Panthers draft history - O-line

Just how bad has it been?

. ... Not quite as shitty as I thought, The talent level and “high ceiling” has often been there. A lot would be redeemed (optimistically) if Christensen and Brown end up dependable starters.



Just going to start with the first real success:

‘03 Jordon Gross - Maybe not worth first overall, but very solid, and proved his worth.

‘04 Travelle Wharton - #94 Had the talent and football IQ but was fucked by untimely injuries.

‘05 Evan Mathis - #79 Another solid pick based on talent and efficiency but was muddied by injuries.

‘06 Rashard Butler - #89 Opps! A reach that was not catastrophic but tried a little too long to “strengthen” a talented but pretty damn weak player.

‘07 Ryan Kalil - #59 clearly worth the pick and all time panther great.

‘08 Jeff Otah - #19 plus traded up to get him. Too bad he had a shit knee. Black cat luck, and a decent example of how not to fall in love with a kid, even if highly talented. .. you can never really know about injuries.

‘09 Duke Robinson - #163 probably worth a shot where he was taken based on talent and potential. Disappeared trying to find a smaller pond to be a bigger fish in.

‘12 Amini Silatolu - #40 small school overrated gamble. Could not hold up to the rigors of NFL. Ultimately just another reach.

‘13 Edmund Kugbila - #108
Lol, Had to google him. .. Should have taken Bakhtiari (also had to google) but packers overpaid him all throughout an injury plagued career so . ..

‘14 Trai Turner - #92 Can’t argue with the pick. Trading him once he was spent also brought in Okung so win-win in my opinion.

‘15 Daryl Williams - #102 Another good value pick. .. It would be nice to still have him.

‘17 Taylor Moton - #64 Hopefully this will prove to be a great pick. PLEASE stay healthy damnit!

‘19 Greg Little - #37
Ugh. :-(


How could Carolina have done much better ?? O-line is arguably the most finicky and difficult to receive a high end payoff given how grueling and dangerous almost every snap can be (even practice snaps).

I’ve come to the conclusion after this that it all kinda boils down to one word . ..

LUCK
I hope we are due some of the good variety. )

 

Luck and good coaching. Dante Scarnecchia was the reason the Patriots always seemed to have a great Offensive Line, not their drafting. Now that he's gone, watch their luck slowly go with him.

 

Valid point, and yeah it would be great for the pats to continue the bad luck of the past couple of seasons. )

 

Maser never liked him, and his best years came after he left Carolina.

This list is also missing Schwartz, Bernardeau, Nelson, Hangartner and some others.

 

"Just going to start with the first real success:"

feel free to contribute prior to Gross if you like

 

It's not good, but not awful. Some hits and some bad misses, but that's normal in the NFL. The Panthers main bugaboo has been free agency/managing the second contract. Overpaying on shit like Matt Kalil, Paradis, and Mike Wahle handcuffed the team from upgrading. Also, while Wharton and Ryan K. were solid starters, keeping them beyond their rookie deals were sentimental decisions more than anything. Same with Turner, who basically had one and a half great seasons followed by a mountain of shit.

A good rule of thumb - don't extend a draft pick unless he's one of the best players at his position.

 

Schwartz and Hangarnter fell into solid swing roles, which I think is what they were supposed to be.


Mathis is a bizarre outlier. He was absolutely awful here, but got his shit together with other teams before being elite in Philadelphia. I can't think of many players who've had that career arc.

 

2003 2nd round Bruce Nelson. Injured.

2005
5th Round Hangartner- two stints on the team as a guy that you wouldn't bench and that you wouldn't mind upgrading. That's fine for a late round lotto ticket

6th round Joe Berger- never did a thing in carolina hung around minnesota forever doing special teams before getting a full season starting after 11 years in the league. No credit for the panthers unless you found the teams ST blocking particularly bad

2006
7th Will montgomery- found a second career in washington taking out guys knees in the shanahan scheme

2008
6th Geoff Schwartz- had the talent to be a hangartner type but kept getting hurt still around for a while.

Bernardeau- backup

2011
6th Zachary Williams- one year in carolina, few years in the arena league which was surely some kind of money laundering operation for how long it existed.

7th Lee Ziemba I forgot this guy

2013
4th kugbiglia hurt

Those mid oughts teams just seemed to have weird issues with scouting/ scheme fit I remember that was around the time of the zone vs man marking debates.

 

Incognito but less violent sociopath

 

I don't make a huge deal out of the late rounders. You'd like to see one or two become more than a backup but that's counting on luck more than anything.