Owner Weighs in on Problems for Panthers

Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson ended his media silence on Wednesday, speaking to a few reporters who had gathered to hear the owner’s perspective on the Carolina Panthers’ previous season, as well as the future of the franchise.  Richardson stated for the record that he never considered firing coach John Fox or general manager Marty Hurny, even during the team’s five game losing streak during the season.  He has a very strict policy of not speaking to the media about players, coaches, or any other employees who are under contract.  He did not waiver from his stance this year and doesn’t expect to do so anytime soon.

Richardson also weighed in on what the Panthers need to do to right their ship.  Richardson spoke highly of the Rooney family - owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers - and said he wants to emulate their organization within the Panthers.  He has placed an emphasis on running the ball and stopping the run, which means that young running back DeAngelo Hall needs to start getting more touches, and the defense needs to step it up, or reload, or something.  They certainly didn’t look extremely dominant in the 2007 season, so it will be interesting to see what the Panthers do to prepare for 2008.

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What Must the Panthers Do?

I’m not going to lie.  Today was a relatively slow news day for the Carolina Panthers, as many of them are going to be for the next few weeks, until after the Super Bowl.  Once the NFL crowns its champion for this year, then things will start to heat up in the offseason, but until then, it’s going to be tough going finding real, reportable news most days.  Today is certainly one of those days.  I had to dig through ESPN.com all the way to a Chadiha article from January 2.  In this article, Chadida details what each non-playoff team must do to make the playoffs next year.

Some of what Chadiha is saying is outdated by now, and I apologize for that.  He talks about Fox and Hurney deserving to come back.  We now know that they will be back.  He also makes the claim that the Panthers are going to need a healthy quarterback next year if they’re going to make a serious run, and we all knew that already.  He then goes on to state that it’s about time DeAngelo Williams stopped backing up DeShaun Foster, and I couldn’t agree more.  While Chadiha says the Panthers’ 08 playoff chances are weak, I am more optimistic.  I think with a few minor tweaks, the Panthers could have a shot next season.

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Panthers Not Record-Breaking

The Charlotte Observer is running a great article about the fact that the Carolina Panthers did not set an NFL record for most quarterbacks used in one season by using four different starters in 2007.  Originally erroneously reported by Sports Illustrated, this story drew the ire of many older football fans, who remember quite a few teams to use four different starters. There have been at least six such teams since the year 2000, and the actual record is held by the 1984 Chicago Bears, who started no less than five different quarterbacks in at least one game that season.

The Panthers did have all four QBs notch at least one win in the season, which you would think might be a record.  However, it is not.  The New Orleans Saints accomplished such a feat in back to back years, 1997 and 1998.  So now that we know that many more teams started at least four quarterbacks in a season, we can put the Panthers’ season in a different light.  Of the teams that started at least four quarterbacks since the 2000 season, only one posted a better record than the Panthers.  Kind of makes you feel a little better about next year, knowing what kind of degree of difficulty you were actually playing with, eh?

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Panthers Getting New Scoreboards

This article, from the Charlotte Business Journal, talks about the two new jumbo scoreboards the Panthers are getting next season.  It says, toward the bottom of the screen, that you need to pay to access the full article, but you get all the pertinent information in the little blurb they give you for free, so you don’t have to pay, really.  This story signals the end of hard news about the football season for the Panthers, and the beginning of the fluff pieces that will seem to take over print media until after the Super Bowl.  During this dead period of news for teams who are no longer playing, I’ll try to find what i can, but it’s rough going at times.  Apologies in advance.

However, the new jumbo screens - estimating to set the franchise back about 10 million bucks - are kind of a gift to the fans.  The Panthers, despite two losing seasons in a row, are still enjoying a great amount of support from their fan base, and the organization as a whole continues to pull a profit.  These new huge state of the art scoreboards will make the experience of going to a Panthers game even more enjoyable, even if the Panthers aren’t winning.  Hopefully though, by the time these scoreboards are operational, the Panthers will be back on the winning track.

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Panthers Look Ahead

With the Carolina Panthers season now over and done with, many local reporters and journalists have turned their attention to the past, talking about the season that could have been, and complaining about who should be fired.  However, not everyone is taking so dark a perspective on the situation.  Jeff Reed of the Gaston Gazette has turned his attention to the offseason, and which players the Panthers might pick up to improve their chances in 2008.  His remedy for the Panthers is a simple one - just pick up as many of the unrestricted free agents you can get from the Cowboys.

This is sort of a funny argument, but it does kind of have merit.  The Dallas Cowboys are a roster loaded with talent, thanks in no small part to departed head coach Bill Parcells.  Parcells is known for building amazing teams, as he has done it all over the league.  However, sometimes when you assemble a roster that full of Pro Bowl players, you can’t keep all of them.  The Panthers should certainly zero in on a few players that could improve their team, but the odds that they raid the Cowboys’ roster bare are slim.  Other teams will benefit from the fact that the Cowboys can’t hold onto all their talent as well.

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Panthers have no All Pros

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the poor fans of the Carolina Panthers, a news story comes along that reminds everyone just how truly far the Panthers have to go to reclaim their past glory. Not one single Carolina Panther was selected to this year’s Associated Press NFL All Pro Team. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone, as the Panthers didn’t really have a banner year.  However, it’s somewhat shocking to realize that names like Steve Smith and Julius Peppers are absent from this list.  That really drives home the point of what a disappointment 2007 was for the Panthers.
The Carolina Panthers are certainly not a perfect football team. No one is arguing that they don’t have some real needs they have to fill in this offseason. The fact remains that there are definitely some problems that definitely need immediate attention on this team. Head coach John Fox will not be with the Panthers much longer if he can’t turn it around. However, it still bears noting that this team isn’t as awful as some people would have you believe. With some smart offseason moves and a little more luck on the health front, the Panthers could be back on top next season.  This team still has playmakers, they just need to be used properly.
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Has Fox Lost his Touch?

Now that it has been made official that John Fox will be coming back for another year of coaching with the Carolina Panthers, the detractors are coming out in full force.  Today we have an article from the Winston-Salem Journal.  The article maintains that Fox has lost sight of what ails the Panthers, and that he simply has no idea how to fix this dysfunctional team.  The writer maintains that because no one holds John Fox accountable for the team’s decline in recent years, that decline will only continue, no matter how many of his assistants get the ax.

I see the point here.  It’s a tough situation.  John Fox could very well come back next year and lead the Panthers to another subpar season.  He’s done it twice in a row now, so a third season without a playoff trip is not out of the question.  Of course, if that happens, Fox is gone anyway.  What difference does one more year make, really?  If you bring in a new coach now, what does that help?  Then you just have to deal with the transition.  So Fox gets one more year.  Maybe this year he can finally have some luck and not deal with debilitating injuries to his star players.  That might help him cure what ails the Panthers.

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Hurney and Fox get at Least One More Year

It is officially official.  Although I’ve been calling it for about a week (and even then I can’t take credit for having some kind of scoop - pretty much everyone predicted Fox would stay), the Carolina Panthers have finally officially announced the Head Coach John Fox and General Manager Marty Hurney will both be back with the team in the 2008 season.  That season, however, will likely be the last season for both men if they are not able to turn the Carolina Panthers around and bring the team back to the winning ways they enjoyed earlier this decade.

I can’t tell you if this is a good decision or not.  I know that I’m being paid to have opinions about things, but this one is just a bit too much of a conundrum.  Yes, the Panthers have underperformed this season.  Yes, it looked as though Julius Peppers gave up on his team.  Yes, the David Carr signing was an absolute debacle.  And yet, honestly, what coach can be expected to get the most out of a team that fielded four different quarterbacks in one season?  Fox may deserve another year, but the microscope is going to fixed on him - and Hurney - all season long.

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Charlotte Observer Makes and Observation

This news story absolutely cracked me up.  It’s not easy to find a lot of great stories about the Carolina Panthers at the moment, mostly because this is the dead time after the regular season ends, before the postseason has finished, during which time almost nothing happens to any of the teams that are not presently in the postseason, other than your basic head coach firings.  Since it would appear that the Carolina Panthers will press forward at least one more year with John Fox at the helm, they haven’t even had a big coach firing story to keep the reporters busy.  So, apparently, the reporters are taking some time off.

Stan Olsen, a writer for the Observer, only thought the performance of Julius Peppers on the field of play this season warranted four whole lines of his writing.  I suppose perhaps he felt that he should give as much of himself to the article as Peppers gave of himself to the Panthers this season.  Peppers’ horrible play was well-documented all year.  The man finished with three sacks on the season.  He should be getting double-digit sacks every year.  If Peppers was not injured, as was rumored all season, then something truly alarming has happened to him.  If he doesn’t bounce back next season, it might be time to hit the panic button.

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Moore Honored as Top Player in December

Panthers Rookie QB Matt Moore was given the honor of being named the best offensive rookie in the NFL for the month of December.  For the Carolina Panthers, any bit of good news should be celebrated, so I thought I’d focus on this story today.  Matt Moore should make everyone in Carolina very happy.  The Panthers had huge problems at QB for the duration of the 2007 season, and with VinnyT stepping down and David Carr just plain not being any good, any injury to Jake Delhomme in 2008 could once again spell big trouble for the Panthers - if not for Mr. Moore.

Moore looked exceptional in the few games he started this season, and with another year in the Panthers’ system, I believe he could be a consistent second-stringer if they need him next year.  Of course, everyone hopes that Delhomme’s elbow rehabs fine, and he comes back better than ever.  People forget that the Panthers were playing solid football before they lost their starting quarterback, and if their David Carr experiment hadn’t gone so horribly wrong, they might have made the playoffs.  Hopefully next year they get a chance to show what they are really made of.

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