Panthers Look to Resign DT Damione Lewis

by Jaxon on Jan 23, 2008 9:46 PM EST in Panther News

Panthers DT Damione Lewis' agent Drew Rosenhaus reports the Panthers have approached him about a new contract:

The Panthers are interested in bringing Damione Lewis back, agent Drew Rosenhaus said Tuesday. Lewis, the top reserve at defensive tackle, tied for the team lead in sacks with 3.5 despite his backup status."The team has approached me about their interest in bringing Damione back," said Rosenhaus, who expects to speak with Panthers' officials at the Senior Bowl this week. "It's certainly too early to say whether he'll be back or not."
Lewis, who will be 30 next season, was in on 32 tackles, with seven quarterback pressures and a recovered fumble.

Signing Lewis would take some of the pressure off of the Kris Jenkins decision. I highly recommend we resign Jenkins but our cap situation is so bad somebody has to go. No telling who the Panther brass will go sour on.

Lewis was at times a passing down specialist who rotated with Kemo and Jenkins. I think the Panthers strategy is to sign Lewis now while he is still a back-up ie...making back-up money. I predict they will throw a lot of incentives at him and some guaranteed money too.

Rosenhaus is a pretty shrewd agent so it's no surprise he's playing the "it's still early tune", he's not going to play his hand too early. This now puts a little pressure on the Panthers to talk to Rosenhaus this weekend as I'm sure the Panther press has picked up on it (I hope). I don’t expect this to happen real quick but it’s a sign of what the Panthers priorities are and I can’t disagree with the decision.

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the offseason

I'm glad the Panthers are looking to re-sign Lewis. I think we should resign Lewis and Jenkins, and let Kemo go, or trade him. I've often heard that quality DTs are very hard to come by, so I can't say definitively that we should let one go. The same is true for our CBs. Three good ones is rare in this league.

You also mention the free agents. I think we should resign Wharton and draft the best OT available at #13. It may be possible to trade down like we did last season, and still get one of the top 3 OTs in the draft, and have an additional second rd pick to get a safety and offensive playmaker in the 2nd rd, or even another OL for insurance. If all 3 picks could be starters early in their careers, or even just see major playing time as a back-up, then it was worth it. The OTs would have time to develop behind Wharton if necessary as well. Then in the 3rd rd, we could look for depth players like another DL or LB, or a big RB or FB.

The fact is that it seems the Panthers are a lot more active already than last year. There's a sense of desperation and I like it. The Patriots desperation started in the preseason, and look where it got them. We weren't desperate for a win until a five-game losing streak hit us.

If you look at each of our games, you'll see that we aren't that far off from a championship team. The defense played well for the last three months, forcing turnovers and fighting hard. The offense was 1 yard per carry from being really good, and with Jake hurt, it just fanned the flames.

The core is set for a real Superbowl run, and I'm ready. Here's my predictions based completely on my Panthers bias:

Panthers 12-4 and Superbowl champs over the Chargers
D-Will 2000+ yds from scrimmage and 15 TDs
Smith 100 rec, 1500 yds, 14 TDs
Jarrett 70 rec, 850 yds, 9 TDs
Peppers 14.5 sacks
Marshall 7 ints
Beason - Causes 16 QBs and 32 RBs to wake up on mondays with PTSD
Delhomme - Superbowl MVP

by usana_gaines on Jan 24, 2008 9:21 AM EST reply actions