The Plan - dammit

Losing Nelson hurts but I still think we will be ok. I see Jake being more comfortable and having more faith placed in him by the coaches this year. That will mean a more balanced offense. Hopefully that will help us offset any losses on the OL. Gross protecting Jake's blind side will help the passing game even if the run blocking is not as good.

I would still like to see us find a veteran free safety. Zack Bronson might work. We will be watching who gets cut Tuesday I am sure.

 

Good point. I don't think he intended to diss the others, just elevate KD.

 

If this line can't run block as well as last year's, I'm afraid Davis and Delhomme will feel the loss terribly bad.

 

It would be nice if we could pickup bronson from the 49ers(fs). Yeah he isn't the fastest but he would be an upgrade over what we have. But I would go with middleton from the raiders (og) first. He isn't gonna cost alot of coin and he would help out our ol alot. Another plus is he has only been playing 6 or 7 years. OL with him : gross, middleton, claridge, wharton or meadows and mitchell. This would be a nice ol provided they gel together. Bronson and middleton would be nice but I consider middleton more of a priority.

 

I would say that the fact Grant could've been signed and wasn't is a better indicator of what the Panthers thought of him than anything I could say.

I trust the staff that they know what they have and their ability to mold that into competent FS starter (whoever that may be) at least to the level of Grant. Thats my point.

 

>>I would say that the fact Grant could've been signed and wasn't is a better indicator of what the Panthers thought of him than anything I could say.

Would have nothing, at all, to do with the team simply offering less? They pursued Grant to the last minute, just wouldn't budge with bonuses.

You know, just like they've done with every other free agent they tried to pursue. They lowballed everybody. The team had no other plans until Grant was resolved - this whole "well we had a shot and we're perfect so there's no way we wouldn't have kept him if we wanted him, so therefore he sucks" thing is justification. It's not actual happenings, just hopeful reasoning.

Just as is the idea that roughly any chump who can stay in the league can be as good as he is, when the talent level is obviously not there. We have a major weakness there right now, no matter how much you want to devalue Grant for his leaving.

 

They didn't lowball Jenkins, Rucker, or Smitty. The guys that they really wanted to keep, they kept. Grant wasn't one of them. Which tells me that they didn't value him.

 

Other than Smith, who didn't they lowball?

They wanted Short, they lowballed him. They got cheap linebacker.
Same for Meadows. They played the cheap game, it won them some, it lost them some.
And by most regards, Jenkins and Rucker really did get below market deals.

They lowballed Minter when he was out there, too. He eventually had to simply settle for less money.

They also lowballed Manu. Lost him, because hell, what we did saved the Rams money. They probably would've paid him more - market value. Now they have a cheap player.


It just smells of justification. Gantt said that the Panthers put together a lot of offers for Grant, and really wanted him back. Just had a "set price range", and came up short on bonus money. They wanted him. Jacksonville offered an okay contract, and suddenly didn't have to up it because here they were not getting matched. The Panthers dropped the ball because of principle, on a reasonable contract. They weren't going to pay anyone what the market beared, so I guess by that reasoning they didn't actually want anyone.

 

does anyone remember the mid-season yasinkas article where deon said last year was the first year he took his job serously? i really don't want to look it up because i'm pretty sure you all read it. even with his much improved season i knew he wouldn't get any love from the panthers after that. i doubt you're staying in the richardson 'family' when you do an interview with your team's hometown rag and you're too dumb to realize you just admitted they've been pissing their money away on you. the funny thing is he was trying to say something good about himself, about how he changed - in a contract year - what a moron! i don't think players are going to get rewarded for that when they are only average or slightly above average after making the big change. he should have just said the game was slowing down for him or something like that, not he just started really studying film this year. i really felt at the time he screwed himself with us, and felt through the whole process it had something to do with him not getting a fair offer from the us, and he didn't. he got a fair offer from jax, not overboard, but fair. i've been lurking for months and have been surprised no one has thought that interview was significant, or brought it up. i obviously don't know fox or jerry, i've only read pretty much everything printed, or on tv, like the rest of y'all, and it just doesn't seem like this kind of thing will fly. i will say i think deon can be one of the better safeties in the league if he keeps it up, but i just think he blew his chances here over principal.

 

http://www.ohio.com/mld/charlotte/sports/football/nfl/carolina_panthers/6686878.htm?1c