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Bill Williamson predicts Panthers win NFC South!


restNChrist

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Never understood why some folks are so enthralled with analyst's predictions.

haha, its because people envy the fact that boneheads get paid a lot of money to give their under-educated opinion's.... Every year I gotta deal with a co-worker that swears by what ESPN thinks.... they are NEVER right, but yet this dude comes at me with all this random ish, but he's also a seahawks fan, so I cut him some slack

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KC Joyner has us as 1 of 3 dark horse Super Bowl contenders.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8333349/three-dark-horse-super-bowl-candidates-2012-nfl

Ryan Kalil promised a Super Bowl win this year and both his team's quarterback and ownerbacked him up on it.

There are more than a few metric elements that back him up as well.

Cam Newton is the easiest place to begin, as he setrookie records last season and was one of only eight passers with 1,000 or more stretch vertical passing yards. Like most young quarterbacks, he did struggle in the BDR category (4.2 percent, fifth highest in the league), but that number should decrease as Newton becomes more acclimated to the NFL.

Newton also benefits from having Steve Smith to throw to, as his 10.7 overall YPA ranked tied for 11th last season.

The passing attack could actually turn out to be even more dangerous this year if Brandon LaFell continues to progress. His 14.7 vertical YPA last season ranked tied for sixth among wideouts with at least 30 vertical targets. That type of ability is part of why LaFell has a strong grip on the starting job opposite of Smith and could be on the verge of a breakthrough.

In addition, Carolina boasts two running backs (DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart) who ranked in the top six of the league in the good blocking yards per attempt (GBYPA) category that measures a ball carrier's productivity when receiving good blocking. The Panthers also rated sixth in the league in good blocking rate and topped the NFL in offensive GBP.

They will need all of these elements to protect a defense with some coverage issues, but if that group gets better while the Panthers' offense keeps the pressure off of it, this team could start to hit its stride just in time for a late-season/postseason run.

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