the past gives us reason to be optimistic about the 2009 defensive line

[Fiz]

let us take a trip back to immediately after the 2007 season. It had thankfully come to an end, and the Panthers were left staring at the pieces of an offensive line in shambles. No one was quite sure what had to happen, but it was clear that drastic changes were needed. Gross was about to walk. Wharton was a joke at offensive tackle. Hartwig was done. Kalil sucked at guard and struggled when he got starts at center. DeAngelo was rotting on the bench and deshaun foster was probably working for the mob.

many of us were ready to burn it all down and start over. when travelle wharton was signed to a long term extension, I'm sure a lot of you were like me. My stomach turned, everything went hazy, and I woke up in mexican hotel room with blood on my hands and cash everywhere.

a similar thing happened when the went all in and traded the barn away for jeff otah. in retrospect it still wasn't the right move but ignore that for the sake of this thread.

they then brought in some asshole off the street named keydrick vincent and decided to let the chips fall where they may.

well it worked and we all look stupid now. otah was worth every penny, kalil was a stud at center, vincent had a career year, and wharton was a revelation at guard.

FLASH FORWARD

the defensive line is a shambles. there's no depth at tackle. peppers wants out. we don't have a first rounder and we're looking at the prospect of starting charles johnson and tyler brayton. coaches are bailing left and right. the mark of the beast has appeared over BoA stadium.

so the Panthers do the exact same thing they did the year before.

Roll the dice on a player, mortgage the future, and bring back the guy most want gone. Soon they'll start bringing in every warm body off the street to compete for defensive tackle, much like they did with the lineman last year.

will it work again? will the river boat gamblers beat house again?

who knows! GOOOOOOO TEAM!

[Jangler]

Did you find your meds?

[Fiz]

Did you find your meds?

also this thread has bonus footage of jangler

[Jangler]

I hate soccer, what else was I supposed to do with it?

[rayzor]

you know there, fizzy, you may be on to something.

i like it.

[megadeth078]

this guy sucks

[Saint J]

that .gif wins.

As a Saints fan I think Brayton and Johnson are underrated by most Panthers fans and Peppers sack total inflates his sense of value around here. Not to say he's bad but most people don't understand that there is more to DE than sacks and taking plays off is not what dominant DEs do.

[Dingo_ate_Babies]

Assuming Pep stays...we are set at DE for awhile. DT is the problem. We have no premier players at that position since Jenkins left. Neither Kemo nor Lewis are every-down DTs and the rest of them are unknowns.

[rayzor]

Assuming Pep stays...we are set at DE for awhile. DT is the problem. We have no premier players at that position since Jenkins left. Neither Kemo nor Lewis are every-down DTs and the rest of them are unknowns.

that is where getting pep signed to a long term deal is going to help. he signs something that gives us a bit of wiggle room and we can go out there and find the DTs that his the street in the coming weeks. i've said for a long time that what we needed to be doing is approaching the DL, in particular the DT position the way we did the OL, in particular the OG last year. bring in a bunch of wide loads and see which of them can move the best. we don't need much to make this team as dominant on defense as it is on offense.

[Fiz]

i hope they sign dwayne robertson

[Jangler]

that is where getting pep signed to a long term deal is going to help. he signs something that gives us a bit of wiggle room and we can go out there and find the DTs that his the street in the coming weeks. i've said for a long time that what we needed to be doing is approaching the DL, in particular the DT position the way we did the OL, in particular the OG last year. bring in a bunch of wide loads and see which of them can move the best. we don't need much to make this team as dominant on defense as it is on offense.

I was thinking about that last night, sign him to long term deal and pay him the majority of the money next year, if he can wait a year for 60% of 100 -110m.

[mountainpantherfan]

I still think they may move Brayton in to the DT position more often or maybe even permanantaly. He is small for a DT but I'm thinking Meeks had a 280 pound DT starting the year the Colts won the SB. Meeks is known for valuing speed and smarts over height and wieght.

[bleys]

I still think they may move Brayton in to the DT position more often or maybe even permanantaly. He is small for a DT but I'm thinking Meeks had a 280 pound DT starting the year the Colts won the SB. Meeks is known for valuing speed and smarts over height and wieght.

Not saying it's not possible, but I'm sure Brayton would appreciate staying at one position from now on.

[rayzor]

i hope they sign dwayne robertson

i'm starting to as well. i heard he was playing arena football now. i think we can afford a little more than what they are paying him.

he's only 27 years old. i wouldn't mind this at all....especially used in rotation.

even if we did get him i would want us to fo into the season with 9-10 spots dedicated to the Dline. with as much pressure as we need to put on those big offenses next year we have to have that serious depth.

I was thinking about that last night, sign him to long term deal and pay him the majority of the money next year, if he can wait a year for 60% of 100 -110m.

that would be good. i still have mixed feelings about the uncapped year but this is one area that we certainly could benefit from. we better make sure that it was going to happen before we committed to something like that, though.

good news is, though, we'll be finding out one way or another by july 15th whether the long term deal is coming or not.