The Panthers have the No. 16 overall pick in the 2019 NFL

Draft thanks to their 7-9 record and third place finish in the NFC South in 2018. There are a lot of holes on the roster that have to be filled Carolina Panthers Hoodie , and because there probably aren’t enough draft picks available to fill them the Panthers will have to be smart with their approach to the draft. Let’s take a look at the five position groups the Panthers need to address, in no particular order.Defensive endThe Panthers have six defensive ends currently on the roster, but four of them will be free agents when the league year starts in March: Julius Peppers, Efe Obada (ERFA), Bryan Cox Jr. (ERFA) and Wes Horton. The two remaining are Marquis Haynes and Mario Addison. That’s not a sufficient group of pass rushers for any team, so the Panthers will definitely have to address this need somehow. Fortunately, there are some really good defensive ends in this year’s draft class. Will any of the good ones be available by the time the No. 16 pick rolls around? We can only hope.Offensive tackleJust like defensive end, the Panthers have six players listed at offensive tackle on their current roster, but again, three of them are set to hit free agency in March: Daryl Williams, Chris Clark and Marshall Newhouse. The only ones left are Taylor Moton, Matt Kalil and Isaiah Battle. Moton is solid, but Kalil’s health is a question (but he hopes to ‘give it another go’ in 2019) and Battle has never played a regular season NFL snap in the four years he’s bounced around various practice squads across the league.To put it lightly, the Panthers’ offensive tackle situation is dire. The Panthers may not be able to afford to re-sign Williams (unless his season-ending injury substantially drives down his market value) and we saw what a left tackle rotation of Chris Clark and Marshall Newhouse can do to a franchise quarterback’s long-term health. I don’t know if the Panthers can fix this problem with a first round draft pick because I don’t know if a cornerstone left tackle will fall to No. 16 overall. This might be a position that has to be addressed in free agency, but if a quality left tackle miraculously falls into the Panthers’ lap during the draft, it should take Marty Hurney approximately 2.7 seconds to hand his card in at the podium.SafetyThe Panthers have eight players listed at safety on their roster right now. There are two problems with that number Cheap Customized Carolina Panthers Jerseys , though. Four of them are scheduled to hit free agency: Mike Adams, Eric Reid, Colin Jones and Damian Parms (ERFA). Of the four safeties left, two of them are not free safeties (Da’Norris Searcy, Rashaan Gaulden) and two of them are virtually unknown quantities (Kai Nacua, Cole Luke). The Panthers could address this problem in the draft. Dan Kadar of Mocking the Draft has the Panthers doing that with their No. 16 overall pick by taking Deionte Thompson from Alabama. Depending on how the draft board looks that might not be the biggest mistake the Panthers could make in the draft, but it might be better to try and find a free safety in free agency instead. (Note: There aren’t a lot of options here, to be honest. It’s a matter of ‘Would you rather have mediocrity at safety or mediocrity at defensive end/offensive tackle?’ and that’s really not a difficult question to answer.)Running backBefore you get mad, hear me out. The Panthers rely on Christian McCaffrey more than they should. Yes, he’s awesome, but you shouldn’t dedicate 95% of your snaps to one player (other than the quarterback because you kinda have to do that). The Panthers need at least one running back to pair with McCaffrey. They fixed this problem last offseason by signing C.J. Anderson to a one-year ‘prove it’ deal, but then decided they didn’t need his services any longer and let him go. As of today, there are six running backs on the roster other than McCaffrey: Kenjon Barner, Cameron Artis-Payne, Fozzy Whittaker, Reggie Bonnafon www.panthersfootballauthentic.com , Travaris Cadet and Elijah Hood. Of those six, five of them are set to hit free agency. Bonnafon is the only one left. (Hood is an ERFA so he could return.) I’m not sure the Panthers will allocate cap space to bring any of those five guys back when they could throw a fourth or fifth round pick at a running back and get the same amount of production, but somehow they need to find someone to spell McCaffrey. Of course, they could always just roll with Bonnafon and Hood if they wanted to save their draft picks for other needs, but I don’t know if that’s the best idea.QuarterbackAgain, let me explain before you bring out the pitchforks. Cam Newton is the franchise quarterback and that’s not changing any time soon. But, let’s be honest: His shoulder isn’t right. He hasn’t been the same since T.J. Watt speared him in Week 10. The Panthers must have a backup plan in case Newton’s shoulder isn’t ready for 2019. They went with a rotation of Taylor Heinicke, Kyle Allen and Garrett Gilbert over the last two weeks of the season, but that’s not going to be good enough for the long term. Allen is currently the only backup quarterback who is a) healthy, and b) on the roster. The Panthers should look for value picks in the draft to find a backup quarterback, or they should sign a quality veteran to run the offense in case Cam isn’t ready to go. I’m sure this will go over like a fart in a spacesuit, but there’s a certain quarterback out there right now who would be a perfect short-term replacement for Cam, but whether or not the Panthers would be willing to make that move is up in the air.If you’re still reading this, congrats. You have dedication! Now that you’ve come this far, do me one more favor—tell me which need you think is the most important, and how the Panthers should address that need. Should they use the No. 16 overall pick to fill the need Carolina Panthers T-Shirt , or should they sign a free agent? Who should they draft and/or sign? I want to know that you think.Panthers training camp 2018: Julius Peppers and Curtis Samuel failed their physicals Julius Peppers, Curtis Samuel, Chris Manhertz, and Bryan Cox all failed their physicals today at the start of training camp in Spartanburg. All of these players had known injuries/surgeries this off season or during the 2017 season and were expected to begin training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list or at least be held out of opening practices.Cox suffered a knee injury during minicamp, while Manhertz broke his foot similarly to Greg Olsen’s 2017 injury. Both players were slated for depth/rotational roles with the Panthers if they made the final roster in 2018.Samuel, per Max Henson of Panthers.com, is being held back largely as a precaution. Coaches are probably wary of rushing him back on to the field only to see him re-injure himself in a repeat of his rookie season in 2017.Peppers is also not exactly a surprise. Both he and Luke Kuechly reported having surgery to repair a torn labrum in each of their right shoulders. While the hope was for Peppers to be ready for the start of training camp, some latitude has to be given for the man being 38 years old. Marty Hurney went on the record to say that he is not worried about Peppers at this time. Personally, I’ll get worried when we start hearing about the possibility of him missing the season opener against Dallas on September 9th.Let’s end this on some positive news, shall we? Kuechly, who I mentioned as having the same surgery as Peppers, passed his physical and will be ready for training camp.