Worried about morale this season....

[MadHatter]

we are not a "doom" crew. but can you honestly say with all the experience we lost we are a better team right now? all the experts even our own beat writers recognize this. you guys act like all of a sudden we got a probowl roster on our hands. we just refuse to drink the koolaid and are not on the "YEAH!!! WE CUT DELHOMME! EVERYTHING IS FINE" high. we are not saying that we will be 1-15 agian, but to act like we are a team that is set to be a playoff threat is crazy.

I think we are a comparable team now.

DT....I don't think we are any worse off with Leonard, Tyler, and Irvin than with kemo and Lewis.

LB...we are better off with Anderson/Conner starting than Diggs

QB....don't even need to comment on this one.

DE...losing Peppers does hurt this team. I like Johnson alot and Brown has shown an ability to get pressure. That being said, we still need a vet DE (like Brayton) to put into the rotation and mix.

WR...if we see the old Jarrett, then we are worse. However, moose is not getting any younger. I will defer until later to evaluate this position.

Listen people...we are not done with the roster. There will be a few FA's, and there will be new rookies.

I am deferring total judgement until later in the FA when we see the final roster going into TC.

[carolinanimal]

omg he didnt say superbowl GET HIM

:confused::leaving:

[Matt Foley]

Mad Hatter, did you actually say the Panthers aren't worse off at DE without Peppers?

[Swarly]

Carolina. The Panthers go with the term “quarterback pressures’’ and their numbers are dramatically higher than Atlanta’s. Not sure if that’s a case of Carolina having a better pass rush or the coaches being more generous in their breakdowns. Whatever the case, former Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers was credited with a team-best 35 pressures. Former Carolina defensive tackle Damione Lewis was next with 21. Those guys are gone, but here’s something encouraging for those wondering about the future of Carolina’s defensive line: Defensive end Everette Brown had 16 pressures in a part-time role in his rookie season. Charles Johnson, another guy who now has a chance to be a starter, had 12 pressures in a part-time role. Tyler Brayton, who started last season and seems destined to end up elsewhere as a free agent, had 14 pressures.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcsouth/post/_/id/8852/counting-qb-pressures-and-hurries

These numbers aren't official, and aren't tracked but apparently this is what some of our assistant coaches saw in the film room.

The one thing that surprised me most is that Brown had so many pressures with such a limited role.

[GRWatcher]

What a turn around! I'm paraphrasing, but ........... "Players have to step up." "It's up to the players to keep the morale up." "They're grown men." There have even been references that John Fox is a good coach and can develop this young talent quickly and that the FO can more than adequately fill the holes.

After a year of whining and harassing about how bad Fox is and how dumb Hurney is, posters now know they will deliver a winning (let alone playoff) season with all this young inexperienced talent. And last year, nothing was the players' fault (except Peppers sometimes and Delhomme always), nothing.

As carolinanimal says,

we are not a "doom" crew. but can you honestly say with all the experience we lost we are a better team right now? all the experts even our own beat writers recognize this. you guys act like all of a sudden we got a probowl roster on our hands. we just refuse to drink the koolaid and are not on the "YEAH!!! WE CUT DELHOMME! EVERYTHING IS FINE" high. we are not saying that we will be 1-15 agian, but to act like we are a team that is set to be a playoff threat is crazy.

Thank you!

It's the defense that I'm worried about. I won't rehash everything carolinanimal or panthers55 (and others, I'm sure) have said in this thread but I basicaly agree with them. Which also leads me to worry about ST's too.

Not considering Peppers or Delhomme (something had to be done about each), if we hadn't cut starters (average vets, my ass) according to a formula that first looked at their age, I would feel better. Our star player and the kickers are the only 30+ players left and I'm not sure both kickers will stay either.

I said it before, I'll feel better when there's a significant multi-year signing and we start extending our own players.