I will concentrate this post on the D-side for the panthers and write my next post for the O-side. We all know Fox loves to have a good fast D. Well for the last few years its been okay at best and we have had alot of holes to fill aswell. We sure did get a steal from trading a 5th round pick for Harris(SS) last year from the bears. Harris had 8 fumbles recoveries and was rated 4th in the NFC out of all the safties in sporting news magizine. We really needed that because we got beat by the long ball for the last few seasons and the lack of Mike Minter gone really hurt our team. We drafted Charles Godfrey to play FS this year and start besides Harris and if Godfrey pans out we will be a very tough team to pass deep on. http://profootball.scout.com/a.z?s=127&p=8&c=1&nid=3067699&yr=2008Our secondary is allready a stop the run first type of team but we drafted Godfrey in the 3rd and he is a playmaker that can roam the feild and make plays. We allready have 3 dam good CB's in Lucas,Gamble,Marshall ready to kick azz and all of them have good coverage skills and are can have a high INT year when the play up to par. If Godfrey dont pan out then we already signed T. Holt to play FS and he had 70 plus tackles last year for the Cards, but as of today Godfrey will start and Holt will back him up and give us much needed depth in the secondary.
Lets move on to the LB core which a few seasons ago was bad and Morgan was in and out for the panthers while being hurt most of his carear . Well Morgan is gone and retired and Jon Beason was our first pick last year and had over 150 tackles and started at the ILB spot in his first season. T. Davis holds down the SOLB spot and he was our first round pick in 2005 and is very fast and verstile and should start. We still have Diggs which is very good at the run support, but we signed a dam good freeagent this year named London Johnson from the Bengals. http://profootball.scout.com/a.z?s=127&p=8&c=1&nid=3271723&yr=2008This guy is very fast and lead the Bengals in tackles 3 out of 4 years. We drafted Dan Cooner out of Penn state with the 3rd pick and he was a first round talent guy that we could not pass on. We were already deep at the LB spot but with him backing up the ILB spot we will be really deep and really good at thge LB spot this year. I would rank our LB's A+ and our secondary a B+ so far. Here comes the weakest part of our whole football team and the most important the D-line. We just lost Rucker, but we picked up Tyler Brayton of the Raider's. He was a first round pick that never panned out. They call him nut cracker and here is why he hit Moss in the nuts one time for taking plays off. He is however a blue collar work horse and should be a tad bit better with Peppers on the other side of him. We also moved Peppers to the right side so we could have more of a pass rush which we were dead last in sacks last year. We still have Mclover and Charles Johnson backing those two up and both are unproven with some upside. Johnson is still unproven, but was a first round talent taken in the 3rd round last year that has not seen alot of playing time, but at the least adds depth. We lost Jenkins this year, but so what, he was fat and a self first guy anyways. We still have another fat guy in Kemo a run stuffer type and D. Lewis which had 5 sacks last year and was a first round pick which will be starting. We picked up Ian Scott and Darwin Walker which both are not that bad and both have played on playoff teams.http://profootball.scout.com/a.z? Is=127&p=9&c=12&yr=2008&nid=83&lnid=83&rc=16&pid=22 Walker played with those big and nasty eagles and Scott is still young and has alot of upside and I would rate both of them 3 stars out of 5. Overall I would rate the D-line maybe a D+ or maybe a C- with hopes of being a B- at best. For the overall grade for the D this year it should be a B. http://www.sportsnetwork.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=charlotte2&page=nfl/teams/089/sched.aspx?id=089 (schedule for next season)
(draft results)http://www.panthers.com/News/Default.aspx?id=18076
