16 replies to this topic

[Laetitia]

(By Scott Fowler, sfowler@charlotteobserver.com) For many months, Panthers owner Jerry Richardson has not communicated to the team's fans at all, except apparently through the occasional random phone call placed to a fan who wrote a letter of complaint and e-mailed it to the Panthers' website.p/That has now changed. Richardson has written a letter that has been sent to all permanent-seat license owners.

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[Humble Dew]

no poo?

[CatMan72]

Glad he sent this out, it should be addressed to all fans and posted on Panthers.com as well.

[catfang]

Fowler is a jackass for putting his comments in there.

[chknwing]

u created 2 threads for the same thing Laetita?

[brandon_87]

" I'm willing to invest the resources necessary to make it happen"


does that mean we are in for a overhaul next year?

[Lumps]

" I'm willing to invest the resources necessary to make it happen, except this year."

there we go.

[pantherj]

"Going forward, our plan of attack is to build through the draft while retaining our core players"

That scares me. When you have a talented winning team, you can build through the draft. When you have the worst team in the NFL, you need to do more than build through the draft if you want a winning team the following season. I'm now worried that JR has no intention of buying up the FAs we need to improve from the laughing stock of the NFL, to a competitive team. The draft is hit and miss, and we have no 2nd round pick. How much can the draft actually improve this team for next season?

[panthers55]

So if he is willing to spend the resources we will know february 2nd when we see what kind of coach we get. A guy like Cowher, Gruden or even Harbaugh who wants big money or a cheap coordinator like Grimm.

[pantherj]

Grimm + no big FAs = empty BOA.

[Happy Panther]

JR has never picked up a big name FA.

Maybe Stephen Davis or Keyshawn.

He may need to grab the biggest name in Franchise history next year...

[Mr. Scot]

JR has never picked up a big name FA.

Maybe Stephen Davis or Keyshawn.

He may need to grab the biggest name in Franchise history next year...

Sean Gilbert wasn't a big name free agent?

[Frash Brastard]

that was a trade

although Lucas was a pretty big signing

[Mr. Scot]

Actually it was a Franchise Free Agent signing. We had to surrender two first rounders for it because of the tag. We'd bickered with the Redskins about alternate compensation but in the end we just gave them the standard fare (pretty dumb decision in hindsight).

Free agents signings in Panthers history that were considered "big name" at the time:

- Lamar Lathon, Mike Fox, Darion Conner Sam Mills (1995)
- Eric Davis, Greg Skrepenak, Kevin Greene, Wesley Walls (1996)
- Michael Barrow (1997)
- William Floyd, Doug Evans, Sean Gilbert (1998)
- Patrick Jeffers (RFA, 1999)
- Chuck Smith (2000)
- Brentson Buckner, Kevin Donnalley, Jeff Mitchell (2001)

Also picked up in that latter period were guys like Eric Swann and Reggie White. It didn't go so well.

In 2002, Hurney took over as GM and John Fox as head coach. That's when the approach changed to concentrate more on mid-level free agents. There were fewer "big names" but they still trickled in from time to time.

In the 05 and 06 seasons we spent big money on some highly coveted guys in Ken Lucas, Mike Wahle, Ma'ake Kemoeatu and Justin Hartwig. It didn't pay the kind of dividends we wanted.

The lesson here is if you want to complain about the free agent approach, you should probably be talking about Marty Hurney, but he's using a model other teams have used and been successful with while some who have gone whole hog after big names have watched them bust.

Bottom Line: Richardson isn't too cheap to pay for free agents, but Marty Hurney doesn't like to go after big names.

Will that change with John Fox gone? Unknown, but possible.

[Kevin Greene]

Sean Gilbert wasn't a big name free agent?

Yiou realize this was the worst NFL player move since the Vikings traded for Herschell Walker?