Panthers DT Walker Looking for that Elusive Ring

Everyone talks about Fox turning Lewis’ career around, but let’s not act like he had All-Pro potential and had a 10 sack season last year. I’m excited about Walker and Scott being on the roster. I don’t believe any one of our four top DTs is so much better than the others. Therefore, all four will be key to winning it all. Being able to rotate all four almost interchangeably enables us to have very fresh legs in the 4th quarter down the stretch to stop the run and apply pass rush pressure up the middle. None of those guys may be all pro, but when the guards and center on the opposing team have played every down and only one our DTs has played more than 50% of the snaps, that’s a real advantage. It may also be the same way at the other DE position and some LB spots. I can see a team lining up on 1st and 10 against Peppers, Kemo, Lewis, C. Johnson, Davis, Beason and Connor. After an incomplete pass, they line up on 2nd down against Peppers, Brayton, Scott, Walker, L. Johnson, Beason and Davis. What a nightmare for opposing defenses. Then maybe on third and long, we have Johnson and Brayton lined up as DEs, and Peppers comes off the edge as a rush LB, or blitzes between Walker and Brayton. Yeah, it’s going to be a good year. I’m assuming I’m not the only guy to have such thoughts. What FB can block Peppers blitzing from the outside?

Well as I read about the rest of the NFL, I’m glad to read about Walker’s attitude. Being fully participant in off-season activities is a big deal. Delhomme’s worst season, not including last year, was the season Smitty missed all of training camp and the first two games due to injury. It makes a big deal. Now imagine if our roster included Ryan Grant (not practicing over contract dispute), Chad Johnson (drama then two ankle surgeries), Javon Walker (drunkenness leads to unconsciousness), Ahmad Bradshaw (serving 30 days in jail due to violation of parole), Pacman Jones (acquaintance died yesterday), JJ Arrington (arrested for fight at the club), Anquan Boldin (skipping practice over contract dispute), Brian Urlacher (wants more money to pay for his bad back) or a bunch of other cry babies around the league. I know that this list includes a lot of talent, but work ethic and dedication get you to the top, not the attitude that you think you can miss practice and still have the timing and chemistry down with your teammates. I understand that players contracts can be terminated at any time, but guaranteed money is still guaranteed money. Additionally, every year you should realize that the top five player salaries in each position won’t be top 5 anymore. Darren McFadden’s contract is bigger than 99.9% of RBs in the league. So holding out everytime someone gets a bigger contract instead of earning your next one doesn’t make sense in most cases (I say in most cases because I thought the Bears should have given up the money the first time to Lance Briggs). We must also give credit to the Panthers leadership and management. Beason’s holdout was the only one I remember in a very long time. That got worked out, though, and he played great football. The Panthers have found a way to ensure our entire roster is taken care of and able to focus on football. We have many guys who lost the Superbowl and want to get back and win it. Moose has another SB loss from Chicago, and Walker has that loss with Philly (after losing to the Panthers in the NFC Championship game the year before in Philly). I just want to give credit where credit is due, and that is the attitude and dedication to winning that the Panthers organization has right now, with a sense of urgency, and that attitude is what will take us to our first championship.