Rest of League Grades the Panthers

I spend a lot of time during the offseason bemoaning the lack of quality stories during the offseason.  I complain about things like slow news days, a lack of offseason movement, and just a general laziness on the part of the sports media during their downtime.  While the Panthers have kept this blog very busy with a ton of moves in this year’s offseason that I believe will greatly improve the team, I have been a bit disappointed with the coverage given to the team by the media.  Having said all that, I have to give props to an article posted in the Charlotte Observer just this morning.

The article takes a look at the Panthers’ offseason moves from the perspectives of other coaches and men around the league in privileged positions of knowledge and power.  Straight from the coaches who either lost players to the Panthers or gained them, we get reviews on the Panthers’ offseason moves.  Mostly I believe the reviews are spot on, though I’m not sure about Shannahan’s take on Colbert.  While the Trojan in me hopes he’s right, he seems like he might be an NFL bust.  Time will tell.  Kudos to Charles Chandler for putting together a very interesting and informative article during the offseason.

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Panthers Get a Pair of Picks

The Carolina Panthers will  have two extra picks to play with in the seventh round of the NFL draft.  While it remains unclear exactly what direction the Panthers will go with these picks, we do now know exactly what two slots the Panthers will not occupy in the seventh round of the draft.  They Panthers will get the 34th and 43rd picks in said round.  This is only the fourth time in franchise history that the Panthers have received compensatory draft picks due to the loss of players to free agency.  With all their action in the offseason, one must wonder what they’ll do with their new picks.

The detractors will come out in full force on this one.  They will use these compensatory picks as evidence that the Panthers have had a bad offseason.  True, while the letter of the law in the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement does state that a team will receive compensatory picks when they have lost better free agents than they signed, I don’t believe the Panthers should only be judged on this technicality.  I believe the Panthers have shown an extreme amount of business-savvy in their signings this offseason, and they are working the system perfectly.  Look for the Panthers to be a much-improved team in 2008.

You can get all your Carolina Panthers tickets at www.stubhub.com.