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Strength of Panthers team returns, but lack depth on O-line

Kevin Greene

By Kevin Greene,
in Carolina Panthers

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Kevin Greene Newbie

Kevin Greene

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With coordinator Jeff Davidson and his offensive staff returning for a third season, the Panthers have a step up on the competition when it comes to preparation.

“It’s the first time I’ve been a part of this where we’ve had all of our starters back,” Gross said. “You really get to pick up where you left off and work on (more advanced) things this part of the year, where as usually you’re taking baby steps.”

If there’s one concern for the Panthers, however, it’s the lack of depth on the offensive line.

By re-signing Gross and using the franchise tag on defensive end Julius Peppers, the Panthers were left handcuffed in free agency. They were forced to release tackle Jeremy Bridges in a salary cap move and then lost center-guard Geoff Hangartner and tackle Frank Omiyale via free agency leaving one of the deepest offensive lines in the league depleted.

That leaves second-year pros Geoff Schwartz and Mackenzy Bernadeau, who were with the team last year but didn’t play, and rookie Duke Robinson as the top reserves. That could change at some point if the Panthers sign a veteran offensive linemen, but right now Gross said it’s vital that the starting five up front remain on the field.

“As it sits now we can’t really afford to get anybody hurt. Not saying anything bad against our backups but that is really just so unknown,” Gross said. “There is no established backup right now.

More:

http://www.carolinagrowl.com/Read.aspx?Story=1088

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monstercat Newbie

monstercat

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Here's Gantt's take on day 1 of summer school...http://www.heraldonline.com/665?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3aded44479-eff0-4fb5-98bf-9edb9d130913Post%3abcdfc65e-c13d-4a46-9934-087152be4572&sid=pluck.heraldonline.com

This quote is particularly interesting...

Interesting note from LT Jordan Gross on OL depth (more on that in tomorrow's paper too). He said he's encouraged by the progress of second-year T Geoff Schwartz.

Last year's seventh-round pick spent the offseason lifting with C Ryan Kalil and Gross, and the elder statesman called him "probably the most improved player physically."

It doesn't take much to stand out in the backup line category here, but it would certainly help if he can play.

Also, I nearly didn't recognize Schwartz, since he got a haircut. He no longer looks like "The Dude," Jeffrey Lebowski.

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Kurb Newbie

Kurb

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It's awesome that our starting O-line is back, but cross your fingers that the injury bug stays away... we were really lucky with that last year, let's hope it holds.

Actually we had several injuries on the O-line.

We just had solid back-ups and never really missed a beat.

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monstercat Newbie

monstercat

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No one was really out for any length of time though were they?

No, but for most of the regular season, there was a different starter out almost every week. It's really pretty amazing that they stayed as consistent as they did.

My dream is for this team to have their starting 5 healthy all season long though...especially since this is the first time in the Fox era that all five starters return to play the same positions as the previous season.

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X-Clown Veteran

X-Clown

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Travelle Wharton also said on a radio interview recently that Schwartz and Bernadeau were guys who had improved a lot since their rookie season.

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R0CKnR0LLA Mentor

R0CKnR0LLA

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It's not like we don't have guys, they just aren't proven yet. I'm expecting big things out of Robinson and if a single one of the other 1st/2nd year guys work out our depth should be fine. Also, Wharton is versatile and can move to tackle if we need him to. We can lose one starter and have minimal dropoff. So long as we don't have multiple major injuries depth shouldn't be a problem.

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rayzor Grand Master

rayzor

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the thing that bothers me about the lack of experience in our backups is the false starts. we had enough trouble with them last year, though it did get corrected later in the season.

maybe what they did to correct the problem can be done during TC to get them ready.

they should be forcing the defense to try and get the offense to false start as much as possible.

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