Russell Shepard

[*FreeFua*]

The guy has 30 career receptions. Other than Saca (I know what he was expecting) I don't know what many of you were thinking he was going to do...

Hes essentially Cotchery without the experience, which made Cotchery umm "valuable"...?

[KillerKat]

He shouldn't be a lock based on hype. He needs to show up in these last 2 games. I hate guys that are locks from hype or whatever non-football related reason despite showing nothing in preseason while others have done more. The spot should be earned. 

[Snake]

51 minutes ago, SeoulPanther said:

I get that as the play unfolds the QB makes a decision based on his own protection, coverage and separation. But if I'm an OC i want to target a certain number of receptions for each player especially in pre-season. Surely across an entire game that's possible? Result be damned i want to know if these guys can do it. However good hes been in practice I feel sure he can't be happy about being anonymous in the two preseason games. 

The Panthers under Shula have been super conservative in the preseason. We run base and few wrinkles. It's why 2015 came out of nowhere. With that said DA has been terrible so that doesn't help either. 

[electro's horse]

ITs almost like people on this board get over excited about fringe players for no real reason

[KillaCamNewton]

Only the Panthers could bring in a career special teamer and expect him to be a legitimate target at receiver

[Ace_Aladdin]

Samuel ,Byrd & Ross will open things up 

 

[beastson]

We'll see, but if you don't know by now that some players can impact in practice and some can impact in a game, that's on you. Sad though... you would think a HC would know as well

[Seltzer]

Our WR depth this year is bad, even by our low standards. Having an elite TE like Olsen mitigates it some, but KB is the only WR on our roster that would be a lock on every team in the league's WR corp. And even he has his issues.

I'm not saying this to hate. I truly hope Samuel can provide a spark, and maybe Shepard and/or Byrd can contribute in a meaningful way.  To me, Funchess looks like a guy who could be a decent WR4 on a good WR corp. I hope I'm wrong. And McCaffrey is a wildcard given his receiving ability.

Truthfully though, there are a lot of question marks. I am hoping with an offensive line that seems to be greatly improved our guys will have time to get open.

But if you were to look at it objectively, we are an Olsen injury away from the potentially the worst receiving corp in the league.

We ended up being a lot better in 2014 than I thought we would be, and Cam has proven when he's had a decent offensive line he can make chicken salad out of chicken$Hit.

But just using today as an example, the Titans receiving corp looked better across the board (outside of KB). And it wasn't because the Titans offensive line played any better. Bill Both has even referenced it, and he's on the Panthers payroll.

[Camp Fodder]

never bought into the shepherd hype. 5yds in 2 games. Wow

[Yaboychris28]

Shepard is who he is, an average NFL WR who has a few fan boys on this site trying to tell us otherwise. If he was cut, I wouldn't blink an eye

[Marguide]

45 minutes ago, Seltzer said:

And McCaffrey is a wildcard given his receiving ability.

I would not be at all surprised if CMC was our 3rd leading receiver after KB and Greg O.

[Thorrez]

3 hours ago, electro's horse said:

ITs almost like people on this board get over excited about fringe players for no real reason

I think you just quoted the dictionary under "preseason" ;)

[CPF4LIFE]

We will address the receiver position for real one day......one day. 

[Toker Smurf]

I never was high on him. When he was first mentioned I thought he must be like a 2nd year player. Dude had 30 catches through 4 seasons. Granted most of those came last season but  think that was more out of necessity than his improvement.