Panthers Off-Season thread

[nutmeged3]

Seems early but I like that were addressing special teams, no way they could have gotten any worse then last year.

[Diable]

DJ Campbell Free Safety from Cal. I hope he's better than the DB's we have now. That really isn't that much to ask of the guy.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2012/profil...ell?id=2534748

[Kaas]

Originally Posted by Diable

We take Kuechly, pretty much what was expect and likely he was the best player available. It makes a lot of sense as we can't keep any LB's healthy. I got no problem with the pick, although I don't think it's our biggest need on D. 2nd round we take Amini Silatol. On the one hand it looks like a bit of a reach, but on the other hand Byron Bell was probably going to start at Guard for us if we did nothing. We all saw that Bell was a catastrophe at Tackle and if this puts him on the sideline or off the roster that's okay by me.

Would love to pick up a really great return man tomorrow. Seems obvious that we'll look for DB's, or if we like someone a WR.

Silatolu wasn't a reach. He had a first round grade, which is very rare for a guard. He should immediately step in and start at LG. He also has positional versatility. Bruce Campbell will likely play as a backup swingman, but Silatolu will hopefully be 4th at OT on the depth chart ahead of Byron Bell.

Originally Posted by Diable

DJ Campbell Free Safety from Cal. I hope he's better than the DB's we have now. That really isn't that much to ask of the guy.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2012/profil...ell?id=2534748

I think he was drafted specifically for ST. Gil Brandt thinks he's a steal though, so hopefully he contributes immediately either in jumbo nickel packages or maybe even as one of the starting safeties. My guess is Godfrey is a surefire starter, and the other safety will be either Martin again or Pugh. Remember the coaching staff was very high on Pugh prior to the season, and he did start to improve towards the end of the season, but most fans just remember him for costing us a few games early in the season with untimely missed tackles.


Supposedly Rivera would've picked Quinton Coples if Kuechly was gone. So glad we took Kuechly if Coples was the alternative.

[Diable]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d...headline_stack

We're talking to Jacoby Jones, who famously muffed the punt in the Texans' playoff game against the Ravens. Sort of bleh. I would really like to see us come up with the guy who takes Smitty's place, and have them play together for awhile. I don't have a great deal of faith in LaFell or anyone else on the roster becoming much above average. With the offense we are running we need more guys who are really good receivers.

[Diable]

The Carolina Panthers have agreed to a four-year, $12.58 million guaranteed deal with first-round pick Luke Kuechly, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter

[Diable]

Damn it, it looks more and more like we'll never see Otah back to what he was before this ****ing injuries.

The knee injury that sidelined Panthers right tackle Jeff Otah for most of the past two-plus seasons has flared up again.
Otah underwent an MRI on his left knee on Thursday after tweaking it at some point during the first two weeks of OTA practices. Otah was not at Friday’s practice.
“Jeff tweaked his knee a little bit. It swelled up a little bit, so we’re just checking on that,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. “We sent him for an MRI (Thursday) so we’re going to have that read. We’ll see.”
Otah, a first-round pick in 2008, has missed 31 of the past 35 games due to injury. He played in four games last fall before being placed on injured reserve with knee and back ailments.

Pulling guard: Second-round pick Amini Silatolu continues to get the first-team reps at left guard. Silatolu, a standout at Division II Midwestern State, had trouble adjusting to an NFL playbook early in the organized team activities.
“He has gotten better each week. He was slow initially because he was really learning the position,” Rivera said. “But his athleticism really shows when you get a chance to watch him pull and get around the corners.”

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/06/...#storylink=cpy

[Diable]

This shit is hilarious. Maybe Clausen should make sure the person cutting his hair doesn't know who he is next time.



http://storify.com/SpiracleMedia/nfl...e-for-his-busi

[Porn Player]

[Knicks4life]

[nutmeged3]

We just traded for WR Louis Murphy from the Raiders LINK

Gettis must not be coming along well enough as this guy looks a similar player. Don't know much about him but his combine info show he's pretty damn fast. More weapons for Cam can never hurt.

[Knicks4life]

[NOHornets]

Originally Posted by Knicks4life

Those are some motivating words, but it'll be an uphill climb this year. We've seen plenty of teams come out of nowhere and make a title run before, just look at the '03 Carolina Panthers.

[Kaas]

Louis Murphy is a good player, just struggles to be consistently healthy. I liked the move. Liked it better when we were getting a some picks back for Otah instead of just straight up cutting him.

I'm curious which WRs and CBs end up making the roster, because right now we have a standout at each spot (Smith, Gamble) and then lots of equivalent talent that goes pretty deep (though Lafell probably stands above the other WRs somewhat).

For the WRs, there's Murphy, Gettis, Pilares, Joe Adams, Armanti Edwards, Ajirotutu, and Jared Green.
For the CBs, there's Munnerlyn, Hogan, Norman, Butler, Stanford, Ness, and Thomas.

My guess is we'll go bloated at WR and keep 7 on the roster (unless Armanti sherks from contact in the preseason, then he's gone). We'll probably have 5 or 6 CBs, depending on whether or not the staff decides to keep Pugh in the secondary for next year.

A lot of the team's success rests on how well Silatolu and Kuechly do next year. And the pass rush is vital too. How good will our DE rotation be? We're really relying on our rookies to perform to their capabilities. That's usually not a good thing, but supposedly the two I mentioned, Frank Alexander at DE, and Norman at CB have all been very impressive. Joe Adams will hopefully add something to our return game to go along with them.

I'm very excited for the season to start. I know many in the media are predicting the team to be 8-8 or 9-7, and that record sounds about right, but I think everyone assumes it will be because of Cam, Smitty, and our RBs. I think the rest of the roster is much better than it's being made out to be, and the team will be well ahead of schedule if it can live up to its potential.

[nutmeged3]

Final Roster

QB
Cam
Anderson
Clausen

HB
Williams
Stewart

FB
Tolbert

WR
Smith
Lafell
Murphy
Pilares
Edwards
Adams

TE
Olsen
Barnidge
Brockel
Hartstock

T
Gross
Bell
Campbell
Williams

G
Silatolu
Hangartner
Pollack

C
Kalil
Byers

DE
Johnson
Hardy
Applewhite
Alexander
Keiser

DT
Edwards
Mcclain
Fua
Kearse

LB
Beason
Kuechly
Anderson
Davis
Phillips
Senn
Onatulu

CB
Gamble
Norman
Munnerlyn
Thomas

S
Godfrey
Nakumara
Martin
Campbell
Jones

Special teams
Medlock
Nortman
J.J Jansen

Suspended or PUP
Neblett
Gettis

Armanti and Clausen make the team somehow, but with us only having 4 corners I'm sure were going to pick someone else up from cuts. Would like to see at at least a corner maybe a DT if theres an decent talent available. Haven't really looked at other cuts though.

5 safetys sounds like overkill as well

[Diable]

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/po...-down-analysis

The biggest move of the day wasn’t the release of a player. Instead, it was a trade. The Panthers will send a future draft pick to San Francisco for safety Colin Jones. I don’t think the Panthers are looking for Jones to come in and start at safety. This move was more about special teams -- and if you saw Pittsburgh’s Chris Rainey have a long punt return against them Thursday night, you saw why the Panthers still have concerns with the unit. Jones should help solve that problem. He was a regular on special teams for the 49ers and had eight special-teams tackles last season.

Says we'll try to keep Jared Green for the Practice squad if no one else picks him up, but I think that someone will. Talks about our situation with the corners. Honestly I would like to give Norman the starting job and live with any growing pains he had. Munnerlyn is a dead end player and we may as well start looking to see if Norman is the guy who can take his job.