i get annoyed when sports writers say that every year is THE most important offseason for their given team. i mean, duh. that’s like saying every anniversary year in your relationship is THE most important year. it’s supposed to be. you’re supposed to be getting better every year; learning from any recent shortcomings and continuing to grow with one another as you progress. 2025 is no different for the panthers. here’s some of what we know now that the 2024 season is over:

 

bryce is our guy.

 

dan & dave are here to stay.

 

the o-line is light years’ better.

 

the defense was atrocious against the run.

 

we have the 3rd most picks in the draft this year.

 

we have to be flexible cap-wise in free agency.

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here’s what i believe we should do in free agency and the draft.

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free agency

 

to start, the biggest question-mark for me so far is what should we do with miles sanders? though split in the fanbase, what i believe is that we should resign him to a one year, team-friendly ‘prove it’ deal as our rb2 behind chuba while splitting snaps at slot receiver where he excelled in the latter half of the season. now, the practicality of this idea is probably ‘up in the air’, but if executed could provide us with temporary relief as brooks recovers from his 2nd acl injury this upcoming season. resigning andy to a team-friendly deal was smart. the veteran connection he has with bryce has showed and told to be beneficial. benching bryce halfway through the season was a revelation in disguise despite the false sense of dread it created in the interim, so keeping dalton behind him in the same system should provide an equal part of security and growth next year in the qb room. losing shaq however was bittersweet. more bitter. despite the litany of injuries, i still believe he has something to offer to our linebacker heavy, 3-4 system when fully healthy. he was an impactful veteran presence that you probably could’ve gotten a heavy discount on this year, that would’ve provided depth in a role that thomas davis eventually filled later on in his career not too long ago. i understand money is tight this offseason (thanks fitterer), but now you have to look to using money towards a position potentially that you otherwise didn’t need to invest in outside of the draft. safety is a must (chinn i still miss you). demani richardson played really good for being an undrafted free agent last year, so i believe that giving him more reps at strong safety and bringing in a new elite, younger (or veteran?) presence at the free safety position will do wonders for us in the secondary. xavier woods just isn’t cutting it for the money we are paying him, and the unnecessary roughness calls he still commits at this point in his career has moved from absurd to laughably pathetic. as mentioned up top, stopping the run is critical and i plus everyone else cannot stress this enough. we gave up 3,057 rushing yards this past season. i’m going to state that again: we gave up 3,057 rushing yards this past season. this was 2nd worst all time, as in the history of this game becoming a professional past-time in this country. the fix to this will ultimately start in the front seven. derrick brown was out all year, we know, but there has to be ample depth to go along brown next year or improvement will be very minimal. evero will also need to modulate his system to allow for flexibility in play-style for our outside linebackers (looking at clowney here). I don’t believe that we need to pursue a top receiver this offseason, really at all. maybe i’m in the minority here, but with thielen coming back for at least one more year at the slot, legette coming off his nuisance injuries which held him back from fully performing in his rookie season, and coker who is not only a stud, but to me the best wr on the entire team (yes i said it), we need to run it back with this group and let them continue to gel together. also, as it relates to tommy tremble, please bring him back and finally cut ian thomas. tremble is a younger, more talented ian thomas who i imagine will be relatively cheap to maintain, and by cutting thomas we will be saving money that we can then fulfill with a contributing depth piece in our secondary for example. lastly, i know we dumped a lot of money last offseason into the o-line, and by all accounts it payed off greatly with us finishing in the top 10 in o-line production, but if corbett is not coming back due to back-to-back season ending injuries and mays is not ready to be the official starting center yet entering next year, finding a piece here could be a cherry on top. maybe an expensive cherry, but a necessary one nevertheless.

 

targets based on above

 

drew dalman (center) [if corbett is not resigned…]

jevon holland (safety)

tre’von moehrig (safety)

justin reid (safety)

milton williams (defensive tackle)

d.j. jones (defensive tackle)

mike hilton (slot corner)

jonathan jones (slot corner)

stephon gilmore (corner)

chase young (edge)

 

 

draft

 

draft time is always a fun time for a fan. as a kid, i used to make mocks in my school notebooks just to see how close i would get to actuality and why. i believe sports’ drafts are interesting because they get to the core of our very tribalistic being as humans in that we develop an emotional adoption towards barely legal adults sometimes to perform at their very best, relatively immediately. All within “our” system so that we can be the “best.” the only difference between sports and, oh i don’t know let’s say politics randomly, is that at least in sports you can measure who the best is: whoever wins the championship that season. then it’s a reset. it’s not really like that with the other one. instead, it's never-ending turmoil back and forth with real-world implications no matter who wins. anyways. the panthers have the 3rd most picks in the draft this year, some of which stemming from trades: 8th (1st), 57th (2nd), 74th (3rd), 110th (4th), 113th (4th), 141st (5th), 147th (5th), 164th (5th), 229th (7th). the idea of the draft of course is to add young talent to either fulfill key starting positions, or to develop them into depth pieces for your team. if you know draft culture then you know that everyone and their mother will have different opinions on what a team ought to do and why. well, this is my website so i’m going to do no different :). here’s my take on who the panthers should draft in april based on very rushed research, team needs, vibes, and of course, intuition.

 

preface: ideally, i would trade out of the 8th pick and back into the first while collecting another second round pick in the process. though reasonable and possible, right now, i don’t know the likelihood of this actually happening because we’re not in april yet and i unfortunately don’t work in the panthers’ front office. so these will be my picks in the unlikely scenario that no trades are made between the 1st and 7th rounds.

 

1st round, 8th pick: jalon walker, edge/ilb, georgia

 

2nd round, 57th pick: alfred collins, dt, texas

 

3rd round, 74th pick: demetrius knight jr, ilb, south carolina

 

4th round, 110th pick: tez johnson, wr, oregon

 

4th round, 113th pick: sebastian castro, s, iowa

 

5th round, 141st pick: nohl williams, cb, california

 

5th round, 147th pick: que robinson, edge, alabama

 

5th round, 164th pick: luke kandra, iol, cincinnati 

 

7th round, 229th pick: zah frazier, cb, utsa

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i love "my" team. get it? let’s see what they do.

 

 jacob :)