We bring you another edition of our answers portion of this week’s fan mailbag!
Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! We are approaching the slow part of the NFL Offseason, which means we are in prime speculation mode about the roster, especially the bottom end of it. This week, we got a lot of questions about our favorite discussion topic: late round draft picks/undrafted free agents. Just as a reminder, this mailbag is a place where I answer all your questions from earlier this week, in Brian Asks. Come have fun in the comments with your thoughts on the questions/answers, and load up on questions you’d like to have answered next week. Comment in the Brian Asks piece to start the week, and we’ll do our best to have some answers in next week’s edition of Brian Answers.
Let’s dive in!
Bruce Guild: Brian, have you watched much of the film on J Horn from camp and what are your takeaways?
I know he is a late round pick, I understand we have a talented WR room this year, his 40 time is not top tier but the little I have seen of him so far looks surprisingly special. It just feels like you are watching a very fast, competent and confident receiver.
I have high hopes we landed a special one in the late rounds.
The fast wide receivers always get the most attention this early in the off-season. Especially when said wide receiver is surrounded by more of his peers and less NFL seasoned talent. I like what I’ve seen from his highlights so far. I also liked what I saw from guys like Joe Adams and Kealoha Pilares at the same point in the off-season He’s got some skills with the ball in his hands, and he certainly has a skill set the meat and potatoes of this wide receiver room lacked in 2024. I think healthy optimism is fine at this point in the off-season, but I’m not currently expecting more than a 53 man roster spot at best until we see some training camp and preseason reps. Luckily, no matter how he does as a wide receiver in his rookie season, he should have a great opportunity as the top kick and punt returner.
right_turn_clyde: I’m looking forward to seeing what our revamped DL will look like. If Bobby Brown has the desired impact this unit could really be a force to deal with. If other teams have to double BB and DB our LB’s should be able to stuff the run. and get after the passer much more effectively. If our offense stays on track and our defense can play at least to the league average a winning record this year is entirely possible.
I think we could be on the cusp of our first back-to-back winning seasons. Have I OD’d on optimism?
The defensive line and how it acclimates with all the new pieces is definitely the thing I am paying attention to the most this off-season, even as an admitted defensiveback Stan. The Panthers currently (on paper) have a group of defensive linemen that should allow them to line up in any formation they choose on a given Sunday. Bobby Brown, Derrick Brown, A’Shawn Robinson, and Cam Jackson should give them a formidable group of interior linemen to rotate as their top 4, whether it be on true 3-4 base defense snaps or as the interior group on 2-4 nickel defense as the interior two. On the outside, they should be able to deploy their pass rush specialists (Princely Umanmielen, Patrick Jones, Amare Barno) in ways to capitalize on their skills while their more traditional edge players like DJ Wonnum and Nic Scourton can take a bit of the rush defense stuff off their plates on the strong side. There’s even still a place for a guy like DJ Johnson, who at this point figures to be more of an edge setter in run defense than anything else.
However, all of that paper scouting depends on how they all mesh together. A winning record is possible, however for all the optimism of what this front seven looks like on paper, just remember it could go in the other direction, especially early on in the season.
PoundingSince95: Which Panther will have the most starts in FF this year?
Maybe Chubba, but I am saying probably the UDFA kicker lol
My money would be on Adam “Feedin” Thielen in PPR leagues. He’s still Bryce Young’s favorite target, and the addition of Tetairoa McMillan should open him up for a lot of easy completions between the chains when healthy, so he should start as a flex for a lot of teams. Second behind that, I’d say Chuba Hubbard is a safe RB2 play and I’d swipe him up without a second thought if you can nail down your RB1 early in the draft. He could probably even be your RB1 if you go WR/TE/QB heavy to start your draft. Starts don’t matter so much for RBs, but Chuba should still get a ton of volume.
I wouldn’t speculate on kicker just yet. Luckily whoever the Panthers kicker is, you can probably take them undrafted if you really want to.
Vashti2112: We’re in the dead period. A lot of moving parts have been put in play – Lots of players added in FA, the draft, UDFAs…is there anything to expect/wait on/hope for from now until, say mid-training camp?
A signing or two (“Survey says….Blackmon!”)? June 1st cuts?
Or are we full into thumb-twiddling time? (just remember, if you keep doing it, your face might freeze that way!)
We’re probably in the part of the off-season where signings are going to be boring and not move the needle. I expect Carolina to sign a safety (maybe Julian Blackmon), but I don’t expect it to be in the next two or three weeks. At this point, many of the veteran free agents know what their contracts are going to look like for the 2025 season. They don’t really have a reason to rush into signing a contract unless a team decides to up the ante, which I don’t think many teams are doing in May of the off-season. Don’t stress too much about the safety position, there’s a strong chance if the Panthers don’t add someone out on the market now, they’ll add one once mandatory roster cuts start happening. And for all of you clamoring for a Blackmon signing, no, I don’t like them waiting this long to add another safety either.
CusterFlux: It took looking at highlights to learn how to pronounce Umanmielen (ooh man, me yellin’). And Princely just doesn’t seem like a football name. He needs a nickname. Unfortunately, his initials don’t help (pee-ew). Do you have any other ideas?
Princely Umami. That’s the one.
SwampPanther: Seems like as good a place as any to ask, why is a 6th round pick causing so much excitement in the fanbase the past couple weeks?
Because its Panthers fan tradition to fall in love with a late round/UDFA wide receiver during the off-season. Then, when David Moore makes the roster over him, we’ll freak out for two days until he gets added back to the practice squad on waivers. He isn’t a kicker, so he should be a safe bet to make it back and dawn the Damiere Byrd House Signa once again, for those that came before him.
MarloBarksdale99: Also, do you or anyone have any weird superstitions or rituals for game days? Personally I won’t wear back to back jerseys of the same player every week. I don’t have many jerseys so it’s a Beason Reebok electric blue jersey, a bootleg Smitty jersey, Cam, and then a Kuechly jersey. This has not worked out for me or the team at all but one day it will………maybe I just need to stick to one every week or some other weird rotation.
Any time the Panthers go on a two game win streak early in the season, I will wear whatever the last hoodie/shirt was. Their two big winning streaks of the last decade or so (2013 and 2015) all came when I was wearing the same hoodie for all of the games, and ended when I wasn’t able to dawn it due to travel. So now, when they win a game I’ll try to maintain either the same article of clothing or at least a similar type and same color. Its not an exact science, but I’ll never forget that 2013 season where I gave up on the Panthers early on, only for them to win every game I was wearing the same Titans hoodie. 8 straight games, then I got stranded away from home without it and they lost to the Saints in week 14. That one stung a little extra.
@WTMealey: With the schedule releasing tell us your opinion on prime time games including but not limited to Thurs night games
The fewer prime time games, the better, as a Panthers fan. I don’t like going into work the next day after the team gets embarrassed in front of the nation, especially after a series of 1PM wins preceding it.
KeepPounding88: Who will get more sacks: Scourton or Princely?
I’m going with Scourton, and my main reason is I expect him to get a lot of snaps with Jadeveon Clowney going off into free agency. Princely Umanmielen is definitely more of a pass rusher, but I think he’ll be part of a rotation for a significant bit of his rookie season. Nic Scourton might be a day one starter at the rate things are going.
LouWillVille: Most preseason power rankings have the Panthers in the 24-29 range:
-NFL.com (24th)
-ESPN (27th)
-FoxSports (25th)
-SportsIllustrated (29th)
Last season I count 20 teams with 8+ wins, 21 teams with 7+ wins, and 22 teams with 6+ wins. I think most of the fanbase would be disappointed with anything less than 7 wins, meaning we expect to be a top 20(ish) team next season. Where would you put us in your power rankings?
I think 26th is a fair ranking for now. While the Panthers did make a ton of improvements on paper, I can see why someone on the outside looking in would still keep them in the bottom 3rd of the league. They can certainly improve and prove people wrong, but you need to see Bryce Young continue his momentum from 2024, you need to see the offense continue to score points now that opposing defenses have an idea of what they are going to throw out schematically, and you definitely need to see this defense be cohesive and improve from a dreadful 2024. It all sounds logical to me, but we have to see it in practice before they move up those power rankings.
CamelRingMaster: If you had to rank our draft picks 1-8 based on who you think will have the most impact in year one how would you rank them?
- WR Tetairoa McMillan: I see no reason he’s not taking snaps as WR1 as early as the first snap of the season.
- S Lathan Ransom: Subject to change, but he currently has a major inside track to a huge amount of the snap share in the secondary early on at safety.
- EDGE Nic Scourton: With Clowney gone, he’s likely a day one starter. With a platoon of other edge players around him, he may not play as many snaps as the aforementioned Ransom.
- EDGE Princely Umanmielen: The Panthers don’t need him to be anything more than a pass rusher to start off his career, and that’s just fine. If he and Scourton are playing 90% of the snaps, there’s a major problem with the rest of the depth Carolina has assembled at that position.
- DL Cam Jackson: Similar story to Princely, they don’t need him to be anything more than a solid run stopper, as he’ll have plenty of help on the interior.
- RB Travis Etienne: He should slide right into a 3rd down/change of pace back role right away, with some returner upside to boot.
- TE Mitchell Evans: I have high hopes for the guy, and I think he could work his way into the 3-4 spot in this ranking. Hard to say since TE isn’t a position you can really project until we see full 11-on-11 snaps. Currently, he does a little bit of everything well as a receiver and blocker.
- WR Jimmy Horn Jr: Don’t take him being listed as 8 as me writing him off. Carolina just has a deep WR room. There’s still plenty of time for him to move up this ranking and Dave Canales clearly likes having a guy with his skillset for his offensive playbook. He just doesn’t quite fit the needs as much as the rest listed above him right now.
schrodingersblackcat: Which will happen first?:
1. The Canes hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup again
2. Pete Rose finally gets into the Baseball HOF
3. The Hornets draft a legitimate superstar
The NBA Draft is probably rigged, so I’m going with option 1. Go Canes!
Join us next week for another edition of our fan mailbag. Enjoy your weekend, and KEEP POUNDING!