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May 3, 2017

Taleni Gone And Draft Thoughts

Filed under: Draft,Football,NFL,Scandal — Chas @ 7:37 am

Sorry, about the absence. Some family stuff came up last week that had me in-and-out-of-town through the past week plus. Nothing major, but time was at a premium.

Glad to be done with April. Fridays in April have been a month of bad news dropping. Most of it was related to basketball, but football decided to get in on the action with the dismissal of Jeremiah Taleni for disciplinary reasons.

To say this was surprising is being polite. Taleni was going to be a senior and expected to start at Defensive Tackle. He was receiving high praise from the coaches all spring for his leadership off-the-field and and his performance in practices.

Head Coach Pat Narduzzi has rules that get enforced with player behavior, but he is not a one-strike-and-out authoritarian coach. He gives players second chances, so either Taleni has continued to mess up off-the-field or he did something that crossed all lines for Narduzzi.

On-the-field, the loss of Taleni is obviously a blow to the depth on the D-line. A constant issue the last couple years that finally seemed to be getting better.

Replacing Taleni as the starter will likely be Amir Watts or Keyshon Camp. There will be plenty of competition come the fall. Not just between the two of them.

Aside from Camp and Watts, Pitt returns two upperclassmen at defensive tackle – redshirt juniors Shane Roy and Mike Herndon – and redshirt freshman Rashad Wheeler.

JUCO transfer Kam Carter will join the team as a redshirt sophomore this offseason, as will incoming freshman Jaylen Twyman. Carter will be in the mix for playing time, but Camp and Watts remain the most likely candidates for the starting jobs.

In addition to the increased depth, the drop-off after the starters should be smaller. Still, Taleni was being counted on as a team leader up front, and this isn’t great.

Seriously. Can we stop it with the Friday bad news drops.

The other big thing was the NFL Draft.

Pitt’s pro football pipeline continued this weekend with the selection of five Panthers in the 2017 NFL Draft. The five picks mark Pitt’s highest total since the 2011 draft.

Pitt had plenty of players drafted and many more as undrafted free agents and/or invited to compete at mini camps.

With James Conner getting drafted by the Steelers at the very end of the 3d round as the big story. Hope everyone is okay with even more Steelers jerseys at Pitt games next year (though, I’d like to think it might mean a few more Pitt jerseys showing up at Steelers games as well).

Dorian Johnson slipped into the 4th round to the Cardinals, because teams flagged him for an issue with his liver. It shouldn’t have any effect on his play, but it did make teams back off of him.

Nate Peterman got Tom Savage’d. He got lots of pre-draft publicity and run. Lots of pundits talking him up, but ultimately he didn’t go until the 5th round to the Bills.

Adam Bisnowaty was a 6th round choice for the Giants and Ejuan Price went in round 7 to the Rams.

…a slew of other Panthers either signed with teams as undrafted free agents or received invitations to rookie camps. They are:

Scott Orndoff – signed with Steelers

Tyrique Jarrett – signed with Broncos

Shakir Soto – signed with Broncos

Ryan Lewis – signed with Cardinals

Dontez Ford – signed with Lions

Bam Bradley – signed with Ravens

Terrish Webb – signed with Steelers

Matt Galambos – invite by Chiefs

Reggie Mitchell – invite by Steelers

John Guy – invite by Vikings

Kicker Chris Blewitt also has been invited to the Steelers mini-camp.





Chas – good write up. The Friday dumps have become comical.

I’m not sure if you noticed the poster comments on the other blog entries but once the comment section goes over 50, the previous 50 comments disappear. I’m not sure if it’s a setting issue on your side or if the host site has changed. Just a friendly FYI though.

Comment by Tossing Thabeets 05.03.17 @ 9:09 am

Of the FA signings, I personally like the chances for Orndorff, Bradley & Jarrett. I wish all the Panthers the best though. H2P

Comment by 1618mt 05.03.17 @ 9:51 am

@@@@@@

Has anyone noticed the expanded role of Louis Reddick
on ESPN?? Reddick a former Pitt star making it in the big time.

Comment by JR 05.03.17 @ 6:03 pm

Pitt basketball lands St. Johns transfer Malik Ellison, son of Pervis. Has to sit out this yr.

Comment by alcofan 05.03.17 @ 9:05 pm

Why has Malik Ellison decided to transfer? Was he asked to?

Slice may be recruiting well for St. John’s. Mullins could be gaining ground with his program.

It’s what Dixon used to do; force a few transfer.

Comment by Old Pitt Grad 05.03.17 @ 11:09 pm

It was reported in the NY Post that sophomore Ellison elected to leave St. Johns due to concerns over possibly being replaced in the starting lineup and diminished playing time overall. Ellison shot 42% from the field, 34% from the arc, and 60% from the line last season. Ellison had 2.5 assists with 1.8 turnovers per game last season.

Comment by Barvo 05.04.17 @ 4:36 am

A clear upgrade…over non D1 transfers. Who out there is starting to feel the dawn breaking on the fabulous HCKS era!?!?!?!

I say extend him before it is too late. Right Barnes?

Comment by TVax1 05.04.17 @ 6:19 am

God I miss Scott.

He is gone, isn’t he?

Comment by TVax1 05.04.17 @ 6:24 am

Tvax, I like it, “Buy Low”; right now is the time for an extension, when the chips are down and the deal is less expensive. Gutsy call!

And seriously, looks like a good risk. No idea why they’re bringing in the guy from Lafayette though to visit…??

Comment by 1618mt 05.04.17 @ 10:16 am

Last time I checked, I couldn’t find anyone who had trouble sleeping the night before playing St. John’s because they were too worried about how bad they would get beat. I hope Ellison is a good kid but if he was concerned about losing his starting position at St. John’s then I don’t see how he fits on an ACC roster.

Comment by AnotherClancyrebound 05.04.17 @ 11:34 am

Dokish is becoming comical in his support of Stallings. He recently tweeted “Monty Boykins would be a better get than many may think. He’s 6’5″ and can really shoot. High majors wanted him out of HS, but blew out knee”

Over his four year career at Lafayette Monty Boykins was 37% FG and 34% 3P shooter. He shot 38% from the field and 36% from 3 during his last full season as a junior.

It doesn’t appear that Boykins handles the ball very well based upon 1:1 A-TO and he also doesn’t rebound averaging 1.8 rpg over his career.

Lafayette was 46-78 over the four years that Boykins played there.

People so desperately want to believe at this point that they’ll accept almost any warm body as a useful contributor.

Comment by Barvo 05.04.17 @ 12:27 pm

To put that in context James Robinson was a career 40% field goal and 32% three point shooter. Robinson played in the Big East and ACC.

Comment by Barvo 05.04.17 @ 12:31 pm

Panthers land Kameron Davis for next yr. A 6′ 4″ guard from Forest Trail Academy in NC.

Comment by alcofan 05.04.17 @ 1:35 pm

Forest Trail Academy is in Kernersville, NC – about 1/2 hour from Wake Forest, and 1.5 hours from UNC and Dook . Looks like we stole one right from under the noses of WFU, UNC, and U of Dookie! How in the world did they let that happen??

Boy, that KS is SLICK. Good thing we got him on the rebound (no pun intended!)

Comment by Savannah Panther 05.04.17 @ 4:56 pm

More Escapades and clarification.

Must admit I was wrong for the second time.

Crosby’s concussion NOT caused by his Helmet hitting the ice.

Combination of Ovechkin’s stick to the Head followed by Niskanen’s WHACK to the back of the Head.

The more you see it, the worse it looks. Both should have been suspended at least a Game.ens

Pens in 7. Hopefully, less.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.04.17 @ 11:03 pm

Being wrong twice isn’t so bad.

Comment by PittofDreams 05.04.17 @ 11:04 pm

Nisky hit Crosby while he was in an indefensible position, at least in football he potentially could have been thrown out of the game. In hockey it was just a hockey type play. Pathetic!

Comment by Grizzly1 05.05.17 @ 7:05 am

Just watched rewind of Clemson game .Taleni was awesome and will be missed.H2P

Comment by Pitt60 05.07.17 @ 2:22 pm

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