Getting back to 2003

[Kurb]

http://www.carolinagrowl.com/Read.aspx?Story=914

Hurney and Fox knew first and foremost they had to get bigger and better up front.

But there was the matter of taking care of some housework.

They re-signed Travelle Wharton to a huge contract and moved him to left guard, a position many believe fits him better at the NFL level. They tried to re-sign Jordan Gross, but when that deal fell through they made him the franchise player and switched him to left tackle.

To clear cap room they dumped Mike Wahle and Justin Hartwig and made Ryan Kalil, a player they simply couldn’t pass up on in the second round of the 2007 draft, their starting center.

There was still the matter of shoring up the right side of the line.

When free agency began they signed three big linemen – all weighing more than 325 pounds. Although only Keydrick Vincent would stick with the club, he would prove to be an important pickup because of the strength and veteran stability he brought the right guard spot. That would be important because of what the Panthers would do a few weeks later in the draft at the position next to him.

Although many suspected the Panthers would address their glaring need at right tackle with their first pick, Fox and Hurney had another plan in mind.

The Panthers set about finding the right guy not to replace, but to complement the shiftier DeAngelo Williams and Oregon running back Jonathan Stewart just so happened to be the perfect fit.

They held their breath and hoped he’d fall to No. 13 like they thought he would.

And he did.

“We were fortunate that Jonathan was there,” Hurney said. “We knew DeAngelo was talented and improving. But we also knew that when we’d been successful in the past we had two very good running backs.”

The Panthers didn’t have much time to celebrate landing Stewart.

It was onto the phones.

With still a glaring need at right tackle, Hurney found a trade partner in Philadelphia. In a move that reeked to some of desperation at the time, the Panthers pulled the trigger on one of the biggest trades in team history, sending a 2009 first-round draft pick and second- and fourth-round picks in 2008 to the Eagles for the right to move up the 19th spot and take 335-pound road grader Jeff Otah from Pittsburgh.

While some viewed the move as a gamble, nobody is second-guessing the Panthers now.

“We thought very highly of Jeff,” Hurney said. “It was a big investment, yes, but the thing that didn’t make it a gamble for us is that we felt he fit into the formula that had worked here in the past and a formula that fits into our personality. We knew we gave up a lot to get him but he fit into what we wanted to be.”

Just like that, the Panthers had reinvented themselves as a power running team.

They’d gone back to their roots.

Personnally I LOVE powerrunning football.

It's not pretty, but it is manhoodtesting, face ripping off and wearing it like a masking, badass football.

[pantherclaw]

The hardest thing to defend is the run.

Love power running. Opens everything up.

[PantherBrew]

I love when we pound the rock on someone, nothing is more demoralizing than getting gashed with the run game.

Saints, Cardinals, Colts, Eagles, keep your passing game. I will take good ole' smash mouth, dick in the dirt running game.

[mountainpantherfan]

Good article but I would have added that re-signing Hoover and his play this year has been just as big of the piece of the puzzel. Not to mention the improved run blocking by our WR's.

[Guest]

Power running is ballsy. And we got big balls. Damn right.

[Taom82]

The Stewert pick surprised me because we had strayed away from the smashmouth style of running downhill in the past few years. That being said, I loved the Otah pick. We all knew the O-line needed work, and I wanted them to pick him up in the first this year. Of course, we've all loved the production of the starting line when they've been healthy.