The most recent well-written post by our very own manager, James Dator, gave me an insightful take on how most scouts and front offices view the combine. With all the media hype surrounding this annual event, their is always a chance that a coach and/or gm could become more enamored with measurables than they actually should. While there is no doubt that scouting departments across the league must proceed with caution when evaluating these prospects based on combine numbers alone, there is also a caveat to consider if one goes into this event with there eyes wide shut. Let's take some time to find out who ignored some gaudy numbers, and as a result, has payed a heavy price over the last several years.

Vernon Gholston is widely known today as the poster child for good combines gone bad. But there is another side to this that sometimes goes unnoticed. Let me put it to you this way: For every Vernon Gholston, I'll raise you a Connor Barwin. Let's go ahead and examine his remarkable story for a few minutes. Barwin was, for all intents and purposes, a failure during his first three years at Cincinnati. Up until his Senior season, his coaches had come to the conclusion that special teams and back-up tight end was his ceiling. Through some trial and error, they finally came to their senses by realizing that it wouldn't hurt to give him a shot at playing defensive end. To their surprise, he was a natural at the position and his stats only confirmed this fact. Barwin posted team highs of 11 sacks and 14.5 tackles-for-loss that final season, thereby introducing himself to the scouts and the nation in a very big way. His stock was appropriately on the rise, but there was understandable skepticism out there as well. Determined to further make a name for himself, he entered the combine with God-given talents that many players could only dream of. The only question that would remain in the aftermath was this: How much could his draft stock actually rise after putting up such formidable numbers? Let's review the tape and find out who he out-performed.

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Here's my latest batch of Paw Prints starting with some 2012 predictions that in my view do not measure up:

First glance at 2012 playoff teams - NFC South Blog - ESPN
The Carolina Panthers are predicted to go 7-9. Again, that’s possible. But let’s remember, Carolina has an explosive offense with Cam Newton and linebacker Jon Beason and defensive tackle Ron Edwards will be coming back from injuries. Add a few more pieces to the defense and the Panthers easily could jump over the .500 mark.

That's a timid prediction in my book, a single game improvement from last year. I think I like this bold prediction much better:

30 Bold NFL Predictions for 2012 | Football Nation
The Carolina Panthers will win 11 games

I would add "Cam Newton will account for 40 TD's in 2012. That's only 6 more that he accounted for in 2011, a performance now labeled a defining moment in the 2011 season:

Newton wastes no time - Defining Moments of the 2011 NFL Season - Photos - SI.com
The No. 1 overall pick needed one week to prove he could play quarterback at the NFL level. And if a rookie-debut record 422 passing yards in Week 1 was not enough for skeptics, Newton topped himself the following week with 432 yards. The Panthers' quarterback threw for a rookie-record 4,051 yards this season. Newton tossed 21 touchdowns and ran in 14 more.

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As we draw closer to the madness in Indianapolis known as the NFL combine it's now that teams are finalizing their list of players who they really like, and plan to target in April. There's a wide assumption among NFL fans that the combine plays a large role in scouting, but in reality its role is very small; teams have scouting departments for a reason, and these scouts have been watching prospects for 2+ years in most cases, enough not to be swayed by flashy numbers at the combine.

Notice I said "in most cases". For every team who makes the prudent decision to evaluate film over the combine, there are others (read: Oakland) who are still wowed by all the measurables. This has netted the Raiders a rag-tag roster of amazing athletes, but mediocre football players. The fact is, as high as the Raiders have been drafting for the last decade they should better resemble Green Bay, not Arizona. Today lead scout for the Sporting News, Russ Lande put this in perspective the best way, with one tweet:

Russell Lande
I am a huge believer that this time of year is when scouting mistakes happen as players rating change based on non-football workouts/things.

Doesn't this sum up Cam Newton perfectly? While others were slaughtering Newton for his lack of accuracy in Indianapolis, and his 'icon and entertainer' gaff, the Panthers were focused on one thing: What he did at Auburn.

More after the jump

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It has become old-hat to denigrate Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay as rabble rousers who get more predictions wrong than right. However, the undeniable truth is that everyone leading up to the draft gets more wrong than right; the success rate for pundits picking the draft is under 30% and the rate of a team picking the most successful player when they draft is less than that. What I'm getting at is: everyone is basically a screw-up. So, you can either disregard anything these guys have to say, or you can still listen to their opinion and choose to take it with a grain of salt, rather than omniscience. I elect to do the latter.

Yesterday via Twitter it was Evan Silva of Rotoworld who was giving us all sorts of draft info from the two lightning rods (I believe the kids call it 'dropping knowledge'). Only some of it pertained to prospects the Panthers could be looking at, so I'll leave it to you to head over to his Twitter feed if you want to read it all.

We'll look at all the juicy info... after the jump

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Times change, so do the demands of Cat Scratch Reader. A few years ago it was just Jaxon typing away feverishly to give you all updates several times a week, then he added more people and we were able to get you news almost once a day, then he added more and we got to the point where we could update a few times a day. Every time we upped the amount of news the community grew, and now we're one of the biggest football blogs on the network.

As it stands the Panthers are on the precipice of breaking onto the national scene in a big way. We have new users from all around the country, and world, undoubtably curious about Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers in general. As such, the demands of this blog have grown to a point where we need more talented, dedicated and hardworking individuals to help us keep this the best Carolina Panthers site on the internet.

To us it really doesn't matter what your motivation is; if you want to blog for fun, great! Want to get your foot in the door in the sports writing business? This is the way.

Regardless of what your motivation is we need people who are willing to write several times a week, who can handle story assignments from the managers and editors, and be able to offer original stories/opinions focused on the Carolina Panthers. Grammar/punctuation and spelling are a must, lest you feel the wrath of a sarcasm font laden reply from one of the community.

If you are interested in joining the team please comment below. You do not need to be a current member of the community, but it helps us evaluate your ability if you have posted fanposts in the past. I look forward to hearing from anyone interested in keeping the site the best it can be.

Thank you- Your CSR editorial team

The Carolina Panthers have officially reached terms with LS J.J. Jansen on a new 4-year deal, and LB Jason Phillips on a 1-year deal, the team announced today.

Typically the signing of a long snapper and a backup OLB mean very little, but when we examine the moves through the lens of the off-season we start to see some interesting things take shape. Firstly we have Jansen, who at this point is entering his 4th season, this is important because it's in the 4th year of veterancy that the NFL's minimum contract balloons greatly, and typically you see long snappers at minimum salary. Around the league this spot is typically rotated and populated by rookie and backup centers to keep the cost down, however the Panthers have elected to keep the veteran, and reliable (0 bad snaps in 2011) Jansen.

This could mean that the Panthers will be looking to make a move at kicker or punter this off-season. Both Olindo Mare and Jason Baker were near the bottom of the league at their respective skill, and what better way to ease in a rookie at either position than ensuring you have a reliable long snapper to set them up for success? It's definitely something to watch.

More after the jump

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