Breaking the Mold: How Late-Round Draft Picks Could Propel the Carolina Panthers to Victory
/It would be awesome if it was opening day for Carolina Panthers 2023 season already Unfortunately, it’s several months away that feels like an eternity. Instead, I'm in deep thought about this roster and our discussion from The Friday Night Free-for-All. (Ya’ll need to check out the FFA..it’s your chance to host the C3 Panthers podcast). A question was lobbed to me by the Professor himself, gracefully hosting for Cody as he took a much-needed break. Tony asked, "Can we expect a 3rd round pick to be a starter on this roster?” I do think it’s reasonable, and Scott Fitterer recently stated he expects third-round pick, DJ Johnson, to be an immediate contributor as Carolina transitions to a 3-4 defense.
Anticipation is high, and many fans have reverted back to old habits, doubting the future success of this roster and this star-studded coaching staff. Doubting the immediacy of a player to hit the field and, in this case, hit the quarterback frequently seems a relic of the old Ron Rivera days who thought players needed 10,000 reps before they could be fully ready for the field. Here we've got the opportunity to elaborate on that discussion and hopefully deter others from these typical Panthers pitfalls.
When we think back about our Panthers' history, I remember some of our best teams having late-round draft picks step up in some big situations. The underdogs, if you will. Sam Mills found success despite his diminutive stature, and Jake Delhomme outplayed his arm talent with grit and veracity. Those two guys are some of the greatest players in Panthers history, and the list goes on and on of those that were able to contribute despite draft status. Speaking of lists, there's a mile-long list of players taken high in the draft that didn't pan out. Many fear a misstep that this coaching staff has made in the 3rd and 4th rounds of this year's draft, but looking into our history, it's easy to see that an oblong ball would bounce in any direction.
Something that's bothered me since Frank Reich's opening presser was a statement he made about the effects of coaching. Reich said, "It’s all about the players," and "coaching is only about 20% of the equation. He eluded the players, or the roster equates to 80% of the team's success. Reich's statement plays right into the fears of Panthers fans about our 3rd and 4th round picks. Many fear the defense isn't complete, and not enough attention was given to it during the off-season. If Reich's statement was true, why did we see such vast improvement once Wilks took over last season? We started 1-4, and Rhule completely lost the fan base, along with the players' belief in the system. Wilks changed our defensive scheme along with play-calling tendencies on offense. We somehow almost made the playoffs and got Wilks to .500 as interim head coach. The improvement should be attributed to coaching and motivation. That team won those games on pride alone because there wasn't much coaching staff when they were successful, which brings me back to the roster. The entire reason Rhule was fired was because the roster was greater than the win-loss record. Wouldn't it be more prudent of a coaching staff to do more with less rather than risk underproduction with star players? Maybe this explains the picks of Reich in the closing of the NFL 2023 Draft.
Development: Panthers fans have been conditioned to tune out of the draft after the first couple of picks. Marty Hurney was notorious for missing on late-round picks. Almost to the point where Panthers fans expect those players to get cut or bust in general. This shouldn't be the expectation going forward. Look back to what Singleton did last year in Evero's defense. He had 163 total tackles greatly outperforming his previous seasons. I don't believe Singleton greatly changed his off-season regime; however, I do believe scheme and coaching made the difference that put him in the best position for success. Not only this, but good coaching enables development to take hold, and repetitions start to yield results when players are in the best position, a prepared position that is familiar on the field.
To answer Tony's question, we may not expect a 3rd or 4th round player to start, but we SHOULD expect them to develop and progress greatly compared to years past. Frank Reich's estimates for the impact of coaching were inaccurate, and we should expect the roster to overperform compared to previous years. My only warning would be to temper the expectations of our rookie quarterback. That situation is volatile and may greatly vary due to those around him. Remember, so much work has been put into the offense this off-season because we were so far away from being a viable NFL passing offense. Passing the ball in the NFL takes a lot of moving parts, and the Panthers have been far away for the past two seasons. Believe in our coaching staff and their ability to progress these players acquired, even if they weren't the players of your choice.
By @DeezIllSkillz