ESPN's Football Outsiders red flags the Carolina Panthers WR position

[top dawg]

The Football Outsiders are doing a Red Flag series for each team, and of course our red flag is the position of WR. Being that it is from the ESPN's paid subscription "IN", I won't necessarily provide a link, or the full text (to keep the Huddle out of trouble), but I did quote the pertinent info.  They also mentioned post-draft pick-ups (Arena Leaguers) and the fact that the time is coming soon when Steve Smith won't need a "counterpart", but a "replacement".

 

 

In February, we identified defensive tackle as the biggest hole on the Panthers' roster...Now, they need to find someone besides Steve Smith who can catch a pass. Smith is the franchise's all-time leader in receptions, yards and touchdowns, but it has been a one-man show to an embarrassing degree.

...LaFell returns this season as Carolina's No. 2 receiver by default. He has one 100-yard game in his career, against Tampa Bay in 2011, and 91 of his 103 yards that day came on one touchdown catch. Behind him, the Panthers have a motley crew of has-beens and never-wases. A list of the veterans at the bottom of the depth chart:

• Domenik Hixon, a mediocre kick returner for the Giants whose best season as a receiver was an underwhelming 596 yards back in 2008;

• Ted Ginn Jr., an aging kick returner who caught two passes in 13 games last year for San Francisco;
• David Gettis, who gained 508 yards as a rookie in 2010 but has missed each of the past two seasons with ACL and hamstring injuries;
• Joe Adams, Armanti Edwards and Kealoha Pilares, who have a combined eight catches in six NFL seasons.

The Panthers did nothing to address this position in the draft.

 

[top dawg]

Zod, don't know if it's a glitch, but I could not put any more text below the boxed quotation, as the cursor only goes inside the box, because the slider will not go below the box.  Just noting that I had this problem before one other time.

[mav1234]

while they have a bit of a point I think the bigger issue is less "who is our #2 option!?" and more "who will replace Smitty in a few years?" because Olsen and Lafell are fine 2nd/3rd options with the kind of running game we can have.

[Sapper]

Ted Ginn is aging?  I need to have a child soon (or something) since I'm older.

[PhillyB]

i still think we grab somebody from the FA pool with our sweet new bubbling pot of cap space

[Lilsmitty09]

lol. we seemed to do fine in 05 and 08 with just smitty and in 08 with an old moose. Now we have an actual te and lafell, hixon, ginn and Cam. we are better than we think..in 08 we didnt even need a passing game

[top dawg]

There is an element of understated scathing in this piece if you ask me. I can't argue with it though.

[rayzor]

we can always find one next year...unless there is no aj green or megatron available when we pick in the teens and then we'll just have to wait till the next year when we're pretty sure a sure-thing elite WR is available when we pick.

 

right?

[TheRumGone]

that is the biggest duh article.

[FreeArmanti]

lol. we seemed to do fine in 05 and 08 with just smitty and in 08 with an old moose. Now we have an actual te and lafell, hixon, ginn and Cam. we are better than we think..in 08 we didnt even need a passing game

We couldnt move the ball in the 05 playoff game against seattle because all we had was smitty. I love smitty more than any Panther but he needs someone on the other side of him.

[mav1234]

Smitty has someone on the other side of him.

 

Lafell is a fine #2, or at least he was at times last year.

 

Olsen is more of the true second passing threat on the offense, anyway.

 

I'd love another elite receiver alongside Smitty, but DT was a much bigger concern going into this draft, understandably so!

[top dawg]

lol. we seemed to do fine in 05 and 08 with just smitty and in 08 with an old moose. Now we have an actual te and lafell, hixon, ginn and Cam. we are better than we think..in 08 we didnt even need a passing game

To be honest, they mentioned the fact that we had TEs and RBs who basically have outdone the WRs at different points over the years, and overall. I glean that in their opinion that the aforementioned fact is not to be praised, but scorned. They would probably argue that this is why we really haven't had success.  They also mentioned Moose, but basically keyed in on the fact that he wasn't even with us for a few key years.

 

Basically, I think they think that we have been fug-ups at getting Smitty some bonafide help, and/or maximizing our proficiency and/or efficiency at the position. I can't disagree with them.

[mav1234]

There were a few years in there, yeah... but Lafell is developing quite well... Olsen is a solid target... I'd like to get someone to push and replace Smitty at #1 so we can shift him around some more, but we actually added depth at WR this year which is where I think we needed it.  Of our top 3 targets, we've got an elite receiver, a near-elite TE, and a good WR.  After that, things fell off.  That's (hopefully) changed.

[FreeArmanti]

Lafell had 4 TD's last year. 3 of them if i recall correctly came because the defense forgot about him (the one in tampa and the philly one) cant remember if the one vs Tampa was on the defense as well. The dallas one I'll give to Lafell. But i agree he has his moments but id like to see more of them since he's our number 2