as the right tackle as you can get. Really, really good. Greg Little didn’t quite work out. Brady Christensen, Ikeaquaanu. That’s it for rounds 12, and 3 over the last 10 drafts. And you wonder why we had to go pay two offensive guards because you haven’t invested your premium picks in these premium positions. We heard Dave Canalis and Dan Borrier talk about it all starts with the ball and you build out from there. Yes, that’s how you got to build a team. Again, hand in the dirt guys. I gave you 9 guys drafted 1st 3 rounds over the last 10 years. Hand in the dirt guys with premium picks. And and and that’s the thing that like, you know, you really have to think about when it comes to, and yet, look, I’m not against free agent help, right? I’m not either. That, that’s fine if you do that, but also like, we haven’t tried building out through the draft. We haven’t tried that yet as far as like our lines. And one of the things that uh that Dave Gettleman got right is that he likes to, he liked the hog Mollies, is what he said. He likes to get the the big guys up front, and we have kind of gone away from that, uh, for a while, as you just pointed out, and pretty much since then, the Carolina Panthers have had a very hard time of winning the line of scrimmage. Uh, we had a guy. We’ve had some players that have patched up our holes that that, you know, you have players who are so good that they um they they. Make you not see how bad things really are. Christian McCaffrey, imagine if Christian McCaffrey, uh, primed Christian McCaffrey, right? Because he’s he’s kind of, uh, getting up there right now, was able to run behind this offensive line that the Carolina Panthers had. He never had this line. He never had this line. A lot of what he did with the Panthers, he was creating on his own. He, he patched it up, he made it look good. Imagine if he ran behind this line. Right? Imagine if the Carolina Panthers had a really good defensive line that they drafted, like, I’m gonna bring up the Eagles again. And that’s what we had on the other side of the ball, when the Panthers didn’t have the ball in their possession. Um, things will be so much better, like, uh, from there, like you really don’t have to go out there and, uh, and reach for some of these other positions. You don’t, and it it makes it easier for you, once you have that settled and have that anchored in together, then all of a sudden now you can, like you just said, build out and have everything else. And I’m, I’m gonna be real. I don’t care if we don’t get a a a number one receiver this year. Because we’re not going to the playoffs this year anyway. You know what I’m saying? Like, do I want that person for Bryce Young? Absolutely. But if, if I have to have another year of Adam Thielen as the number one receiver, just so we can build out the defensive line and the rest of the defense the way that it needs to be. I’m cool with waiting a year. We don’t have to reach on Ted McMillan or somebody else like that at #8 for that. Like, go get some, go get some pass rush help, because that also is something that wins games, and clearly, the Panthers lost a lot of games this season, not because the offense couldn’t keep up, not because the offense couldn’t score points, not because Bryce Young or Andy Dalton, whoever was that quarterback, couldn’t move the ball, not because Chuba Hubbard wasn’t doing his thing toting the rock. Mhm. It’s because the defense couldn’t stop. Anything, they couldn’t hold water. No. And me and you were at plenty of games where we just witnessed it. It’s like this game could was winnable if only they could stop the run and they just weren’t getting gashed every single play. So the Panthers gave up over 31 points a game. It was 31.4 points per game last season, dead last in the league. By the way, they gave it the most points in a single season in NFL history, but in terms of points per game, I think it was like 4th or 5th worst, maybe 6th. Either way. There’s only one offense in the NFL that actually outscored what the Panthers gave up defensively. That was the Detroit Lions at 33.2 points per game. Even the Buffalo Bills at 30.9 points per game, wouldn’t have been able to overcome that defense. The answer is Ted McMillan. I’m not saying like Tet McMillan won’t be a good receiver, not saying that at all. You know, it’s it’s nothing against him at all. It’s not. But what are your priorities? It’s, you know, if, if you’re Building a house, or let’s say you already have a house, right? And you’re starting to get cracks in your foundation. And you’ve got a certain amount of money set aside, and you’re looking at it like, man. I really could use some solar panels, right? And you get those solar panels without fixing your foundation that’s starting to crack. All right. That’s just, that’s just how I look at it, or you got a car. Right? And your tires are old, the tread is wearing out. Dennis those windows. Let me, let me go let me let me put a system in the car. I wanna hear, I wanna hear it thumping while I’m sliding all over I-40. Get out of here. Like, for real, get out of here. Like that’s that’s crazy. Fix your tires first. You know, we talk about playmakers and we actually heard Dan Morgan say at the combine a couple of weeks ago saying, hey, playmakers gotta come from everywhere. Like when’s the last time you actually, so for example, 2023, you only have one strip sack all all 2023. 2024, you only had like 4. Maybe if that, like actual true strip sacks. Like you gotta get somebody that can make plays on defense too. The leading sack guy for the Panthers last year was 6. Like no one had more than 6 sacks last year’s Panthers. That’s it. So playmaking has to come from a full year though. I do feel like DJ Wam had a full year, he’d have at least 7. Right, he probably would have got cut. You saw that so much last year. Jade Peay, you’re leading the team in Sachs. Get out of here. How dare you have production. Oh, well, I guess with that, like maybe we shouldn’t draft, uh, the defensive line then because once they start balling out, it’s gonna be like, you know what? Right. Either way, this, this team needs an influx of talent on defense. There’s some good young pieces on that offense. Does it need more? Absolutely. But that’s not gonna happen overnight. It’s not gonna happen overnight. The, the offense, like Bryce Young on that offense could score. 27 points a game. But if the defense still has given up 31. Congrats, you’re losing some fun shootouts. I mean, gosh, let’s go to the Atlantic game at the end of the season last year. Like that’s a prime example. Like that’s how you have to win every single game if you don’t put talent on this defense. I mean prime talent. And that’s what you’re gonna get. My nerves can’t take that every week, every week, no, like, like, let’s, let’s go into the 4th quarter with a few games in hand. You know what I’m saying, and that’s something that I don’t think we’ve seen from the Panthers. I mean, we saw it in the in the Raiders game, but it’s it. That’s it. Like for for a long time, for a very long time, like I don’t outside of the Raiders game, I don’t remember a game. Like, I don’t know, maybe since Maybe Matt Rhule’s first year in 2020, that maybe there is a there is a game where um you go into the fourth quarter and pretty much the game is in hand, you just have to continue to get stops. Like the Panthers, like y’all should be tired of Of like winning these games on the last second and um and in overtime. You know, and, and one of the ways to to prevent that is to make sure you can get stops, and we talk about You know, oh man, they almost beat the Eagles, they almost beat the Chiefs. Those are the two teams in the Super Bowl. You know what stopped them from beating those two teams? Defense, Getting stops. Yeah. As much as, as much as y’all want to blame X Xavier Legatte and Xavier Liguette did drop a touchdown pass that could have given him the lead and possibly could have had them uh beat the Eagles, right? There’s still gonna be time left on the clock and the Eagles still could have possibly scored because they would have played the Panthers defense. Yep. So, at the end of the day, it’s really about stops. What wins championships? Defense. OK. You look at the Chiefs when they won the Super Bowl a couple years ago, it was their defense. It was their defense. Even this year, their defense was good when the Panthers. had the the best offense in the NFL in 2015 and just scoring all over people and dabbing all over people. What stopped them in the Super Bowl? Defense. Specifically the Von Miller, defensive line. Yeah, and who, who’s on the other side of Von Miller? Tommy, was it, was it, uh, who’s my man’s name? Is it De Marys? Oh, DeMarcus Lawrence? DeMarcus, yeah. That it was? Either way, defense. Oh, also that 2015 Panthers defense was pretty awesome. You know you had up front along with Luke Kuechly? Yeah, KK Short and Starlet too. Two defensive tackles that you drafted and picks 1st and 2nd round in the same draft. Charles Johnson, shout outs to him. Anyway, there’s a theme here, there’s a theme here. There’s a theme here. And it’s not and it’s not just in free agency too, like you’re not gonna, you know, cool, they did it last year for offensive line, cool, you can’t count on that. What you can count on is we have 9 picks and we have this number 8 pick, and we can do something really special with in an area of need. You know, yes, we need a wide receiver, a #1 wide receiver, but what do we need more? Defense, defense. And you have your pick of guys. You wanna go Jaylen Walker, James Pierce, Michael Williams, whomever. Like, there’s whatever you think fits best. Make it happen. Make it happen. Chris, I love you. By the way, free agency starts next week, folks. Free agency starts next week. Even if you signed Milton Williams, I’m still saying draft defense. Oh yeah, the guy we’re talking about, DeMarcus Ware. That’s what we said, DeMarcus Ware. Anyway, Either way, folks, it’s all about the defense. Let’s make this happen. But free agency next week, Chris, let’s make it happen. We’re gonna another episode for you all next week free agency get started. It’s gonna be a wild time. It’s gonna be a wild time. Again, if you sign Milton Williams, another safety, I don’t care if you still draft that defense. Long term solutions. Chris, I love you. We love you also as well listening and watching, so leave your thoughts in the comment section. We’ll see you guys next week.

Source: wralsportsfan.com