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CHARLOTTE https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Mario-Addison-Jersey , N.C. (AP) Watching the NFL draft at home on television the past five years has given Marty Hurney a different perspective on how he’ll approach his decision-making process in his second stint as Carolina Panthers general manager.Namely, Hurney said he won’t be trading away next year’s first-round draft pick.”I can tell you right now that you can consider next year’s first-round pick safe,” Hurney said with a laugh. ”… We will probably be getting calls, so if you can just tweet that out.”Hurney, who left the Panthers in 2012 but was re-hired earlier this offseason, has a history of wheeling and dealing on the first day of the NFL draft.In the 2008 draft, he traded away the team’s first-round draft pick in 2009 to get offensive tackle Jeff Otah with the 19th overall pick. The following year he traded away his 2010 first-round draft pick to get defensive end Everette Brown in the second round. Neither moved panned out well for the Panthers.”You step back and look at some of the things you have done,” Hurney said. ”You look at what you did and what you can do better. You also look at what you did well.”Overall, to be fair, Hurney has had plenty of success with first-round picks.He hit home runs by drafting defensive end Julius Peppers (2002), offensive tackle Jordan Gross (2003) Marquis Haynes Jersey , cornerback Chris Gamble (2004), linebacker Thomas Davis (2005), running back DeAngelo Williams (2006), linebacker Jon Beason (2007), running back Jonathan Stewart (2008), quarterback Cam Newton (2011) and linebacker Luke Kuechly (2012) in the first rounds. All of those players enjoyed – are or still enjoying – lengthy and successful NFL careers.FREE TO ROAM AT 24Hurney isn’t tipping his hand when it comes to this year’s draft, saying the Panthers could go in any direction with the 24th pick except quarterback. Overall, he feels good about the team’s depth up and down the roster after free agency.”There really isn’t a position that you say, ”OK, we have to get somebody there,”’ Hurney said.Hurney said ultimately the team’s decision will come down to what players are left on the board and which one could have the biggest immediate impact based on position need.QUARTERBACK WANTEDWhile Hurney won’t be taking a quarterback in the first round https://www.carolinapanthersfanshop.com/Torrey-Smith-Jersey , he wouldn’t rule out getting one in the later rounds as a potential backup for Newton. The Panthers still haven’t decided whether or not to re-sign veteran Derek Anderson.Hurney said one thing he learned from former Packers GM Ron Wolf was that drafting a quarterback later in a draft can pay big dividends since it is the one position that is the most highly coveted in the NFL.”You are always looking at young quarterbacks,” he said.However, Hurney’s previous decisions to take QBs late in the draft didn’t work out so well with Randy Fasani, Stefan Lefors and Tony Pike. He also missed early on Jimmy Clausen.NEW COORDINATORPanthers coach Ron Rivera said new offensive coordinator Norv Turner has made it pretty clear what type of players would fit best in his offensive scheme. Rivera said he had a pretty good idea already of what Turner wants having worked under him when Turner was head coach of the San Diego Chargers.HITS, MISSES AND BARGAINSDave Gettleman, now with the New York Giants, handled Carolina’s drafts the past five seasons and he did pretty well with the team’s top three draft picks each season.He did well getting defensive tackle Kawann Short in the second round at No. 44 in 2013, wide receiver Devin Funchess in the second round and guard Trai Turner in the third round in 2014 and cornerback James Bradberry in the second round in 2016.The Panthers have parted ways with defensive tackle Star Lotulelei (2013) and Kelvin Benjamin (2014), both first-round picks, but both are starters in Buffalo.The jury is still out on 2016 first-round draft pick Vernon Butler, a defensive tackle who has struggled with injuries.Two of the biggest bargains selected by Gettleman were linebackers A.J. Klein and David Mayo with fifth-round picks in 2013 and 2015 Dontari Poe Color Rush Jersey , respectively.— Ron Rivera is going on eight years of trying to establish the run in the Carolinas and it is past time he gave it a rest. If I thought he knew who I was then I would think he opened the game yesterday with five straight runs just to spite me. This is the part in the Optimist where I am supposed to point to the Panthers’ 3-2 record. I should say that there is still plenty of season left and that the Panthers are only getting healthier as they approach the meat of their divisional schedule. All of that is true. But can you really look at the rest of the schedule and tell me you trust Rivera to lead the Panthers into the playoffs?I have long been critical of Ron Rivera’s conservative decision making as head coach of the Panthers. I have also long been one of his biggest supporters. He has led the Panthers to their best successes. Records of 12-4, 15-1, and 11-5 are no accidents in the NFL. That they haven’t had those successes in back to back seasons was always, to my eyes, a testament to how close Rivera is to being great and not damning evidence of his flaws.I started a weekly column on this blog to point out the critical moments in games where he routinely and intentionally makes choices that lessen the Panthers chances of winning football games. These are moments that we have all seen game in and game out since his first season here. He doesn’t do this because he wants to lose, just as I didn’t point out the errors because I wanted him gone. He did what he thought was right. I wrote because I believed he could be better. We were both wrong.We can stop pretending now. Rivera will only ever make the playoffs in the NFL on the strength of a great quarterback performing Sisyphean tasks. He is a brilliant coach. His teams are good. His decisions are bad. I have said time and again that punting a ball at midfield on 4th and 1 with Cam Newton as your quarterback should be counted against the Panthers as a turnover. Yet that is exactly what Rivera elected to do in the first quarter yesterday. The Panthers might have been able to overcome three turnovers in the first half but four was too many.I won’t ban the first person who jumps in the comments to tell me I am overreacting “because we have a winning record,” but I will think about it. If that’s the level of analysis you are looking for then I invite you to read a box score and get on with your morning. Numbers can be informative but they are not, in football, determinative. Not until the end of a season at least. The Panthers are 3-2. They are winning more games than they are losing, but they are not playing winning football. They are playing the same brand of listless, passive ball that Rivera praises every time he is in front of the press. The win-loss record says more about the teams the Panthers have played than it does about them.The Panthers began their second drive against Washington backed up into their own end zone. Their play-calling in this scenario was as obvious as it was ineffective. It also allowed Washington to build a multiple score lead and is a prime example of where playing it safe fails. Every defense in the NFL knows those first two runs are coming from the
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