Gettleman discusses Panthers’ past, present, future
Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman did his annual sit-down interview with the Observer this past week in Mobile, Ala., during the Senior Bowl. Along with covering Cam Newton’s long-term future in Charlotte, a story that appeared in Thursday’s paper, Gettleman also discussed his draft philosophy, free agency and closing the gap between the Panthers and the Seahawks.
Q: Last year you said one of your goals is to build your team to beat the best team you’ll play. Clearly Seattle is the best team you’ll play, and Carolina has lost the past four games in three years to the Seahawks. You have them again in 2015. What’s the gap between the teams and how far away are you?
A: “If you think about it, Seattle started ramping up four years ago. They went 7-9 (in 2010), went to the playoffs and beat the Saints. The next year they were 7-9. And now look what they’ve done. I really like where we’re at right now, playing the number of guys we’ve played, the number of young kids we’ve played. It wasn’t too big for them. We competed. It’s 24-10 with 5:30 left (in the playoff loss), we put that in it’s 24-17 and the game is on. We competed with them. They made some veteran plays – the plays that veteran playoff teams make. So we’re getting there. The gap, well, everybody’s going to have a different perception on the gap.”
Q: But what’s your perception on the gap?
A: “Again, you’re going to consistently work to get better. And the back end of your roster is going to change. But obviously we’re getting closer. Going to Seattle, you think about it, we had one false start. That’s it. With all those young kids on the offensive line and Kelvin (Benjamin) and Corey (“Philly” Brown). All the young guys we played, it wasn’t too big for them on the road, in Seattle. It’s exciting for me.”
Q: You mentioned a lot of offensive guys but rookies Tre (Boston) and Bene (Benwikere) gave up some big plays. You look at your secondary and you look at Seattle’s secondary with guys like Kam Chancellor who, understandably, aren’t falling off trees. Can these secondaries compare?
A: “Time will tell. Those guy are three, four, five years into their careers. Josh (Norman) was in his third year. Bene and Tre were here for one year. Time will tell. It’s no different than someone in your position. You start off as a young writer and you write a great article, well is there any guarantee there are more coming? It’s no different. It’s a matter of them to continue to improve as players and for them to continue to improve as a team.”
Q: Aside from the draft and external free agents, what’s your biggest priority this offseason?
A: “We talked about getting faster. The biggest priority is to continue to work the plan we’re working. To understand that it’s a process. It takes time, and we feel we’ve made strong strides with the plan. We’ve been patient and we haven’t pressed and haven’t tried to force square pegs into round holes. That’s the biggest priority is understanding that we’re getting there. You’ve got to keep working the plan. You can’t make emotional decisions or snap judgments.”
Q: Have you made any emotional decisions? Have you broken your own rule?
A: “No. I won’t do it.”
Q: On snap judgments and speed, I know it’s something you guys saw early in the season, but the younger guys were banged up or not ready. Was that a point where you wanted to make a snap judgment but couldn’t?
A: “That’s not a snap judgment. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I don’t do it for a hobby. What allows people to play fast is when they know what they’re doing. That’s the biggest thing. For Kelvin, the number of snaps he played is (big), he played faster in the second part of the year because he knew where he was supposed to be. His routes were cleaner. He was more precise beating the press. All those things allow a guy to play faster. If they’re not ready, they’re not going to play fast. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll go nowhere in a hurry. That’s what it comes down to. They have to be ready. There are certain times teams will throw a first-rounder out there and that’s just the nature of the beast. Of all the things we work very hard on in our draft prep is getting to know these guys. How important is football to them? Do they hate losing more than they like winning? We get into that and you make use of your 30 visits to get to know guys. The bottom line is, the more ready when you put them out there, the faster they’re going to play.”
Q: It’s pretty simple?
A: “Yeah it is. I’m going to do a better job on evaluating players when I take the time to focus and watch eight, 10, 12 tapes in order to get the full evaluation.”
Q: I know you don’t want to talk about Greg Hardy’s legal situation, but how much of your offseason plan depends on the outcome of the trial on Feb. 9?
A: “I’m not going to comment on that because that’s a hypothetical. Until his situation changes, I really have nothing to say.”
Q: OK. Well, is it feasible to bring back Byron Bell and move him to the right side?
A: “Anything’s feasible. You’re talking hypothetical again. I’ve said this before, we look to upgrade everywhere. Because of my theory of taking the best player available, we’re going to take the best player available. And if it gives you a glut at that position, so be it. That position will be a hell of a strength. That’s the way we approach it.”
Q: Last year I asked you how tough is it to draft a No. 1 wide receiver. How tough is it to draft a tackle, a guy who can eventually become a left tackle?
A: “It’s no different than any other position. The one thing I’ll tell you, left tackles come in all shapes and sizes. Who doesn’t want (Hall of Fame tackle) Walter Jones? But they come in all shapes and sizes. In New York we have David Diehl, who was the left tackle for two Super Bowl-winning teams, and he’s not the classic left tackle. But when you look at players, one of the things you have to say to yourself is, if a guy doesn’t have all the physical qualities, what is he missing? Let’s say he doesn’t have the pretty left tackle feet. What’s going to allow him to overcome? Is he especially powerful? Is he meaner than a rattlesnake? Is he really instinctive? There are plenty of guys who are playing in our league at a pretty high level who aren’t classic left tackles and don’t have all the classic physical qualities. But they have something that allows them to overcome…Can a left tackle come in and play? Sure they can. Just like quarterbacks or receivers. But it takes a mentally tough kid to come in and play now. And obviously having the skills.”
Q: You said last week that you needed to sit down and have a conversation with running back DeAngelo Williams. Has that taken place?
A: “No. We played Saturday night. We met with the team. Wednesday we’re in evaluation with the coaches. I haven’t stopped. So no.”
Q: When will the player talks happen? I know you have scouting meetings in early February and then the combine and then free agency starts March 10.
A: “When it’s right. I’m not going to tell you a date. When it’s right. The biggest thing is, they’re men, they’re people, and I’m going to treat them with the utmost respect. The conversations will take place when it’s time.”
Q: Do you have any idea on the salary cap? How much space you’ll have or what it’ll be?
A: “We’re working through it. That’s part of the process. We took a hard look at it but there are still evaluations going on and decisions to be made.”
Q: What’s your hope for cap space? Where would sitting pretty for the Panthers be on March 10?
A: “Sitting pretty for anybody would be $20 million under. Here’s what people have to understand, you can’t spend all that money because you have to have your season reverse. And the season reverse has to be $5-6 million. You’ve got to have that. You always want to be in a position where if you get injuries and have to make an add, I don’t go to (director of pro scouting) Mark Koncz and say, ‘I need a receiver, and by the way we don’t have any money for anyone but a zero.’ And I’ve been in that situation when I was a pro (scouting) guy when no one was there.”
Q: So, philosophically, is it going to be extremely different or very difficult to get to that $20 million number?
A: “I think that, like I said before, we’re crawling out of a hole. You’re always economic driven. The biggest thing you have to do is you’ve got to place a value on every guy. Where does he fit in the grand scheme of things? And the scales dictate where he fits. When you get into free agency, you don’t say I want Joe Schmoe and I’m going to give him X. You have to evaluate him against the players at his position so you can put the proper value on him. If you don’t, it’s like overdrafting a player…We’re getting out of the hole and we should be able to step up a little bit. The other part of the thought process is who’s on your roster and who’s coming out. In a perfect world, you don’t want to be in a position where you put all this time into a kid, especially an undrafted free agent, they’re here, and then you don’t have the money (to re-sign) them. It’s a huge puzzle.”
Q: Is the coaching staff still intact for 2015?
A: “Ron’s working through his stuff and it’s his call. Next week we’ll start working on it.”
Q: I know you didn’t make changes last year to staff other than adding veteran scout Clyde Powers. Have you made other changes?
A: “No. (Former General Manager) Marty (Hurney) put together a hell of a group. He really did. We made some philosophical shifts in how we did things. These (scouts) had to make some adjustments, and they’ve done it well.”
Q: What was the toughest professional day for you in 2014?
A: “Cam’s car accident. I was in Dallas for the league meetings. I get a text ‘Cam’s been in a car crash.’ That’s all I get. I was scared to death, scared for him. Then you finally get the information and I talk to people. It was scary. And it has nothing to do with football. It had everything to do with him. And it wasn’t just him. If it was our 53rd guy, I would have been just as scared. We’re all family, and I take that very seriously.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2015 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Gettleman discusses Panthers’ past, present, future."