Carolina Panthers in 2010... Our biggest weakness, and the direction we are headed

It may take a little time for them to (I hate this word) gel. Like you, I think the D-Line has one goal, get to the QB, and if you run into someone else that has the ball, crush him. We’ll be susceptible to draw plays and screens, which is where our athletic LBs and secondary have to be ready. Still, we’ll give up some yards between the 20’s, which is why I voted top 10 instead of top 5. I do think we’ll be top 5 in scoring defense, which is more important, and number one in turnover differential. The only thing I don’t like about what you wrote is that you didn’t specifically mention Greg Hardy.
With compliments to Eric at CatCrave (and shared at Coalition):On the Greg Hardy topic, I received this comment from one of my readers:
“Well on the defensive side of the ball there is a newly signed Panther who may just be one of the huge sleepers to come out of the 2010 draft. Many wanted Greg Hardy to enter the draft in 2009. He felt he would have a better chance to go number ONE overall if he stayed in school and polished up his game…Did he say number one overall? Yes.
Not only did Hardy believe it, but the biggest names in the sports media supported his argument. In April 2009, Sports Illustrated even ranked Hardy as the favorite for the NUMBER one OVERALL draft pick in the 2010 draft. Well a slippery slope seemed to pop up for Hardy. Before the season started Hardy and Dexter McCluster were in an auto accident where they were banged up and where the car itself burst into flames and was destroyed. While both players seemed to escape without injury Hardy noticed more foot pain and while his foot was hardly ready to walk on, it shoudl not have been as out of kilter as it was after the wreck. Hardy was checked by his doctors and told to wear the "boot" (flex cast) again. This was the same foot that had operated on two times that had been getting better…that is, until the wreck.
Hardy had suffered injuries early on but he continued to play and played while hurt. He had been seen by some as lacking effort when he was actually playing hurt and giving it all he had. When Houston Nutt finally came in and got a grasp of the situation and what was going on he got Hardy the help he needed and suddenly the 280 pound 6′4 defensive machine was on the real track to getting better. Hardy had to miss the last portion of his senior season due to a wrist injury but he had a personal goal of playing in the Cotton Bowl. Not only did he show up for every 5:30 am practice/training session, he would come early and stay late. Nutt had no doubt his star defensive end would play in the Cotton Bowl and then play well in the NLF. As late as last December there were some who believed Hardy would be a day one selection. However, when draft day rolled around there were teams who were afraid of using a day one pick on a player who may not be able to last a season. The thing to keep in mind is the injuries were not related and the Carolina Panthers medical staff felt the young Hardy was healthy and ready to play.
Now, if Hardy can duplicate just half of what he was able to achieve in his second season at Ole Miss then the NFC needs to their quarterbacks’ blind side as Hardy has an initial burst that would make Julius Peppers blush. These quarterbacks need to hold on to the footballs tightly as Hardy is a fumble forcing, qb sacking terror! The glimpse we have seen so far, from the OTA’s, showed Hardy being Hardy.
After a recent practice Hardy was required to run the field from side-to-side with the team’s linemen, two times. Hardy finished at least 20 yards ahead of the nearest runner each time. To make things more interesting, the linemen were released but Hardy stayed and asked to be included in the same "wind" sprints but this time with the faster running backs, wide receivers, defensive backs, linebackers and others. Amazingly, each time, Hardy, who is 280 pounds, finished near the front of the pack no small feat and a tribute to a young man who came prepared and in shape.”

I put a comment up on that fan post, but let me try a different angle here. Isn’t DT really our biggest weakness? I’m not asking if they will be bad or not, I’m asking if they are the weakest position on our team? Unproven they definitely are, and Yoda like I definitely sound. And unfortunately in the NFL, if you are unproven, you are automatically assumed to be more on the negative side than the positive, just because there are so many more guys who don’t live up to expectations than those that exceed them. And Williamson has a point. Name me a group of DT’s in the league right now who are clear cut better than Louis Leonard, Tank Tyler, Nick Hayden, Corey Irvin, Ed Johnson, and Derek Landri. I’ve looked, and I can’t. Now this group may eventually be better, but as of right now they aren’t. And it’s the right now we’re talking about

…our youth, inexperience, etc. Call it “unproven” if you want. It’s true that you can’t say the current crop of players are bums or failures. They haven’t been given the opportunity to fail at anything yet. So, they’re really just unproven until we see what they can do. Now what that also means is that they will be tested as a result of their unproven-ness (is that even a word?). Opponents will test these guys and our coaches better have them ready or the season could get off to a very poor start from which we won’t be able to recover.

Personally, I’m far more of a middleground guy anyway when it comes to expectations for the upcoming season. I’m just conservative, because 1) it’s rare that you see a very young team gel, compete, and succeed at the NFL level very quickly, 2) we’ve got a killer of an opening game and some pretty stiff competition in the early part of our season, which could mushroom on us if we get off to a poor start, 3) the games that matter the most will be our division games and I think all three of our rivals significantly improved themselves with their off-season acquisitions…so, we’ll be lucky if we can go 3-3 in division play with the young squad we’ll be fielding, and 4) we’re in danger of getting hit by the injury bug pretty substantially (and I’m not just talking about Steve Smith or Thomas Davis), because if these young guys go down, there will be an even younger and less experienced guy behind him.

Now, despite all that, I’m actually pretty optimistic this year. I actually agree that it was time to start transitioning this team away from some of the aging, proven veterans to give the young kids a chance to start. The financial situation of the NFL also dictated the move. But I think the fanbase was ready to turn the page on a lot of things, too (i.e., Peppers, Delhomme, Coach Fox maybe?, etc.)…so might as well do some extra spring-cleaning at the same time. It’s not like the guys who will be asked to step into the starting roles aren’t ready. Many of them aren’t rookies and have already contributed quite capably in the past. So the risk/reward metrics are just about right for doing things this way, too.

Now the bottom line is going to be how these kids go out and perform. And, perhaps more importantly, how well the coaches can forge them into effective players at their individual positions AND into an effective unit when playing together. In fact, I’m as excited about some of the coaching changes (special teams anyone?) as I am about some of the player personnel changes. This is going to be a serious transition year for the Panthers. How that transition goes is going to determine a lot about the character of the team and John Fox’s chances for sticking with Carolina once his contract is up. So let’s put on some pads and see what the team can do.

My two-cents,
—Neil

It must be an interesting topic if everyone has that much to say about it. I was going to read it, but my attention span is too short.