The Perfect Adjective to Describe the Panthers' Offseason Improvement

The Carolina Panthers really went after it this offseason. Everyone knew they had plenty of areas to address in the offseason, even after a nice improvement during the season. They overachieved, which was impressive, but it didn't remove the need for sweeping upgrades.

The problem was that they just didn't have the assets to really attack those holes. Picking 19th in the NFL draft is good when you're a playoff team, but not when you still need top-end prospects. They also had a little over $10 million in cap space at the outset of free agency.

Yet, they managed to really address almost every major issue they had in both free agency and the draft. They went "big," as CBS Sports insider Zachary Pereles described it. Pereles noted that big here has two meanings.

First, they went big in terms of the contracts they signed. Jaelan Phillips and Devin Lloyd were legitimately huge signings with substantial financial investments by the Panthers. "If both of those players hit, we're likely looking at the repeat NFC South champ," Pereles wrote.

The other meaning is in literal size. Phillips is a big man. So is Monroe Freeling. He's 6'7" as an offensive tackle. Lee Hunter is a huge space-eater in the middle of the defensive line. Chris Brazzell is another wide receiver standing over 6'3", giving the Panthers four of those.

"Even later picks like cornerback Will Lee III in the fourth round and safety Zakee Wheatley in the fifth have good positional size," Pereles concluded. That's what makes "big" a really good word to use here. But we have one that's also accurate.

The Panthers went big, but they did it in impressive fashion