3 weeks, Chris. 3 weeks until the draft. 3 weeks until the draft. Is there anyone out there? Is there anyone out there you want to pick 19? Go ahead. In one week until my birthday. Oh, hey, it’s all right, we’ll celebrate that in next week’s episode. We’ll celebrate that on next week, but we’re getting people prepared, getting people prepared. Is there a name out there in the draft that you want? You know off the top of your head. I don’t, I don’t have a name. I’m more so I’m looking for the impact, OK. I’m gonna tell you who I want at 19, or I think it’d be a good pick at number 19 on the other side. 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 presented by Wake Orthopedics, a WakeMed physician practice. 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. Big shout out to Wake Orthopedics, a sponsor here at Panthers Playbook. Shout outs to you for tapping in once again this week. So make sure you like, subscribe, and if you haven’t. Leave a comment. Please leave a comment down below. Who do you want at pick 19? Who do you want at pick number 19? Or, you know, do you want them to move up somewhere in the draft? But if they stay at pick 19, give us a name, a realistic name about who you want to pick number 19. I’m gonna throw one out there for you, Chris. Dave Canales earlier this week with like the coaches meetings is, you know, where the all 32 NFL head coaches, they get together and they do like their group picture and all that kind of stuff. He said earlier this week, you know, pick 19, they could go wide receiver. They could possibly go tight end, they could probably go safety. They have a lot of different options. Please don’t do wide receiver three years in a row, but go ahead. I don’t disagree. I don’t disagree. Please don’t do that 3 years in a row. Go ahead. Safety Dylan Fenneman. Oregon. I actually like the idea of him at pick 19. Ran a 435, rangy. Now he’s not the biggest guy. He’s like, he measured in like right, I think 6′ 1/8, like 201, 205 pounds, somewhere in that range. So like, you’re not the biggest guy. But he also in 3 seasons of college football playing power conference football, played at Purdue to start, then he transferred to Oregon, had 8 interceptions in 3 seasons. I like that kind of production, had over 300 tackles. I like that kind of production. And it’s a young safety that you can build. For when an example, you can build him as a free safety, you can build him, and you can, he has some positional versatility, you can play some different spots, you can move him to the line of scrimmage if you want to. So you have a little versatility, but you can develop him as your free safety. So then in a couple of seasons when Trayvon Merri’s contract expires, if you’re anticipating on paying a guy like Bryce Young, now you have Lathan Ransom that fills that strong safety role on a rookie contract. You have Dylan Fenneman on a rookie contract as well as your starting safeties, which allows you to pay a Bryce Young or Tederola McMillan, some of these. Other guys, Nick Skorton, it allows you to do that. Just saying, it’s a good idea. So that could have impact right away. I like the way you’re thinking. Um, for, for me, I don’t necessarily have a name. I just know that there are certain positions that I would probably put a premium on, and I know that they’re gonna probably go, you know, do best player available. So if they feel like a wide receiver is the best player available, they’re probably gonna do that for the 3rd year in a row. Um, but I, I, I would prefer. Either safety, like you mentioned. Corner Linebacker. Or, or offensive lineman. Yeah, I, I don’t actually, I don’t specifically a center or a tackle. I think a tackle is more likely what you’re gonna find possibly. Now again, if, if one of those guys like a Morgan Freeling from Georgia or some of these guys drop like. I’m 100% for it. I’m 100% for it, but I feel like If, if I get the impression of reading stuff online, maybe we should talk to our friend Jordan Reid of ESPN at some point. But the impression I’m getting online is that the tackle depth really isn’t there, so it’s a little top-heavy. So teams are gonna go after a tackle early in the draft if they can because they know it’s not gonna be there in the 2nd round or the 3rd round, at least. A guy that can plug and play and start right away. So I don’t know if one of these guys are gonna drop, but if they do, heck, I’m for it. I really am for that because you eventually are going to need a replacement for Taylor Moton on the right side. But also you just don’t know what your future at left tackle is. Ikey Awanu is, is, is in the last year of his contract, and he’s hurt. Don’t even know if he’s gonna play this season. And then, You signed Rasheed Walker to a 1-year deal. So after this season, you don’t even have a left tackle penciled in as your starter after the season. So yeah, I’m 100%. There’s a lot of different options that the Carolina Panthers can go with this offseason. You, you took the reasons right out of my mouth, pause, uh, for, you know, for tackle. Um, yeah, I’m thinking about center because, you know, Luke Fortner is on a, on a one-year deal and we, you would like to have something kind of locked up there. And also just for Bryce Young to have some continuity, right, like he had continuity last few seasons for the most part, uh, even if that, you know, was a revolving door at that particular position, there were guys who were there, uh, for, you know, at least a few seasons that he could get used to. And so, you know, you just don’t know. Luke Fortner could have it end up, end up having a great, great year. gets more money to go elsewhere. Now you’re starting back over again with, you know, um, you know, for 2027 with, you know, you know, uh some chemistry and continuity with another guy. So, you have to think about that, um, you know, for that, and then just linebacker. Somebody who you can really pair with Devin Lloyd, this is a great opportunity to have a Luke Kuechly slash Thomas Davis-esque relationship with a Shaq Thompson on the rise for the Carolina Panthers, right? Like, you know, Devin Lloyd, we expect him to Come in and make an impact on day one. Also, who can he mentor on the team, uh, to help bring them up. And, uh, a lot of times it’s easier to do that with somebody new versus some, somebody who’s already just been on a roster. And maybe, you know, somebody who’s already on a roster, uh, takes the, takes the, uh, guidance and, uh, the, you know, uh, I guess the, the Direction of Devin Lloyd, maybe that helps out, um, you know, as well, but sometimes somebody new is probably a little bit better. And then, the same reasons that you brought up for, for safety, after, uh, Trevon Merrick, I believe he signed a three-year deal. Yeah, 3-year contract last year. So, um, so this is gonna be year 2 of the 3 year deal, if you get somebody in there who you feel like can, you know, uh, produce, you know. It, it helps out when you’re going to have to pay Bryce Young, uh, to have that position, you know, kind of settled, um, for the future. So, all of those are, are good ideas. Um, it just depends on who’s there, and you listen, I think I kind of learned my lesson from last year, like, no, you need to do this in the first round. Well, the guys that they would have gone after in the first round, You know, like, we, we’ve heard some stuff about some people. Oh, like James Pierce. I didn’t want to bring up names, but we heard some stuff about some people who were, who were, who were there, and, and we ended up getting, you know, Nick S Gordon and Princely Umami yelling in the 2nd and 3rd round. there’s, this is the thing about. How The injury to one player changes the offseason equation drastically for the Carolina Panthers. The injury to Ikeawanu changed everything this offseason, in my mind for Carolina because You didn’t, if, if, if Icky’s healthy, you’re talking about, OK, what’s the contract extension going to be? Because he’s going into the last year, 5th year of his rookie option. What’s the contract extension gonna look like, which changes the math on everything else. Because if you sign Nikki Awana to a long-term extension, OK, then that’s future money that’s not available for, well, maybe you can’t go get Devin Lloyd. Maybe you can only get Jalen Phillips, or maybe you can’t get Jalen Phillips, you can only get Devin Lloyd. So again, it changes the math, and also it changes the approach of the draft. Literally one injury, one injury changed the offseason for the Carolina Panthers because there’s that butterfly effect, you know, the trickle-down, the ripple effect, however you want to describe it. The one injury to Ikiwadu changed everything. Changed everything. So again, like, going into the playoffs. No one thought about, yeah, first-round left tackle. No, like no one was really thinking that. They’re like, OK, like we add another playmakers or defensive player that you could add, whatever it might be. Now it’s, like you mentioned, offensive tackle firmly in play at number 19. It really is firmly in play at number 19. So there is, There are a lot of questions because in terms of what they can do or what they should do, because of literally the injury to one player. I’m not holding this against Aki Awanu, it’s just simply just the reality of the situation. It’s not something you see very often, at least not for this Panthers team, at least going into the offseason, because again, you have a young player that you were developing to be a future at left tackle, and you just have a massive question mark simply because of the injury. Simply because of that, it, it changed this offseason for Carolina. It’s been interesting to see Chris, Brent Tillis, and Dan Morgan navigate the offseason with that big question mark at left tackle. Yeah, and they’ve been doing a great job doing that as well. Um, you know, it’s, I, I’ve said this before, I think I said it a couple of weeks ago or or 3 weeks ago on this same show. I don’t, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this confident. In a Panthers front office and you know feeling like that a front office, you know, delivered three years in a row when it came down to free agency and now there’s a chance and I felt like the, the 2024 draft was, was, was pretty good, you know, Jonathan Brooks getting injured again, you know, kind of derailed it a little bit. 20245 was a smash hit. You have an opportunity to go even bigger and better in 2026. And if you’re able to do that. Then, you know, I think the Panthers are, are firmly in the playoff conversation early on. Like that, that is definitely the, the, um, The expectation, um, so far, I mean, right now for sure, I think you should get at least one more win than what you got last year just off of what you got, what you have on the field right now, um, and that’s not even in, you know, not even thinking about the draft just based off of what you have right now, you should get at least one more win. So we’re talking about a 9-win season, um, and then we’ll see what you do in the draft and we’ll see how players jump from year 1 to year 2. How players jump from year 2 to year 3, how players jump from year 3 to year 4, you know, and, and that’s Bryce Young right there. How do you get better, um, as a, as a young player to contribute to winning, uh, on, on a team? And I think one person that we haven’t talked about a lot, um, is also John Mechi, you know, like, you know, he has a, he has a real opportunity, you know, he’s somebody that people really liked a lot coming out of Alabama. Um, you know, he’s, you know, had some health issues, uh, since being in the NFL, and that’s probably a big, yeah, you know, it’s a big health issue for sure, uh, so it’s, um, you know, he hasn’t been able to really get on the right footing, but man, if this is his opportunity to come into a situation where it’s comfortable for him, he’s catching passes from somebody he’s comfortable with. And if he can ingratiate himself in, in this offense and be that home run hitter for the Panthers, and if the Panthers can get another home run hitter out of the draft, like, for real, look out, like for real, look out, this, this could be what we all have been wanting and waiting for. I know last week you said you had a concern about running back. At least in terms of, is there an explosive player? We know Chuba Hubbard can churn out first downs, but he’s not consistently like a game breaker in terms of like he can turn an eight-yard carry into a 25 yard carrying. Just generally not, but he can, he can churn out first downs. I’m really am curious to see what the approach is going to be with Jonathan Brooks during the offseason. Dave Canales earlier this week did say that he expects. Or at least in in as anticipating, I should say, that Jonathan Brooks should be participating in OTAs and stuff during this offseason. The last time that Jonathan Brooks played meaningful snaps, like, oh, I’m talking like truly meaningful snaps in games where, you know, 2025 plus just snaps in a game, not even necessarily carries, but just actually getting that many touches on the field. November 2023. November 2023 was the last time he actually played significant football. I know he played a couple of games, obviously in 2024, played a couple of games, but I mean, I think he probably was on the field for a total of like 15 snaps in those games that he played before he re-injured his leg. So, how much can you expect a guy that hasn’t played meaningful games, meaningful playing time since November 2023? How much early on can you actually expect him as his body continues to to put that workload back on his body that he hasn’t done since November of 2023? By the time August rolls around when you get your first preseason game, that’s darn near three years. Like 3 calendar years. I mean, that’s exac it’s essentially what you’re looking at. How much can you actually, how much workload can you expect from him, at least early on in the season? I don’t expect him like right from the get-go, boom, 15 carries, young man. I don’t know if his body, his body is gonna have to get used to that week in and week out grind once again because it’s been so darn long, Chris. It has been, um, but the, the good thing is like November 2023, he tears his ACL. Um, takes some time to rehab, gets drafted by the Panthers, and what happens again in November or December 2024. It was November, so at this point he’s already gone more than a year, right? And you know, as far as like just getting over that injury, I would expect him with that amount of time passed, Panthers not putting a rush on him getting on the field, that he should be just. Healthy, you know what I’m saying, and hopefully, uh, he can just kind of get on the field and start getting those reps in, but that’s what, uh, OTAs are for. This is what minicamp is gonna be for. This is what training camp is gonna be for, and I, I am rooting for him. I want him to be a part of the team because. He does have that game breaker ability. Here’s the thing though, with the signing of AJ Dillon, with, uh, Trevor A Chan being there, uh, already, you know, penciled in with what he can do on special teams, you have AJ Dillon who’s there could be a legit good backup, and you have Chuba Hubbard there, uh, penciled in as a starter. One of those 4 is getting cut. You think so? When’s the last time they, they held 4 running backs on the 53 man roster? So this is, this is one of those things where like, For Jonathan Brooks this offseason and his um ascension and his and just showing he can be healthy, showing that he can get back into football the way you just described after it’s been all, you know, 2.5 years at this point, by the time we get to the season, 3 years. He’s gonna have to show that there’s some value there, or else the Panthers can absolutely move on. Like, they proved it to themselves, we can get a man off the street. And you know he can come in and do some good stuff for us and we let him go. He goes, he goes and gets paid somewhere else. And now we have AJ Dillon, and he’s, he’s a big bruising back. I’ve liked him since Boston College, you know what I’m saying? So he, he himself hasn’t played much in the last couple of years. He only played 7 games last season. It’s, but you have somebody there that can be a legit backup, uh, to Chuba Hubbard, and you can give some Trevor, uh, some, uh, some carries to Trevor if you need to as well. Out of those 4, it feels as if somebody is going to get cut and, um, I think the pressure is squarely on Jonathan Brooks. Now, if Jonathan Brooks comes in and wilds and everything, then look out because maybe it’s AJ Dillon who doesn’t make it, you know, and you know, you were given this opportunity and hey, like, you know, you’re our backup plan, but listen, our, our first plan is starting to work out now. Uh, you just never know what could happen, but I think this puts a lot of pressure on Jonathan Brooks, not only to get right physically, but be right as a, as a player once again. I mean, he could end up getting smashed on, on a, on a practice squad, but yeah, there’s a possibility of that. I mean, AJ Dillon could be, could be the same thing. I think AJ Dillon was brought in as insurance in case Jonathan Brooks just can’t do it. I, I think it’s if, if he just can’t get back into the football shape and everything that we expect, if he just can’t do it, I think AJ Dillon is that. Is that insurance for it. But I mean, like you mentioned, like if they needed to go get someone that’s still a free agent, I mean, guys like Antonio Gibson’s a free agent right now. Naji Harris is a free agent. There’s guys like Jeremy McNichols, um, Michael Carter, who played at Carolina is, is available. Zamir White, North Carolina native, Scotland County. Him back home, uh, he’s available as well. So I mean there are guys like if you wanna just add like, you know, plug in and play just because you need a body, those guys are out there. But I really am, I really am rooting for Jonathan Brooks. I, I genuinely am because I want him to be what he was at Texas. Yeah, absolutely, 100%. I, I, I, I think that again, when he was drafted, but you and I talked about when he was drafted, it’s just, man, you could have that. Deshaun Foster, Steven Davis combination once again. You could have that. DeSean, uh, the, uh, I would say DeShaun Foster already, the, uh, Jonathan Stewart with D’Angelo Williams. Like you could have that combination once again with him and Chuba. Like that was, we, I think we all were hoping for that, and I think we all still are to see that combination again. So I, I would like to see that for him and for the Panthers as well, because man, if they have a game breaker in the running back room as well, a consistent week in and week out game breaker in the running back room. Oh man, they can only open up the offense so much more. They can only open up the offense so much more, especially because Dave Canales is, and there’s obviously Brad Idzik being the play caller now has been, they want to build off play action. That’s what they want to build off of. And if you got a game breaker at running back, guess what? You can do that. You could do that We’ll see, Chris. 3 weeks, 3 weeks till the draft. If you have. Personnel grouping where you have a healthy Jonathan Brooks who’s already had some explosive plays. On a field with T Mac, John Mechi, and let’s say Jimmy Horn Junior. What about Jalen Coker? Let’s put Jalen Coker in there too, just to go ahead and, and, and make it a smooth 5. What are you supposed to do as a defense? Pray. Man, Man, man, man. The possibilities The possibilities That’s what this time of season is for. That’s what this time of year is for that. That’s what this time of year is for. Yeah, of course, we’re we’re gonna think all the craziness, but look, I, I, it makes me more appreciative of this now because we lived through a time where we’re just like, hey, you know. If Jonathan Mingo can get right. If Jonathan Mingo can get right, boy, listen, we could possibly win 3 games this year, OK? We’ve come up so far in the world, man. I’m appreciative. Yeah, we’ve, uh, we’ve come a far, uh, we’re a far cry from Terrace Marshall Junior, Jonathan Mingo, and DJ Shark. Listen, far cry. Hey, hey, listen, great career, DJ Shark. I know you, um, he retired recently. Oh, he did. Listen, if Amir Smith Baret can break one. I kind of forgot about him. I kind of forgot about him. So yeah, he had that, he had that he could just break one, boy, we had to possibly get to 4 wins this season. He had that punt return against Chicago. That’s. Get the punt return against Chicago. Appreciate your service, man. Shout outs to 2023. God, what a time. God, what a time. Man. Again, pick 19. Who do you want? Let us know in the comment section. And also if you just want to drop in there saying a, um, Just be thankful that it’s no longer 2023. You wanna do that. God. Shout out to Terrace Marshall Junior, man. Hey. Appreciate your service, man. The team was so bad. It was so bad. What was my man from the Bahamas who had like the longest catch of the 2023 season, and I think it was at Chicago, and nobody else. It was like a 44 yarder. He was like 6’5. Anyway, we’ll figure it out. Somebody will put it in the comments. Oh, practice squad Mike. It’s practice squad Mike, I think, yeah. Because we called him Practice squad Mike, and that was like his only catch of the year. It was like it was like an explosive. Practice squad Mike. If he could just get on the field, we could get 5 wins this season. at the practice squad, Mike. OK, we’re out. We’re out. We’re going too far in the rabbit hole. We’ll see you all next week.
