Carolina Panthers Add Linebacker And Special Teams Ace Jason Trusnik

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

If this excerpt from the 1903 poem by Emma Lazarus, describing the millions of immigrants coming to America through Ellis Island in New York, was modified by Dave Gettleman to depict his approach in free agency so far in 2015, it would read more like this:

Who needs high priced free agents to compete on our offensive line?

Let the other teams pay, I can find some cast offs who'll do just fine

Someone's treasure is another man's trash

Send those scraps my way, I've got just enough cash

My weak attempt at humor isn't a reflection at all of how I feel about what the Panthers general manager has done in free agency thus far. On the contrary, I've liked most of the moves, including this signing. Jason Trusnik will bring experience and talent to both the linebacker position and special teams, especially the latter. If you haven't heard of him before, then you're not alone. But that doesn't mean that he's Just Another Guy. He's consistently been one of the best special teams aces in the NFL throughout his eight year career, most of which was spent in Miami.

Gettleman has made plenty of mistakes before, but I don't see any logic in being critical of his decision to make special teams one of his primary objectives this offseason. Of course, only time will tell if it actually pays off. Like the draft, not all of these signings will ultimately pan out, but I will remain optimistic about what we can expect from these cheaper, lesser (un)known additions nonetheless. How about you CSR?

Even if you aren't enamored by this signing, you have to like Trusnik's attitude about joining the Panthers:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/JasonTrusnik">@JasonTrusnik</a>&#39;s thoughts on joining <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Panthers?src=hash">#Panthers</a>. &#10;&#10;More: <a href="http://t.co/JgY1E9O4Qk">http://t.co/JgY1E9O4Qk</a> <a href="http://t.co/f96966qGjw">pic.twitter.com/f96966qGjw</a></p>&mdash; Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/582999323329183745">March 31, 2015</a></blockquote>

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