Overhaul of D-Line has Panthers Fans Abuzz
Much has been made of the Carolina Panthers defensive woes last season. When your team gets 23 sacks in one season, you can expect for fans, media and front office to cry foul. 23 sacks is abysmal. Some players record double digit sacks in a season. For one line to record only 23 sacks in one year, it’s nearly impossible to fathom that little pressure on opposing quarterbacks. When you look at that one number, it’s easy to see how this Panthers team missed the playoffs. When you factor that number in with a massive issue at QB on your own team, then you really see the big picture.
So now Carolina has reloaded their defensive line. It’s a whole new line-up, and that new D-line has everyone excited. The media writes about them. The fans comment. The front office is trying to put their best public relations spin on the new squad. It’s that wonderful part of the offseason when everyone has the luxury of unbridled optimism. Sure, this new defensive line might now work out, but there’s a much better chance that they’ll at least be an improvement over last year. And so, we can all look forward to a new-look defense for the Panthers.
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Panthers QBs Relish Undrafted Status
The Carolina Panthers are a tough team. They’re made up of hardworking players, many of whom don’t really have the big name cache of some of their superstar counterparts on other teams. This makes the Panthers an endearing team to their fans, as they are viewed more often than not as a team of men who have had to struggle to earn their right to play in the NFL. Many of the fans of the Panthers feel that they can relate to the players because there are so few pampered stars on the team. This story about how both the Carolina QBs went undrafted keeps up that narrative when it comes to Panthers players.
While many fans can tell you the Panthers backup went undrafted - the Panthers supposed backup woes have been the source of much controversy this offseason - I would venture a guess to say that very few of them know that Delhomme was never drafted either. For a quarterback who has been to the Super Bowl, Delhomme manages to keep his undrafted status always in the back of his mind. Those kinds of things tend to be great motivators. And with Delhomme now grooming undrafted backup Matt Moore, maybe the Panthers aren’t in such bad shape after all.
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Delhomme Sharp in Drills
With all the hullabaloo made over Jake Delhomme’s elbow surgery - the lack of a solid backup to keep the Panthers afloat last year, the fact that this type of surgery can sometimes end careers, and the fact that the Panthers didn’t aggressively seek out a backup for the QB during this particular offseason, just to name a few stories - it is easy to miss the fact that Delhomme seems to be recovering nicely. Here we have another story detailing the Carolina quarterback’s most recent workouts, and the report is that Jake Delhomme looked very sharp.
This is great news for Carolina fans everywhere. The great fear among the fanbase is that Delhomme will simply not be the same QB next season, thus causing the Panthers to once again scramble to find a suitable replacement. While these fears are understandable, they are at the moment unfounded. Delhomme is progressing and healing right on schedule. He should be more than ready to take on a full workload once training camp comes around, and until then he will continue his rehab - right on schedule, just as he has been all along.
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Panthers Make Another List
The Carolina Panthers have been making a ton of moves this season. After last season’s disappointment, the team knew it needed to find a new direction. With John Fox on the hot seat if he can’t lead the team back to the playoffs this year, he knows he will be looking for a new job in the NFL in the near future. That’s why he went out early and aggressively in the offseason, picking up role players he felt could fill his team’s needs without breaking the bank. The Panthers also did well on draft day, picking up many solid players who will make an impact in their first season.
So imagine the surprise of the Panthers to find themselves on John Clayton’s list of surprising offseason non-moves. By not going out and getting a new quarterback, the Panthers have painted themselves into something of a corner, according to Clayton. On one hand, I see why the Panthers held off. Last year, they spent big on a backup who went bust, so why bother again? However, Clayton is correct. If Delhomme goes down, the Panthers must rely on a player whose only experience has come during garbage time at the end of last season.
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More on Smith’s Money Matters
Yesterday I pulled an article talking about Steve Smith’s interesting in finance. While I thought this was just you’re normal type of offseason article - a nice puff-piece about one of the star players on a team, used mostly for filler because there are no other stories to run at the moment - it’s looking more and more like this “Steve Smith as a money man” story has real legs. Here we have yet another story, this one an even more in-depth look at Steve Smith’s dealings outside of football, and it would seem that Smith is even more well-rounded than we may have thought.
Smith is an extremely interesting man of depth and multiple interests. This makes him even more captivating as a personal case study in the NFL. Smith definitely has a solid career ahead of him after he leaves the NFL, but fear not Panthers fans. Apparently none of his other interests are taking away from his ability to perform on the field of play. So though Steve Smith leads an incredibly intriguing life (as opposed to being a football machine), he is still fully dedicated to his performance for the Panthers, and may have a banner year in 2008.
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Steve Smith, Financiald Advisor
Things are really looking in up for the Carolina Panthers. After a disappointing end to the 2007 season, the Panthers were in disarray. It wasn’t that long ago that fans were calling for the firings of both the head coach and general manager. However, both were retained, and what a difference a few months can make. Now, with a stellar offseason in which many role-players were acquired, coupled with a very solid draft, the Carolina Panthers are on the rise. The news articles about the Panthers mirror this optimism, as this article about Steve Smith’s new role as a financial adviser illustrates.
All NFL players need to have a plan for what they are going to do after they leave the league. It’s easy to forget, because they perform such superhuman feats of strength every Sunday, that many of these men are in their 20s and early 30s. Very few NFL players have a shelf-life past the age of 35. For that very reason, it’s important to know what you’re doing afterward. Apparently Mr. Smith wants to work with money. I love articles like this because they offer a fresh and unique perspective on star players, and give the fans some insight into what kind of person their favorite player really is.
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More from Morgan
The Panthers aren’t doing much to make news at the moment, and the retirement of Dan Morgan, though he was not technically a Panther at the time, is certainly a big story in the world of the NFL this week. Besides, Morgan was drafted by the Panthers, making his name inexorably linked with the franchise. Morgan is speaking out about his retirement now, and this story contains his words on retirement. He has said he wants to spend time with his family, and obviously the wear and tear of his injury-plagued career has worn him down.
I am glad for Morgan. As I said yesterday, no one ever wants to see any promising career cut down before it gets a chance to really start. However, Morgan will now be able to watch his children grow up, something that none of us knew he’d be doing while he was still trying to play football. While it is certainly bad luck for such a talented football player to have to walk away so early, Morgan has much to be grateful for in this world. It appears he has prioritized his family over his work, and that is always an admirable thing for any man to do.
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Ex-Panther Morgan Retires
Anyone who has followed the Carolina Panthers this decade knows the name Dan Morgan. Morgan started his career in Carolina before he became chronically sidelined with concussion after concussion. When he finally received medical clearance to play again, he was quickly felled last year, and found himself unable to make an impact on the field. The Panthers and Morgan went their separate ways, with the hope that Morgan would retire and not put himself anymore in harms’ way. After a brief stint with the Saints this offseason, Dan Morgan has finally retired.
As the column reiterates, this is great news for Dan Morgan and his family. While it is never good to see a man forced to walk away from the sport he loves before his time should have expired, Morgan is a special case. His history of concussions means that Morgan was constantly at risk every time he put on the pads and went to work. And as we come to understand more and more about concussions and their aftereffects, Morgan could have easily become a cautionary tale to NFL players. Gladly, he has stepped away on his terms.
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Q&A with John Fox
It’s getting to the nitty-gritty of the offseason for me, folks. This is the toughest time of year to find NFL news. The draft is only a memory. Free agency has slowed to a standstill. Mandatory camps haven’t started yet, so we are here, forced to scramble for our daily football news fix. On the plus side, this is the time of year that you want your team to be quiet, as a lot of news surrounding an NFL team in mid-May would generally mean some kind of scandal was following you around. Nobody wants to be the team making noise right now.
With that in mind, we have this great Q&A session with John Fox to give our news on the day. In the session, the head coach of the Panthers addresses many issues. He was asked about the number of wins the Panthers will have in 2008 (a question he deftly deflected). Fox also discussed the early camps held so far by the team, as well as the plans to keep teams honest in their coverage of Steve Smith. Spygate also came up, as it seems to be a hot topic as of late, but Fox showed little interest in talking about the Patriots’ issue.
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Will Panthers Switch Logo at Midfield?
You want to talk about hilariously inane offseason stories? Well then let me tell you, I’ve got one of the best mundane offseason NFL stories of my entire writing career for you today. Apparently there has been some hullabaloo over the possible changing of the Carolina Panthers midfield logo. As it stands right now, the logo is that of the NFL shield. Some fans of the Panthers have begun a petition in the hopes that they can convince their team to switch from the NFL shield to the Carolina Panthers’ logo. This seems to be entirely logical to me.
The Panthers as an organization have no plans at this time to change the logo. Their fans, apparently, have no plans for the weekends or evenings for the entire offseason. I mean I’ve heard, read and written some fairly dull offseason stories, but this must absolutely take the cake. Are we really discussing the logo on the field of a team who missed the playoffs last year? Are Carolina fans possibly some of the most forgiving in football? I don’t have these answers, but I am definitely flabbergasted at the amount of effort that is going into the changing of one logo. I love the NFL.
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