Mid-Season Mock

3-Round Mock exercise from Walterfootball.com:

Walter Football mock

On the off week, I am beginning to look ahead to April. I'm assuming that we will be somewhere between 10-15.

I'm curious as to other's speculation/opinion. There is never too much Panthers draft speculation as far as I'm concerned. We have a good opportunity to get better in April.

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Given this scenario, I'll be watching a number of players in Round 1:

Morris Claiborne, CB, LSU
Dre Kirkpatrick, CB, Alabama
Riley Reiff, OT, Iowa
Jonathan Martin, OT, Stanford
Courtney Upshaw, DE/OLB, Alabama
David DeCastro, OG, Stanford
Brandon Thompson, DT, Clemson
Dont'a Hightower, ILB, Alabama
Jerel Worthy, DT, Michigan State
Michael Floyd, WR, Notre Dame

Round 2 is almost impossible to predict, but given this scenario, what do we go after? I'm unfamiliar with a lot of the players, but a few that I would consider:

Josh Chapman, NT, Alabama
Ryan Broyles, WR, Oklahoma
Ben Jones, C, Georgia

 

if we went CB first (less of a need IMO), and had various options in the 2nd, and negating any sort of FA?

Levy Adcock at OT or Kendall Reyes at DT. But ideally I don't think I'd take a corner.

 

Off their big board http://walterfootball.com/draft2012bigboard.php


At this point we would be picking at 7

There I would pick Blackmon WR then Thompson DT

If we were 10 I'd go Claiborne CB then Thompson DT

 

If Blackmon was there at #7, I would do backflips. I think he'll go earlier, but who knows. Landry Jones is another Gabbert-type who should not even be considered for the first round, but is being talked about as a top 10, maybe top 5 guy. I don't know if that's analysts being stupid because he's putting up a lot of stats on a high profile team, or if teams will actually make the same mistake.

Assuming Blackmon isn't there, I think Kirkpatrick is my favorite of the players in that area. DT is a huge need, but there's just no one worthy of that. I don't even think there's any DT worthy of being picked 10-20 in a trade down. That said, there are a lot of DTs to look at in the early or middle part of round two. Then again, it wouldn't bother me to go offensive line and just try to fill DT with a random free agent. The one thing I don't want to do is draft Coples. He's a good player, I just don't think he's a special player.

Someone also please tell WalterFootball that they're absurdly overrating Alshon Jeffrey.


Addendum:
I hate Nick Saban and wish for him to lose every game, but if you draft one of his players then you know they're going to come in well coached and taking football seriously. I think LSU is more of a USC type atmosphere where the goal is to have fun, be flashy, and win games, but not necessarily to approach football as a profession.

 

claiborne can return kicks and punts. i mean assuming he could beat out edwards.

 

not as if I have a strong handle on things yet, but I can't disagree. Still, I hate that so many points seem to head toward WR/CB. I'd only pick one in the first, because otherwise I don't think we're upgrading that much, but I just don't love that 6-15 range for OT or DT. And, we really have to get tougher with big men more than anything else right now IMO.

Claiborne can return, but we won't let Munnerlyn return over Edwards because he's doing enough, per the team. I'd worry that picking a guy like that means another first round guy that's going to return for maybe a year while he gets up to speed, then we're back to having a problem.

 

Poor man's Patrick Peterson. Plus, with Rivera and McDermott preferring physical corners it's impossible for me to imagine them liking Claiborne over Kirkpatrick.

 

Broyles' knee may drop him. He looked pretty upset on the sidelines.

 

I was dubious about Broyles' pro potential anyway.

 

No way in hell I pick Blackmon in round 1. Claibourne should be the player. You do not pick WR high. Just don't. Blackmon is not the player Dez Bryant is and Dez is average at best. We would never spend a high pick on WR.