Wesley gaining attention

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/football/nfl/carolina_panthers/3466624.htm

Could the fourth-round draft pick from Arkansas-Pine Bluff be the answer to what might be the Panthers' biggest question?

"At this point, anything is possible," coach John Fox said.

Throughout the past two weeks, Wesley has been impressing the coaching staff. He's held his own when guarding receiver Muhsin Muhammad and his work ethic and size already were well-known.

 

The only bothersome thing about that is knowing that either Peete or Fasini threw two straight picks to a rookie corner.

 

yeah. It's a neat little sensational ditty about getting some excitement into an unknown corner. That's all good.

But Peete does have a knack for finding the wrong guy to throw to, and Fasani's never been a lick's worth of consistent with ball placement.

 

I love this quote from Wesley inparticular:

"If you're an athlete, you're an athlete," he said. "You can play on any level, whether it's at a small college or a big college. I don't consider that a drawback coming from a small school. It just makes me come out here and practice harder."

I always hate it when the media guys assume the size of the college is worth discussion.

 

There is no doubt that a number of excellent NFL players have come from small colleges and hopefully Wesley will be one of them. However, there is also the reality that the competion level in the small college ranks is not the same as with the Div I schools. That being said, a player might look very good at a Div II or III school, but be totally out of his league in a Div I match up, not to mention the level of competition in the NFL. That's why the press always mentions the "small school" issue. Last year we had Bowers, a RB from a Div III school, in our camp. This guy was described as "a man among boys" on the football field. I think he also set a new NCAA record for career yards. Bottom line........ he got cut after training camp. Seems he really was a man among boys in college, but they only have men in the NFL......... really BIG men.

 

agree RPF...like it, don't like it, it's an issue.

 

I've never understood why we would take a chance on a small school guy. There is just too mch mystery involved. Is that guy REALLY better than your typical SEC or Big 10 starting corner?

 

well in this case I don't think that was an issue. They just wanted a big, raw, teachable corner. basically, we traded in Rashard for Wesley, but at least Wesley's physical.

 

The only other options from big schools at that point were Craver, Lott and Echols. Echols is a player, but a bit too small to play in the system Fox wants, and is a diabetic. Craver has a neck injury, came in heavy and had a horrible senior year. And Lott is both small for our system and a bit slow reacting at this point.

So by the fourth, our options were limited. In fact, all the top big school prospects were already taken by the time we took Witherspoon in the third.

 

On the flip side, many SEC type or Big 10 type Running Backs and Quarterbacks were complete failures in the NFL. You can turn it around by saying those QBs or RBs were successful because the had they best freakin Offensive Line in the country. So the question now is... Is that guy successful because of the players around him?