Jarrett Still a Work in Progress

Panther WR coach Richard Williamson gives an assessment of the receiving corps and his prize rookie:

Dwayne is coming along," Williamson said.
"I think he's not quite as far along as those two guys (Carter & Colbert) at this point; he missed three or four days when he had that pulled hamstring.
"And for a young guy to miss, there's a lot of catching up you have to do. He's working at it; he had a pretty good game the other night"

He didn’t drop the ball which is an improvement over his competition. When asked about the progress of Colbert and Carter, Williamson offers a less than ringing endorsement.

"When we have all three, we usually put Keary inside. And so far, it's worked OK. We've just got to get better at what we're doing."

When "OK" is the best the coach can offer on a 4th year player you know you have something to worry about. If Jarrett can just show some consistency then I’m pretty sure the #2 job is his. The sooner the better.

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Kalil to play at RG

The Panthers seemed determined to find a place for Kalil to play this year.

"As a center, I've got to know all three of those spots (center and both guards) anyway, so this is good for me, and also helps me at all three positions.

I think he is a year away from a significant contribution barring injury. For the first time in a while the Panthers are fairly deep on the O-line.

When his size was mentioned, Kalil, who is 6-foot-2, said, "I'm weighing 302 so I don't think I'm terribly small. Obviously I'm not the average big guy; I think my strengths are my technique and my strength overall."

It’s simple, he’s a prototypical center, one of three on the roster. Kalil has all the tools, he just needs time to learn and mature. I don’t think throwing another position at him is the answer.

"One of the things we really liked about Ryan was his flexibility," said Panthers coach John Fox. "He can play guard and center. We've got some guys that have that flexibility, and we're looking at all our options, and Ryan's been a bright spot there."

I’m all about having versatile players on the offensive line but I can’t help but think if we had used one of these early picks on a safety... Yeah, I’m tired of talking about it too.

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Charles Johnson Learning the Ropes

In this article Charles Johnson reflects on his new found mentors.

"It's kind of weird because I used to watch Julius and Mike on television back in college," Johnson said. "Now ... I'm playing with them. I watch them and they make everything look so easy and it's not easy. But I just keep watching everything they do and trying to pick up everything I can from them."

I like Johnson but I don’t see how he is going to get significant playing time in the near future. Julius and McClover should both be around for a long time and then there is Dave Ball who is playing well. Johnson will get in the rotation for now and provides depth at a key position yet again...there’s that glaring lack of depth at safety. Have I mentioned that before?

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It is Just Me

Or does this article seem to hit on 99% of the points I made in my Panthers vs. Eagles game review?

I would add some comments on it but as I pointed out there is nothing new in there from my perspective.

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Brad Hoover Says No Need to Panic

It’s true it’s the preseason and there was little game planning prior to the Eagles game so Brad Hoover says relax, no need to panic:

I don’t think there’s a panic button," he said. At least I know we don’t feel that way. Are we disappointed? Yeah, because we wanted to do better. But it’s not all chaos here. There’s a lot of common sense behind all the madness sometimes. We just want to go out and play well. If we don’t, it’s not the end of the world. The objective is to go out and try to win football games as best we can."

Let me assure you Brad there IS a panic button it’s just that fans are always quickest to push it. And speaking of common sense, where’s the sense in starting Colbert? Where was the sense in passing on a safety in this draft? I’m not pushing the panic button yet though I admit my confidence has been shaken a little. I nice performance by the first team at home this Friday against the Patriots would go a long way towards moving our hand away from the panic button.