Mock draft time?

Joe Persson from the athletic covers the Carolina Panthers and we are not that far away. Well, let's see, we got Fran, her fans aren't going to franchise tag anybody, right?

The deadline to complete that is coming up. I guess Foreman maybe. They don't have a punter. They want a franchise, like, what was it, Todd Sauerbrunn back in the day?

No, I don't think they're going to use the tag. Um, you know, I think Frank Wright's still here kind of trying to figure out exactly what they want to do with some of their own free agents, but you know, the two priorities and really the, to me that the one that the main priority is Bradley Bozeman, the center. And he did not have a real robust market last year. And they, they were able to sign them cheap. I think he, his former agent who, whom he later fired, I think, uh, kind of botched that Baltimore wanted to bring him back. I think the agent sort of overvalued him. And so he ended up here and played really well. My point is, I don't think he's the kind of guy you franchise and I don't, you know, I, I think this, this organization under Marty here and he paid, uh, Christian McCaffrey a lot of money. I don't know that that fitter would do the same, even on a tag situation with a Deontay.

No, no, not at all. It was just a kind of a soft way of getting into the fact that the coaching staff is, I, it seems to be done. Maybe there's a couple of spots here and there they might need a tight ends coach or something like that, but it's a pretty good mix of young up and comers and established veterans. I find it fascinating that Dom Capers and Jim Caldwell are on staff and Thomas Brown and his Euro Evaro are the two coordinators.

It is pretty incredible. They have guys on their way up and guys on their way out and, uh, and, and that's not a bad place to be. Interestingly, both Caldwell and Capers. I mean, they, they really are kind of moving into that stage of life where you and I are too, too far from, but, uh, Caldwell telling us earlier this earlier this week that he maintained a residence here after Wake forest, his kids and grandkids all stayed in the area and Capers, uh, kept a Lake house, not, not Norman where a lot of these guys go, but, uh, Lake Tillery out east of town and he hadn't even built on it. So it's kind of cool, but, but you're right.

And, and then, you know, you get that young mix. I mean, a Giro Evaro and, um, Thomas Brown, like they interviewed for head coaching, John Evaro interviewed for the one that Frank Wright got. So, and, and when he mentioned do Staley, who's been around the league a long time, Josh McCown hasn't coached long or at all, except for Myers Park high school here and a school in Texas, but he has, he did play forever. I'm with you, man. It's and people I've never seen a fan base get so excited about a coaching staff, but yeah, there's reason to kind of get a little geeked about these guys, I guess. Yeah.

It's funny. I was big time, uh, team Steve Wilkes and, but they didn't make a bad choice. It's I mean, I preferred Steve because I thought Steve had earned the job and all of that.

And I'm not going to get into, uh, that conversation again, cause I had it for like a month. Uh, but Frank, right. Yeah, absolutely. Frank Frank's a good coach and they certainly, I mean, I'll say they fell up, you know, not necessarily from Wilkes to Reich, but from what they, from what they were, if you're looking at where they started last year to where they're going to start this year, it's a massive upgrade at that spot. Now they just have to go about the business of a massive upgrade at quarterback. So, because it's the shiniest object, we know they're going to draft a quarterback. Uh, I'm sure every mock draft isn't wrong. Anthony Richardson, he might already have bought property in North Carolina, the kid from Florida. Uh, but we're, what do you think they're going to do other than that?

Well, I've been mocking them on the pages of the athletic, uh, stainless plug, uh, the last couple of days, will levels. And I don't know, I do know at one point in time coming off of that big junior season, there was buzz in the building here or around we'll let him, um, I don't know that he did anything last year that would change your mind. I mean, yes, he, he did not have like just, he did not post incredible numbers. Kentucky wasn't very good. And I think that's part of why he didn't post incredible numbers. The offensive line got him sacked.

I think something like 36 times. And he, frankly, if we're being honest, he did not have the surrounding cast that CJ Stroud and Bryce young had Anthony Richardson to put him in there. Um, all that said, I don't know. I mean, and, and honestly, I, it wouldn't surprise me if these guys bring Derek Carr in for a free agent visit. I mean, that's sort of Scott fitters, Mo, that they kicked the tires on everyone.

The expression when he was hired was he'd be quoting on every deal. Um, I don't know that they want to do that route again here. It is weird because I think in their gut, fitter and right. Who by the way, did the quarterback carousel for five years in Indianapolis, you know, I think in their gut, they would like to do the draft and develop thing and get a bridge guy, whether that's Jacoby, Brissett or Sam Darnold or somebody like that. But, um, I do think, but my point is Derek Carr is better than the other three guys that they roll through here and the, and the person's a Bridgewater, Darnold and Mayfield.

And so you got to do, you have to do your due diligence on him at, uh, sorry for the coach speak, uh, and, and where it lands, I don't know. It might probably a lot to do with what Derek Carr is asking for and how strongly they feel about one or more of those guys in the draft. Joe person from the athletic has been mocking, not, you know, like making fun of, but mock drafting will levels to the Panthers. Most of the other mock drafts say, if you want will levels, you gotta be picking in the top five. Uh, so if it, is it possible that the Panthers trade up?

Uh, yeah, for sure. I mean, they, they have all this extra draft capital courtesy of the Christian McCaffrey trade. Um, I had them trading two, three, and, um, uh, and a three round mock that I did earlier in the week. And that's, you know, you're giving up a pretty good bit to jump up that high, but you get, you get to three and then obviously you're guaranteed one of the big three, um, Seattle at five is an obvious trade partner, partner, excuse me, because it sure looks like they're going to roll with Gino Smith and Scott fitter and Dan Morgan here, the assistant GM both spent upwards of 20 years in the Seattle organization are very close with John Schneider, et cetera. Um, the second mock we did this week where all the beat guys were big guys and gals were, were mocking for the team. They cover, it went nuts, man. Like the Raiders traded up and got, um, Anthony Richardson at five.

And so not to be outdone. So they were all three, all three guys were gone and I traded somehow who, Oh, Detroit, I, I, I flipped with Detroit and took Levis at six for not much at all. I was, I, I, it was this year's first and one of the McCaffrey third round picks from this year, which I think the Panthers would do that in a heartbeat to move up, even if it weren't for a quarterback. Uh, so anyway, it is a fascinating time of the year and we hadn't even talked about free agency by the way, it's going to come closer than the draft.

Yeah. Free agency is going to be a big deal for, uh, for the Panthers as well. I know in your mock, you have an edge rusher in the second round and a wide receiver in the third round, uh, chances that they look at wide receiver in free agency, I've been saying for, I mean, two things to me, I think they need desperately on the offensive side is at least one, maybe more than one wide receiver to go opposite DJ Moore and a pass catching tight end.

So is that where they had for those two things aside from the draft? Yeah, I think so. And this is a very deep tight end group, um, from just Secchi to Dalton Schultz. Um, Evan Ingram, I think's a free agent. Um, yeah. Eric Ebrin who was with, uh, he's been out of football, so, but he has ties to Frank Reich.

Yeah. I think they're, I think they're going to plug one of those tight ends and free agency. I mean, I don't think the Dallas will let Dalton Schultz get away, but there will be guys available.

And then, yeah, I mean, you start trying to like connect the dots, Robert Woods, uh, who was with Thomas Brown, uh, with the Rams under McVeigh, he just got released yesterday. I mean, and I don't know that he's necessarily the only guy they would get, but someone like that, um, I think Scott's hitter was pretty, I went back and, and, and kind of dug out some of his quotes from around this time of year, last year. And he was pretty dead on saying like, we are going to improve the offensive line. We're going to do it draft and free agency.

And boom, what did they do? They went out and signed, uh, Austin Corbett. They signed Bradley Boseman whom we talked about and they drafted it. And so, and so a week ago or when was it, sorry, a couple of weeks ago, fitter told us, um, they were going to go after some explosive playmakers and he mentioned tight end wide receiver and maybe like a ball Hawking safety. And so I'm going to take them at his word, uh, maybe not when it comes to quarterbacks, cause they all play the smoke and mirrors game with that. But I think you, you hit it right on the head, Adam tight end and wide receiver are very obvious choices. Especially if you are going to, at some point have a young quarterback in the mix that you have to get him some weapons that the teams that don't do that are the teams that ask their court, beg their quarterbacks to fail, even the veteran quarterbacks, you you're begging them to fail.

If you don't give them something to work with. Uh, and frankly, part of the problem had, you know, obviously the quarterbacks have been the problem, but part of the problem has been, there's been no weapons. DJ Moore has basically been it. Everybody else has been like, I like Terrace Marshall.

I've, there's probably a lot more for Terram Terrace Marshall to do, but he hasn't been able to stay on the field. No, no, listen, without that fence, Greg Olson was cut and played that last year in Seattle before doing great, great things in the booth. Um, they, since that time, they've done nothing in the middle of the field in terms of like, uh, you know, poking at a defense, uh, right, right where a tight end lives.

And, and, and Olson was very good at that. He can't, he and cam had a terrific chemistry and it's just been an empty part of this. The only time they throw over the middle now is like a check down to a running back. And, and it's really, I think, uh, allowed defenses to just sort of, you know, play a lot of corners and not really worry about anybody testing them. And so I, I'm a big fan of the tight end, fan of the tight end, always unabashed fan of the past catching tight end. And I, I really think they will, uh, you know, bring one of those guys in this off season. Like, I mean, there aren't that many Travis Kelsey's of the world, but you see the teams that advance the teams that go far in this sport, all have good tight ends, Dallas, Goddard, uh, George Kittle, Travis, Kelsey, uh, Robert Tanya, who has been with, uh, I know he's had some injuries, but he's been with green Bay, uh, and caught a lot of balls there. He's a free agent to Mike Kisecki.

For some reason, Miami didn't want to use him. I don't get it either, but, um, there are a lot of guys out there in free agency, uh, Joe person, not a free agent, although I don't know, you, uh, you, you look like you might've been a pass catching tight end back in the day. That was my role at little William and Mary.

And, uh, it's listen, I wish I just played it. They, we had a little H back thing and we kind of like got away from it. And then at tight end, the difference was half the time I had to block and that did not go well. I hate when they ask you to do that. It's there's no glory in that.

That was not my thing, but man, we are, uh, we're not going to go down the glory day road any more than we already have. Joe person at Joseph person on Twitter from the athletic covers the Panthers three round mock draft right now on the athletic. Go read it. Uh, enjoy your day. I will talk to you soon. All right, buddy. Have a good weekend.