Panthers Sign Another Big Man

by Jaxon on Mar 29, 2008 1:06 PM EDT in News Comment 5 comments

The Panthers have signed another free agent guard, Milford Brown most recently of the St. Louis Rams.

Brown appeared in 16 games - including 15 starts - for the St Louis Rams last season. The 330-pounder made nine starts at left guard, four at right tackle and two at right guard.
The 6ft 5in Brown has played in 47 games over parts of six seasons with the Rams, Arizona Cardinals and Houston Texans.

The Panthers are definitely trying to upgrade the overall size of the offensive line. This might say a couple things about their draft preferences in the coming draft. Will they look for a power back to run behind the big line, similar to what the Dallas Cowboys did last season with Marion Barber and Friends? Will they lean to the big, road-grader right tackle like Jeff Otah or Gosder Cherilus to cement the front wall? Will they draft a big fullback like Jerome Felton to groom behind Brad Hoover? I wouldn’t have a problem with any of it.

Training camp will be interesting this year with so many starting positions up for grabs. Don’t assume players like Na’il Diggs or Jeremy Bridges are going to go to the bench quietly. Brown will have his hands full trying to beat out Bridges, Keydrick Vincent and last weeks signing Toniu Fonoti.

It’s a toss up at this point on who will win it but I think Brown has a shot. He was the starting guard last season for the Rams and RB Steven Jackson. Jackson only played in 12 games but he still gained 1,000 yards. If anything Brown knows how to work in a power running offense and that could benefit him.

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Power Running Offense?

I don't get it. Deangelo will be our starting back and he's not a power back. Even if they draft a power back, he will back up Deangello. It doesn't make sense to have an o-line that best suits your back up. I hope they are not planning to run DW up the middle every play.

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by Jaxonweb on Mar 29, 2008 10:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It is mystifying...

maybe they want their back-ups to also fill the short-yardage situational needs as well. 3rd and 4th and one yard. The Panthers weren't very good at that last season. Maybe they are going to draft a power RB?

Good to hear from you Jaxonweb. It's been a while.

by Jaxon on Mar 30, 2008 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Mmmm, smell that power running offense!

Okay, this might be crazy talk, but stay with me for a bit...

If you recall, when Silent Bob first arrived, he never said "We're going to a zone blocking scheme." He instead said that they were going to have zone blocking elements in their blocking schemes. Both he and Foxy said that there would be elements of the power game, elements of the zone game, and they'd use each when necessary.

Okay, this is where it goes off the rails a bit. So imagine a hybrid power-running-slash-zone-scheme where the guards are these massive road grader types, the tackles are athletic, second-level blockers, and the center is able to either pull wide on sweeps or get to the second level himself on inside runs or cut-backs.

Let's just assume that we're going to draft one of those terrifyingly large, amazingly athletic guys for our shiny new left tackle. Then we're talking about two very athletic tackles, two bigboy guards, and if you've seen Ryan Kalil's training tapes, then you know that he's got the athleticism to protect even a delicate twinkie, so he'll have no problem getting to the second level.

I think Deangelo Williams is talented enough to thrive in any scheme they put him in, but he'll excel if they can give him opportunities to utilize both his amazing change of direction and his tremendous burst through the hole. This O-line, if I'm reading it right, will give us more options in the running game, in turn giving DW more varied opportunities to demonstrate his skills.

by r3 on Mar 31, 2008 1:08 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Exactly

When first hearing about these signings I was wondering if the scheme wasn't going to involve a lot of subbing in and out in the running game to allow for different types of blocking at odd moments. It would shake up defensive coordinators and keep our guy's fresh.

by Parmenides on Mar 31, 2008 9:24 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It would seem less emphasis

on the zone-blocking if this is the type of guys we are signing to compete for the guard spots. Also, I don't think Wharton is a shoo in for the LG spot. He could get beat out by a bigger guy.

by Jaxon on Apr 1, 2008 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs