Could the Panthers be stigmatized?

I’m cautiously optimistic that JR know exactly what he is doing. The contracts and players we let go this year needed to go to build the team moving forward..

With a new team salary cap and a rookie pay scale in place next year the Panthers should be in a perfect position with a lot of cap space to sign any players they need to fill the gaps in the roster.

 I have a feeling this time next year we may all be singing the praises of JR and his moves this year to set this team up in a great position for the next few years. I hope so anyway. This year has been brutal on the fans.

On #1: All of Peppers’ money is due in 2010, they used the loophole of no cap to sign players, we used it to shed salary. They want to lower the cap just like every other team.

On #4: There would never be a situation where a rookie would make $21 million in a single season. Even Sam Bradford who is the highest paid rookie in NFL history never makes more than $19 million in a single season, and that was only because they chose to have the entire $17 million signing bonus come in 2011.

Furthermore, there were far greater issues with Peppers than just the money. The Panthers tried to make him the highest paid DE in the NFL…. twice, and were rejected both times.

All of those players were expensive (with the exception of maybe Jake his first year). That shows that the Panthers ARE willing to spend money when they need to. This year is the exception, not the norm.

The more I think about it, combined with James’s comments earlier, I’m becoming less angry with JR and Hurney. I still don’t know what in the heck is going on in their heads concerning the QB carousel, but they otherwise seem to have made some smart choices over the years. And I do think that agents and upcoming players will look at the overall picture for the last several years, and that they will realize that. And I think that those agents and players will especially look at the core of young players that we have this season and see that we have a strong foundation to build with over the next few years (even if the W-L record doesn’t reflect it this season).

Not even in the draft, we did get a steal and some good years out of Delhomme – even if he did start declining during the 2008 playoffs. Seriously – the guy was an undrafted no-name with the Saints, played in the European league, then all of a sudden shows up in Carolina and takes the 2003 team to a highly competitive and tight Super Bowl in his first year here.

As to drafts, we’ve had some busts (*cough*a second-round WR from USC with a penchant for DUIs*cough*), just like any other team. But we’ve largely made good decisions in early-round picks and have gotten some steals in later-round picks.

If I’m not mistaken, Hurney became GM in 2002, and I’m guessing that Steve Smith came in a year before that as he was drafted in 2001. But since 2002, we’ve gotten big names who have panned out well – like Peppers (I guess he’s debatable – a diva who shows up like a monster on his own schedule), D-Will, J-Stew, Beason, Kalil, etc.

Anderson was a later-round pick who’s been around for a few years. But all of a sudden when he shows up as a starter – he’s lights-out and has gotten national attention.

Munnerlyn’s continuing to improve, and I think earning a name for himself. In addition to that, he gets national attention for his literal name. Haha. When I first heard his name, I thought he was literally a team captain or that it was some sort of nickname. Nope. =) Just a freaking awesome name.

Goodson was a fourth-rounder who came in as a small guy who physically wasn’t able to get a lot done. Second year, he shows up with more strength, better decision-making, and is making a name for himself as an excellent kick returner, and it’s looking like an RB. The load is normally split between D-Will and J-Stew, and it seemed like Goodson played nearly every down in the last two games (with just the occassional respite in the form of Vaughan).

As to this past year, jury’s still out on Clausen and Armanti Edwards. With Clausen, it’s just plain hard to judge a QB on his rookie season. Most writers, and I think most fans agree, that he has generally shown signs of improvement and that the game is slowing down for him. (I still don’t know why we didn’t get McCoy while he was still available, but we’ll see how the two pan out over time.) As to Armanti Edwards, we just plain haven’t seen enough of him. I’m willing to cut the guy extra slack. Enough players have a hard enough time transitioning from the speed and the skill/size of college play to the NFL when they’re still playing the positions they’ve played for years. Edwards is a project, transitioning to an entirely different position between college and the pros.

Did we get a big-name first-round WR like Dez Bryant (or like Crabtree the year before him)? No. But I think we have something better in our 6th-round steal – Gettis. By all accounts, he’s about the furthest thing from a diva, and he’s quickly come up from a guy who was debatedly questionable as to whether he’d make the 53-man roster to our #2 receiver. Almost every writer, when writing about “things to watch” for the upcoming games, has started to write about Gettis.

And I thought that the team was crazy for drafting LaFell with their 2nd pick when the guy had a reputation for having questionable hands. He showed those questionable hands all through the preseason and the earlier games of the season. Then, it seems like he suddenly showed up one week and learned that he could wrap his hands around the ball instead of letting the ball bounce off of them. And I think LaFell has played well on ST.

Everyone here knows our other 6th-round steals with Hardy and Pugh. Hardy’s the only player to block a punt this season (and for a safety), and apparently now, teams are tempted to stick two guys on him.

Pugh has been a solid ST player (averaging the best kick returns out of the group – although he obviously hasn’t returned as many as Goodson), has stepped in for Martin seemingly without missing a beat, and grabbed an INT in his first start.

While we are the butt of jokes in the media, agents and upcoming players (and free agents), realize that there’s a lot more to a team beyond it’s W-L statistic. I think that they’ll look at the promising young foundation and consider the philosphies of incoming coaches and coordinator(s).