As most of you that read this blog know, we mostly cover USC athletics. On occasion we like to step out of our norm and cover what is going on right now. As you noticed ( here and here) we have been trying to give you our two cents on the NFL draft as it relates to college players and maybe some USC players.
Well what we don’t cover is our local NFL team (Carolina Panthers), but I took a moment out of my day to question the biggest panthers fan about what the Charlotte Panthers might do with their upcoming draft picks. JR is a good friend, a former blogger on LOHD and a die hard Panthers fan. He usually does double duty on weekends in the fall – Saturday’s in Columbia, Sundays in Charlotte – when the Gamecocks and Panthers both have home games. Which if you don’t know, can be pretty brutal when USC has a night game, and the Panthers have a 1 o’clock kick.
Today I asked JR what the Panther’s might do with their upcoming picks, and here is what he had to say……
The panther’s immediate needs are WR and DE so more than likely that’s where they are heading. They would jump at getting Notre Dame’s Golden Tate (Jr’s personal preference) , Sergio Kindle (OLB/DE, Texas) ,USC’s Everson Griffen or Florida’s Carlos Dunlap. Now if Colt McCoy is still around that’s when this pick could get real interesting as it would be really hard for them to pass on Colt. Because the top guys I mentioned should be gone by the time the panthers pick here are some other panthers options if none of the above guys are left:
Arrelious Benn, WR, Illinois
Brandon LaFell, WR, LSU
Damian Williams, WR, USC
Linval Joseph, DL, East Carolina
JR’s Crystal Ball Says:
All in all I would expect one Griffen or Tate to fall to us or we move up a couple spots to grab the remaining one. It’s a good draft if the panthers can land one of these guys without trading up, its still good if we trade up and only lose something like a 6throunder…. Its bad if the panthers reach for any of the 4 guys in the “other options” section with the 2nd round pick.
3rd round look for the opposite of the 2nd round WR/ DE or DT…. I’m hearing good things about Jacoby Ford in the 3rd or Andre Roberts in the 4th… would love to see the panthers grab Geathers in the 5th or 6th … Look for at least 2 WRs drafted, a DE, maybe a DT, CB, and QB… panthers might reach for someone like Dan LeFevour or Tony Pike in the later rounds but I hope not….
Other possibilities for the middle rounds:
Sam Thomas, DT, N. Carolina — Mardy Gilyard, WR, Cincinnati –Corey Wootton, DE, Northwestern–Jason Worilds, OLB/DE, Virginia Tech–Chris Cook, CB, Virginia–Brandon Ghee, CB, Wake Forest–Jerome Murphy, CB, South Florida–Dominique Franks, CB, Oklahoma
Thanks again JR for your insight on the Carolina Panthers and what could happen tonight. I guess we will have to wait and see.
