Potential for Strong Season Looks Good for King

Jeff King came to the Carolina Panthers last season as a fifth round pick out of Virginia Tech. He brought a strong resume from college as do most other draft picks. Last year he made the team as the Panthers decided to keep four tight ends on the final 53 man roster. Since then, long time starter Kris Mangum retired, Mike Seidman sustained an ACL injury and was released, and King played ahead of Michael Gaines before Gaines suffered a season ending injury.

This season King has done everything well to set himself up for a breakout season. He has been healthy and on the field for all of the mini-camps and training camp. This has allowed himself to be seen often by the staff and given him the opportunity to show what he can do. He is on the field a lot and even plays on special teams. King says all the right things and does everything asked of him of the team without any distractions. He is also now in his second year on the team and has experience in the NFL and the Panthers.

Jeff King has done everything possible in his control to boost his stock but he has also benefited from some circumstances outside of his control as well. Jeff Davidson was brought in as the new offensive coordinator. Last year’s offense had some favorites but the new one gives everybody a clean slate. In 2006, the tight end position caught less than 40 catches, relatively low for most NFL teams so things can’t get much worse in that aspect for King.

Another thing helping King is the fact that right now there doesn’t appear to be a solid #2 receiver behind Smith like there was last season. Second round pick Dwayne Jarrett missed some time due to injury in camp and at the end of the day is still a rookie. Drew Carter didn’t make a lot of spectacular catches in camp to seize the job either. Meanwhile, Jeff King just showed up everyday and caught nearly everything thrown his way building important rapport with Delhomme for the coming season.