Interesting tidbit

From profootballtalk.com - I'm not talking about the intensity part.

FOX READY TO UP THE INTENSITY

A league source tells us that Carolina coach John Fox will be using high-intensity practices as part of his first camp with the team.

According to the source, Fox plans to put the team through lots of hitting as he tries to improve a squad that lost an NFL record 15 straight games in one season.

The source also tells us that Fox generally is encouraged by the players he inherited in Charlotte. He believes that the bottom half of the roster in Carolina is better than the bottom half of the Giants roster, where Fox served most recently as defensive coordinator.

The problem is the top half of the Panthers' roster, and Fox's goal is to get them to move to the next level -- or they could be yielding to the talented backups who, if given a chance, could develop into solid starters.

Not really news, but interesting to ponder Fox's possible thoughts. Looks like the youngsters are gonna get a legit shot.

 

Motivation. Though I don't see Fox as a guy who will try to reach players through the media, I think the worst 20 players or so on the Panthers are better than the 20 worst players on the Giants, I agree. But the Giants have more star power that's for sure. Ron Dayne, Tiki Barber, Kerry Collins, Ike Hillard, Jason Sehorn, Strahan, Barrows, Amani Toomer, so yea, I would agree they're best 20 are better than the Panthers.

But I think Fox can raise the level of play out our already "stars" and make a few out of some that aren't.

 

just as an off - topic situation, I'm still surprised the Giants didn't pick up anything better at CB.

 

Who are our stars / potential stars. By potential i'm not talking Ryan Tolhurst, I'm talking Dan Morgan.

Here's my picks:

Foster.
Peppers.
Rucker.
Grant.
Morgan.
Steussie.
Walls.
Moose.

That's not too bad. If you give Weinke the benefit of the doubt, throw Minter in the mix, you ain't looking too shabby. That's 10/22 strong players. Throw Steve Smith in there, half the squad is looking good.

Here's my take:

Alot of our losses, a whole lot of them, were morale based losses. That seems absolutely corrected. Also, we had guys named Helmsley playing linebacker. That was bad.

Add to that a second year qb, a maturing defense, *Morgan, Grant, Rucker, and now Peppers*, a better run attack on paper than I can remember - we may do ok this year.

Don't fuck with me. It's June.

 

>>Steussie.
>>Walls.
>>Moose.

These guys are stars. And Rucker came through fairly strong for us last year.

 

Yep. the others are potential but I don't feel like I'm stretching too much to put them on the list.

Remember - we've got some great minds leading the defense next year, and they're gonna go for it. It's gonna be intersting to see who becomes a stud. Someone will.

I think I need to goto camp tomorrow and Thursday.

Ya'll should come. it's really neat, I think about 6 people were there today, I knew 2, and Foster's cousin was one of them. The weather today was great.

 

Thought you were just talking about potential stars. Wanted to clarify that, but I re-read what you meant.

 

I see this move as a coaching style. First Fox gets the players to like him and feel that he will notice and give credit to the ones who put out. Then he puts the pressure on the starters to preform to the max ( intensity of practice). The ones who don't measure up are replaced by the next candidate. This way it seems fair to everyone and everyones job is on the line.

I cannot imagine Moose showing up with his decoy tag this year. It will be interesting, very interesting.

 

The one thought that went through my mind after reading that article, that hasn't been mentioned here, is injuries. I think intense practices are a good thing, but summer camp is a long process that can wear down a team through attrition if you catch the injury bug. As we all know, the past history on the Panthers indicates that they have a perminent case of the injury bug. I like everything that I've seen and heard about Fox so far, but I also remember Capers' summer camps as being a time where we had a lot of injuries due to the intensity of the practice. Hopefully we won't be hit too hard this year, but time will tell.

 

Injuries aside, Minter and Walls have been our most productive players. Walls is aging, but Minter has Pro-Bowl ability.