Panthers Mini Camp Article Round-up

It’s been a typical mini-camp for the Panthers, all sunshine and butterfly kisses about all the new players and prospects for the coming year. The only interesting topics are the depth chart that can be surmised by who’s lining up with what team and the position changes.

 Saturday Mini-camp Notes

Some of these notes are repeats from yesterday though with slight differences.

The last guy off the practice field was Jordan Gross, who stayed late to work on the footwork he'll need playing left tackle instead of right tackle.

 So moving Gross to the left side seems like a done deal.

Wide receiver Jason Carter put on a show late in the practice. He caught a short pass and zig-zagged his way through the secondary, then made a dramatic one-handed grab in the end zone on the final play of the practice.

We could have another Steve Smith in the making, who knows. Man are we deep at WR.

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 Peppers to Move to the Right Side

Looks like we have confirmation on what’s has been theorized this off-season .

 According to two sources with knowledge of their plans, the Panthers are expected to go with a number of alignment changes, including swapping defensive end Julius Peppers from the left side to the right, the primary pass rush spot in most defenses.

 Here’s another new wrinkle in the defense:

 The other new wrinkle will be in the way they align their defensive tackles. By using Maake Kemoeatu as a nose tackle and Damione Lewis as the "under" or "three-technique" tackle, they're hoping to add more push from the inside. Both Lewis (18.5 career sacks) and Darwin Walker (28.5) are accomplished inside rushers, and they hope by putting them into more aggressive positions, they can make up for what they missed a year ago.

 I’m having a hard time visualizing what he’s talking about here unless it’s a 3-4 alignment. Otherwise it seems we are either leaving a whole or the DE is playing over the  guard. I'll be interested to see this one in TC.

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Moose is Glad to be Back

Musin Muhammad isn’t the only person that’s glad he is back in a Panther uniform .

 "He's somebody I'm not sure we ever replaced," said Panthers coach John Fox.

I could venture that until this off-season we never replaced S Deon Grant or LB Will Witherspoon either. We have upgrades at those positions now. Count Moose as another player who has the right attitude. Also know he's not about to surrender the #2 receiver position to anyone.

 "The last time I checked, man, nothing was given in this world," Muhammad said when asked about that theory.

"I'm just here to play. I'm here to make the team better. May the best man go out there and may the best three be on the field.

"Whatever it takes to get us to the championship game; that's what's going to matter."

Hackett and company better be ready to work hard to fend off Moose. If the Panthers don’t win this year it won’t be because of team discord. Everyone seems to have the right attitude.

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 Fox Stays Grounded in Reality

 You’ll never be able to accuse John Fox of being overly optimistic .

"I like the looks of it on paper and we have put a lot of work into this," Fox said. "Just like a college coach after recruiting season, the prognosticators will pick how you did, but really the reality is until you start playing you don't know."

 Right now there isn’t a single bust in the entire draft but we all know the statistics. I think the Panthers first four picks are as good as they have ever made but as Foxy correctly points out we won’t know for another year or so.

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Williams Welcomes Rookie Stewart

It doesn’t surprise me that DeAngelo Williams has no problem with the Panthers drafting RB Jonathan Stewart.

"It didn't bother me at all. I still have the same mind-set whether I'm the starter or not the starter," Williams said. "I was thinking everybody is going to the two-back system, so whether he starts the game off or I start the game off, we'll both get the same amount of carries, give or take a few." [snip] "It will be fun," Williams insisted. "I'm not going to hold hard feelings toward anybody because that is not the way you play this game. It's we, not me."

 So Williams is not only expecting to split carries but he realizes he may not start in game one. I would be very surprised John Fox did that but still I love D-Will’s attitude. He is such the example of a team player.

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 Jake Throws with No Problems

 It won’t be too long before we stop worrying about Jake Delhomme’s elbow. He is making great strides and I have to tip my proverbial hat to him for following the schedule and not doing anything to jeopardize the elbow.

Delhomme, who is coming off Tommy John surgery on his right elbow last year, practiced for the first time since last September. The quarterback threw 34 mostly short-to-midrange passes during individual drills in the morning session, though nothing longer than about 25 yards.

 He apparently threw some of the tough out patterns as part of the work out and looked good doing it. He still has two months till TC to get the rest of the throws working.