The one thing to hold on to....

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

With mere days before training camp and the official start of next season, when everything great about the last seasonal effort becomes nothing more than memories and highlights, I wanted to point out the one statistic that pleased me more than others from 2008.

Yards per attempt.

Whether it was Williams leading the league in rushing (5.5 ypc) or Smitty still impressing greatly in receptions(18.2 ypc), our main weapons never needed those second chances. Williams and Smith still damn near tied the league leaders for their respective catagories even though they got many less chances to do what the others did. Hell, even Moose and Stew got in on the action making very impressive seconds in terms of yardage despite being given less chances than most players in their posistions.

So if there is anything from 2008 that I want to see carry over to 2009, it's this. Production when the chances are there, not a million failed attempts to get ten things to go right. Ram the ball down their throats, burn em deep when the chance is there. That's how the Panthers roll, and dammit, I hope they keep rolling right over every single one of these "difficult" opponents we're supposed to face next year. And if they can keep up these kinds of numbers then there is no reason not to believe that can happen.

Alright, '08 is officially done for me. Bring on '09!

[WilkinsonDonnie]

You have an exceptional run game you control the tempo of the game and the ability to put your defense in a great position to win games.

[mantal]

You have an exceptional run game you control the tempo of the game and the ability to put your defense in a great position to win games, as long as you use it.

Fixed...

[AKPantherFan]

I think this is going to be a special year...

I really do. I think this is the year that Delhomme makes people believe.

[ItsNotGonnaBeAlright]

I think this is going to be a special year...

I really do. I think this is the year that Delhomme makes people believe.

Well he is the last peice of the offense that needs to give people reasons to believe.

Jesus, we only have one posistion on offense to worry about. QB or not, 1 out of 11 is a great number of "problem" areas to have.

And before anyone says it, I'm not worried about a third dependable wideout. We only need enough recieving options to keep defenses honest, and we have that.

[DaCityKats]

how can you not use your bread n butter.we abandoned the run the arizona game and look what happen.running the ball is our bnb.

[Cat'sGrowl]

It's not Jake I'm concerned about, it's depth on the O-line.

Our starting 5 is great, and I do have trust in the two main back-ups, I just wish we had some more experienced guys.

Praying for some good health there.

Would anyone be interested in bringing Jeremy Bridges back?

He seems to have kept himself under control this offseason, and while I don't usually like bringin in shady characters, I think he's earned himself another chance.

[rippadonn]

With mere days before training camp and the official start of next season, when everything great about the last seasonal effort becomes nothing more than memories and highlights, I wanted to point out the one statistic that pleased me more than others from 2008.

Yards per attempt.

Whether it was Williams leading the league in rushing (5.5 ypc) or Smitty still impressing greatly in receptions(18.2 ypc), our main weapons never needed those second chances. Williams and Smith still damn near tied the league leaders for their respective catagories even though they got many less chances to do what the others did. Hell, even Moose and Stew got in on the action making very impressive seconds in terms of yardage despite being given less chances than most players in their posistions.

So if there is anything from 2008 that I want to see carry over to 2009, it's this. Production when the chances are there, not a million failed attempts to get ten things to go right. Ram the ball down their throats, burn em deep when the chance is there. That's how the Panthers roll, and dammit, I hope they keep rolling right over every single one of these "difficult" opponents we're supposed to face next year. And if they can keep up these kinds of numbers then there is no reason not to believe that can happen.

Alright, '08 is officially done for me. Bring on '09!

I hear that so much when people talk about our schedule. I think it's equally as true for those teams that are playing the NFC South this year. I'm sure they're not exactly licking their chops or jumping for joy either. We are a very good team in a tough tough division. They should fear us!

[panthers55]

It's not Jake I'm concerned about, it's depth on the O-line.

Our starting 5 is great, and I do have trust in the two main back-ups, I just wish we had some more experienced guys.

Praying for some good health there.

Would anyone be interested in bringing Jeremy Bridges back?

He seems to have kept himself under control this offseason, and while I don't usually like bringin in shady characters, I think he's earned himself another chance.

Last year we mainly used a rotation of 8 players, our starters and Hangardner, Bridges and Omiyale. Seems to me we should be able to find 2 or 3 guys out of the 7 or 8 we picked up or carried over in order to fill some spots on occasion. Cadogan can fill in for Gross while we have a number of big tackles who can back up Otah, ( Schwartz 6'6" 331, Palmer 6'4" 336) while Bernadeau (6'4" 308) can fill in for the other guard spot. The question for me is who fills in for Kalil is he gets hurt. Grey is the only other center listed at such although there may be others who could fill in if necessary. Then we have the other long shots in Brown, Williams and Davis.

We have had very good luck develop linemen and I suspect we wil do more of the same. For some reason I am not that worried.