What If?

I remember when I was growing up I would constantly ask my father "what if" questions. They were always the most "off the wall" questions. What if a tornado came through town and took out our house? What if you ran for President of the United States and won? He would always answer with the same response, "it is not going to happen, so don't worry about it." And I would always respond with, "yah, but what if?"

Well what if I was the President or Owner of the Carolina Panthers? I know it is not going to happen, but what if?

THE DRAFT:

I would absolutely, under no circumstances, not take Cam Newton as the number one draft pick. Cam Newton is obviously a talented athlete, however if we are going to take a QB with the first pick, we need to make sure that this QB is going to be the next Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco, a rookie that can come right out of the gate swinging and lead us to the playoffs. Watching Cam Newton, do you believe that he has that ability? Honestly? Sorry, but I do not. So why take him with the first overall pick. We do not get another one until the 3rd round. We need to make this one count.

I would also never take AJ Green. Yes, I think he is a great talent and I think he would do great offsetting Steve Smith. However, what good is a great WR if you do not have a great QB that can get him the ball. I think we have all witnessed the talent of Steve Smith and we have all witnessed the frustration in his performance because we are unable to get him the ball in games. Why would be do this to an up and coming rookie. Until we can solve the QB issue with our team, we should not worry about positions relying solely on the QB for performance. (I will discuss the QB situation later in this post)

So this brings me to what I would do with the draft picks that we have. I would work on getting our Defense built up, our Defensive Line, and our Offensive Line. We have a great O-Line, however it has been riddled with injuries, and we need some solid depth in this position, especially with a young QB at the helm. We also have one of the best Defenses in the league, but when they are spending 75% of the game on the field, we again need to get some solid depth. Each game in this last season had a strong start to our defense; however come the 4th quarter, our defense was worn out and were unable to keep up the production they had at the beginning of the game. These are the players I would love to see in a Panthers uniform next year and I would be delighted to see with that #1 jersey.

- Patrick Peterson
- Nick Fairley
- D'Quan Bowers
- Prince Amukamara
- Marcell Dareus

THE QB ISSUE:

There is the common expression, "the elephant in the room", well with the Carolina Panthers that elephant is the quarterback saga. At the end of the 2009 season we had Matt Moore as our starter. And you can read some of my old blogs, I was ecstatic about this move. I have been a Matt Moore supporter for years and always thought he was better than what most people gave him credit for. I still think he is a good quarterback, but obviously not that starter we were all hoping for. We drafter Jimmy Clausen the following year in hopes that this new star of the NFL would make the difference; however after a number of starts he has not shown the great promise we were all hoping for. So lets toss him to the curb right? WRONG!!

Jimmy Clausen is a good quarterback, but is he the next great quarterback, is he the next franchise quarterback? It is way to early to tell. Sadly, Jimmy Clausen was thrown into the fire very early and has not had the opportunity to learn the position at the professional level the way most rookies do. It was also difficult in the fact that Jimmy Clausen practiced with the other rookies and practice squads all off-season, while Matt Moore practiced with the starters. He does not have the connection with Steve Smith that he does with D.Gettis or B.LaFell.

With this being said, what should we do. Well obviously we can not do much without the CBA. However, once the CBA has been put into place, I say we go after a veteran with a one/two year deal in order to have Jimmy Clausen, sit, learn, and understand the game a little better. There are a couple of veterans that I think would do good with this short term deal. Carson Palmer and Vince Young. (you could also probably make the argument for Donovan McNabb).

I think that Carson Palmer would be the best fit in this position. He wants out of Cincy and would be willing to take a two year deal that would allow him to continue to play. I think being in a new city, with a new team, and new leaders, he would increase his production (not quite to his early years, but close). I think it would help develop our young wide-outs and would give Jimmy Clausen some guidance he has not had since being in the NFL.

OTHER MOVES:

Now I will probably get the most slack for this idea, but I think it could really work out. I think we should put Jonathan Stewart out on the market. Jonathan Stewart is still a great RB and because of this, I believe that we could get a great WR to offset Steve Smith. I also think that with the emergence of Tyrell Sutton and Mike Goodson, we have great depth at this position to make this move possible.

-------

I think we can all agree that Carolina is in the midst of their rebuilding phase, which means we must all be patient, we can not expect to go from 2-14 to Super Bowl Champions. We have to be confident in the management's decisions, loyal to the players, and always show the enthusiasm and team spirit on Sundays when our team needs it the most.

Only three more days to the draft, lets hope that we continue the strong tradition of making smart decisions and taking quality players.

GO PANTHERS!

Schedule Release

At 7:00 PM yesterday (April 19th) we found out the when and where the Carolina Panthers will be playing for the 2011 season (well that is if there is a 2011 season). There has been a large response to the fact that the Carolina Panthers have the #1 hardest schedule out of all 32 teams (ranked by NFL.com) even though the team was the worst team in the league.

I think the thing that I am most shocked about at this point is the fact that this is considered "new" news to so many. The schedule was released yesterday, but the opponents have been set for some time now. We knew we were going to be playing the NFC North, the AFC South, and obviously the NFC South we just didn't know what Sunday we were playing each team.

Regardless, we know that this upcoming year is going to be a tough one. Without the CBA in place the draft has limited options and is hurting the free agency markets, not to mention we have a new coaching staff with not a lot of time to "get on the same page". At this point the thing that will help the Carolina Panthers the most is getting a new CBA agreement in place as soon as possible!

For those of you that have not seen the schedule for the upcoming year, here it is:

** I have listed the 2010 record in the () after each team, all teams that made the playoffs last year are in RED , and I have put the teams in BLUE that were under .500 last season.

Sunday, September 11th 4:15 EST @ Arizona Cardinals (5-11)
Sunday, September 18th 1:00 EST vs Green Bay Packers (Super Bowl Champions)
Sunday, September 25th 1:00 EST vs Jacksonville Jaguars (8-8)
Sunday, October 2nd 1:00 EST @ Chicago Bears (11-5)
Sunday, October 9th 1:00 EST vs New Orleans Saints (11-5)
Sunday, October 16th 1:00 EST @ Atlanta Falcons (13-3)
Sunday, October 23rd 1:00 EST vs Washington Redskins (6-10)
Sunday, October 30th 1:00 EST vs Minnesota Vikings (6-10)
Week 9: BYE
Sunday, November 13th 1:00 EST vs Tennessee Titans (6-10)
Sunday, November 20th 1:00 EST @ Detroit Lions (6-10)
Sunday, November 27th 1:00 EST @ Indianapolis Colts (10-6)
Sunday, December 4th 1:00 EST @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-6)
Sunday, December 11th 1:00 EST vs Atlanta Falcons
Sunday, December 18th 1:00 EST @ Houston Texans (6-10)
Saturday, December 24th (CHRISTMAS EVE) 1:00 EST vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sunday, January 1st 1:00 EST @ New Orleans

As you can see we have 7 games total against teams under .500 and 7 games against last season playoff teams (4 of which are divisional games). I have been known to be a optimist, but I do not see this as being the hardest schedule in the NFL. I see it as an opportunity to prove the doubters.

Here is to hoping that we do not make a stupid decision with the first pick (aka picking a QB). See you in a couple weeks.

GO PANTHERS!