KB_fan

Name20132014OtherChandler, Nate16 games11 games / IRexperience as TE; DT; OL (RG; RT); -16.1 PFF grade for 2014 (703 snaps)Foucault, DavidN/A5 games129 snaps 2014; -12.6 PFF gradeHills, TonyN/A3 games4 games 2010; 6 games 2012; 3 games 2014Martin, Jonathan7 games15 gamesAnnounced injury / retirement July 2015Oher, Michael1611 / injured2009 - 2013 Baltimore; 2014 Tennessee. 54 starts at RT / 37 at LTRemmers, Mike1 game (SD)5 games (Panthers)5 games (367 snaps) in 2014; PFF grade of 1.7Wallace, DavonteN/A0 (injured)Waived by Miami April 2015Wallace, Martin1PSWaived by Cleveland 8/2014; added to Panthers PS after game 7.Williams, DarylN/AN/ARookie Season

NameGames PlayedstartsDraftTeamYearChandler, Nate3719UDFAPanthers2012Foucault, David51UDFAPanthers2014Hills, Tony1314th (130)Pittsburgh2008Martin, Jonathan38322nd (42)Miami2012Oher, Michael91911st (23)Baltimore2009Remmers, Mike65UDFADenver2012Wallace, Davonte00UDFAMiami2014Wallace, Martin10UDFACleveland2013Williams, Daryl004th (102)Panthers2015

OK, here's a spreadsheet with some more info on the Tackles. Panthers Tackles July 2015.xlsx With Martin gone, apart from Oher & Chandler, the other 6 Tackles have a whopping 7 TOTAL starts (5 of those are by Remmers); with 25 games played. The new signee Hills has played in 13 total games (started 1) as follows: 4 games 2010; 6 games 2012; 3 games 2014 Hmmm. Tough choice. Questionable "veterans" like Oher & Chandler; unproven newbies. Thankful for Remmers. He at least provides some ray of hope based on the end of 2014. Hoping along with the coaches and staff that Oher proves worthy of their confidence.

Here's the current roster listing of tackles (Martin is still listed on the official roster tonight). More detailed stats to follow shortly. #NamePosHtWtAgeYearCollege78Chandler, NateT6'4315264UCLA63Foucault, DavidT6'8320262Montreal Hills, TonyT6'5305306Texas75Martin, JonathanT6'5315254Stanford73Oher, MichaelT6'4315297Mississippi74Remmers, MikeT6'5305263Oregon State Wallace, DavonteT6'3315231New Mexico State77Wallace, MartinT6'6330252Temple60Williams, DarylT6'633522ROklahoma

NameGames PlayedstartsDraftTeamYearHenry20UDFAChicago2011McCray00UDFAGreen Bay2014Norwell109UDFAPanthers2014Scott2085th (151)Pittsburgh2010Silatolu25252nd (40)Panthers2012Turner1393rd (92)Panthers2014

0k, sorry, looks like my more detailed table re: the guards is too wide for the forum. Let me just attach it as an Excel spreadsheet. Basically, we've added no real meaningful experience or known skill to our roster of guards. In addition to our 4 returning guards, (Norwell, Turner, Scott and Silatolu) we've added Henry & McCray who have no playing experience. McCray was a tryout invite at Panther's Rookie camp, maybe he'll be another diamond in the rough. Henry is a little less likely to be promising, in my opinion, having kicked around 3 teams' PS / IR lists... [A shame Tyronne Green is injured. He would have given more depth at guard with his San Diego experience.] Guards 2015.xlsx

I find tables & spreadsheets help me process information. I've been playing around with some tables re: the guards & tackles now currently on our roster. Here's info on the guards. Will post about tackles a little later. #NamePosHtWtAgeYearCollege65Henry, Ricky G 6'4310283Nebraska62McCray, Jordan G 6'3320231Central Florida68Norwell, Andrew G 6'6325232Ohio State79Scott, Chris G 6'4340274Tennessee66Silatolu, Amini G 6'4320264Midwestern State70Turner, Trai G 6'3320222LSU

Hmmm. Not excited by these signings. In looking at our roster, we've got basically 5 possibly(?) ok players among the OTs & OGs who are likely locks to make the 53 man roster. 4 of the 5 have 0 - 1 years of playing experience, and obviously there are still big question marks here re: Oher (past poor play, not nec. strong at LT) and Williams (rookie, we have high hopes, but he's yet to play a snap).: Norwell (OG) Turner (OG) Remmers (OT) Oher (OT) D. Williams (OT) Beyond that we've got two longer-rostered Panthers who may make the roster at this point as backups, but whose play has been poor - inconsistent: Silatolu (G) (4th year); Chandler (G/T) (4th year) [Below them: Scott (G), Martin Wallace (T), Foucault (T)... don't want to go there] I have trouble believing these new signings are any better than Silatolu or Chandler who at least know our playbook. Sigh.... but I suppose *SOME* competition is better than none. REALLY HOPING our FO can find someone else / that other teams will make cuts we can pick up.

Back to the topic of the anniversary of the 2011 Greg Olsen trade, glancing again today at PFF's projected depth chart for our offense, I was reminded that they rank Greg as the best player on our offense.

OK and now for 2014: 1st a thread I missed yesterday: July 27, 2014 we signed Fozzy to replace Tyler Gaffney: http://www.carolinahuddle.com/boards/topic/102736-panthers-sign-fozzy-whittaker/ Quite a few reacted "Meh." Others loved his name. But it proved a pretty good signing and he was greatly needed with all our injuries. And then, speaking of Gaffney, it was a year ago today that our FO goofed, and the dreaded Pats stole Gaffney off waivers: Pats claim RB Tyler Gaffney off waivers A tough lesson. Some were trying to hold out hope for our Tackles - "might not be as bad as we thought" Jeremy's response proved a little too true: "You all just pray that neither of those guys gets injured. Because if either does.... ugh" Yup. UGH is about right. From Jeremy's Training Camp notes, it doesn't seem to have been a very memorable practice. My vote for the best picture and comment of the day from Jeremy was this: There is one thing you absolutely cannot teach a quarterback, and that is height. So true! Just love it. And to think of Cam + KB + Funch + Olsen all together on the field at the same time... BRING IT!

July 28, 2013 training camp: 7-28 Camp Thread Carolina Panthers Training Camp Update Quite a lot of love for LaFell & Ginn... however note the "BUTS" re: would have been sacks Anthony Ballard ‏@PantherPride864mCam rolls out under pressure hit Lafell on sideline. GREAT location on the ball. great catch James Dator ‏@James_Dator4mGinn with another deep catch, but Hardy would have sacked Cam Joe Person ‏@josephperson3mGinn with a long catch, beat Thomas. Bryan Strickland ‏@PanthersBryan1mWR Brandon LaFell letting his presence be known with pair of nice catches for big gainers from Cam Newton over course of three snaps. James Dator ‏@James_Dator30sCam is throwing well today. LaFell and Ginn most impressive receivers today Jeremy Igo ‏@CarolinaHuddle1mLafell with a nice catch BUT Cam would have been sacked by Luke #PanthersCamp Carolina Panthers ‏@Panthers2mWR Brandon LaFell continues to shine, making a nice catch in double coverage. #PanthersCamp That excitement proved pretty warranted as LaFell & Ginn combined for 10 TDs and nearly 1200 yards... BUT, not all Training Camp excitement pans out: There was a lot of praise & excitement too for Barner. Jeremy Igo ‏@CarolinaHuddle14sBarner getting praise from Cam. This guy has me excited. No hesitation in hitting the hole fast. #PanthersCamp OnlyPantherFan in Maine wrote: If we finally found our Sproles in Barner I will be one happy fan. I really think this kid can be a lethal weapon for us. Great value in the 6th round. And Captain Morgan added: I know his college offenses was a great system, but with his numbers and his speed, how in the hell did he drop to us in the 6th? I love our draft this year. I think we got incredible value with Barner and Klein. And some training camp pessimism is fortunately very wrong. There was a lot of concern about Nortman, including this memorable comment by Promethean Forerunner: "Sooooooo... how's our kicking game going? I've accepted Nortman will suck forevermore but how do Linberry and Gano look?" Thankfully Nortman doesn't suck, and Gano was awesome in 2013 and pretty darn good last year too...!

I'll post some tidbits from Training Camp updates from July 28, 2013 shortly, but first: from July 25, 2013, a thread with rankings of our position groups. How odd to remember it was only 2 years ago that LT was not our greatest concern. We miss you Jordan Gross! But while LT was solid, RT (Bell!) was a concern, as were the guards. The OP in that thread, Icege gave a "plus" grade to the OLine: OL + Ryan Kalil coming back instantly makes the offensive line better. Silatolu showed improvement as the season went on as well. Kugbila could be quality depth until he's ready to contend for a starting position. I am concerned about the tackles though, especially RT. Gross can still play, but will Byron Bell finally be able to take the roller skates off? Dex gave the OT group a B, but the OG group a C+ and UDogg thought the guard position was our greatest worry. Obviously, we're still trying to build a solid OLine. Thank goodness we still have Kalil and glad we seem to have improved at guard with Norwell & Turner. I think there's hope at RT with the drafting of Williams and also Remmers' pretty solid play at the end of last season. But it's nice to remember that even with some real OLine concerns in July 2013, we still went 12-4. ------ Update: A similar thread on position group ratings from a few days later expressed considerably more alarm about the OLine as a few days of camp revealed weakness: Position Group Trending: http://www.carolinahuddle.com/boards/topic/88855-position-group-trending/

From July 28 2012 Some Training Camp Notes also Training Camp 7/28 (Day 1) Twitter Updates I was struck by how Luke showed so much exciting promise right from the start.... A few comments from various threads: - The Carolina Panthers opened their 2012 training camp Saturday night at Wofford College with excitement, intensity and some interesting notes. Second-year head coach Ron Rivera made no bones about rookie linebacker Luke Kuechly after practice, saying the former Boston College Eagle is much further advanced than almost any first-year player at the position he's ever seen. - Rookie linebacker Luke Kuechly picks off Derek Anderson. Welcome to the NFL. Based on what I saw in the camps at Charlotte, Kuechly has a gift for knowing where to be. - Kuechly looked smooth as well. Effortless. - Kuechly: Like Joe Adams, this guy looks like he already gets it. Had a laser focus on the ball carrier or whoever he was covering. - Jon Beason: "We're not treating Luke (Kuechly) like a rookie and we don't expect him to play like one either."

Thanks for all the positive feedback on yesterday's "On this Day" thread. Based on that, I'll continue... July 28, 2011 What turned out to be fantastic news for the Panthers. Bears are shopping Greg Olsen and: Rumor: Greg Olsen, TE Bears...WTF?!??Opinion was divided: Rags: "Omg yes please Omg" Ivan the Awesome: "Just signed a TE, why the fug would we trade for another TE?" Young Panthers89 wasn't too confident in Hurney: "i have a feeling hurney is going to do something really really dumb" Others news: Greg Hardy slightly injured in motorcycle crashSpeculation on Cam Newton's contractThis exchange feels a bit like 2015! Think Cam will holdout over guaranteed $$? Nope, he wants to play now and we will be more than fair, as shown these past two days. even if he does get it all guaranteed, it's still a bargain compared to what other teams have gotten stuck with in the past. Glad our QB doesn't holdout on us and accepts a fair deal. And yes, compared to many teams, we've gotten a bargain - both in 2011 and again this year. More later today from 2012, 2013, 2014 as I find time.

Don't even joke about this...! I'm gonna have nightmares now, though not as bad as Cam, probably.

I recall there was another OL player released recently who some here were excited about. Evan Mathis, I think? If I recall correctly he was a guard. Forgive what may be a stupid question (I *REALLY* don't know OLine stuff at all!) but are there any of our backup guards who could play backup tackle if we were to sign someone like Mathis? I know we want to find someone decent with LT experience, but in a pinch could another guard signing help?

Last week there was an article at another site which listed available free agents by position. 5 OTs were on the list. I confess to no knowing much about the pros & cons of any of them, other than knowing a little bit about Long. Anyone else here want to give some thoughts? Offensive Tackles 1. Joseph Barksdale 2. Anthony Collins 3. Jake Long 4. Sam Baker 5. Paul McQuistan

Exactly what I was wondering... The curse of the 49ers continues, though now it's bitten the Panthers, but hopefully early enough that we can find someone to replace him and help our OLine depth. I know he wasn't a great player, but this isn't really good news given how thin we were at tackle to begin with.

TRUE 'DAT! I'm overseas, so I won't be able to watch, but I laughed out loud at this. SO SO True, I can just see/hear it all in my imagination. No need to watch the real thing!

Wonderful. The families and the church are in my prayers. Glad to be a Panthers fan today.

Quick question. I've been mostly offline since yesterday afternoon, and just now had a chance to watch RR's video comments from yesterday about minicamp. I have a very vague idea of what "installation" is for a team for the offense and defense. Can someone with more football savvy explain the significance of Ron's words about being able to install both the offense and defense three separate times during OTAs and minicamp? I'd appreciate it, thanks. His comments are in this video, beginning at 3:34: http://www.panthers.com/media-vault/videos/Ron-Rivera-Solid-finish-to-offseason/d0913e83-af3b-42c7-9c77-91c885c95c2d

So much competition. So much depth. This is tremendously encouraging. Had to chuckle at this. Are we going to get another 20 page thread moaning at how bad he is?!? LOL. Seriously, so glad if he is playing well. This kind of competition among so many WRs has got to be a good thing!

​Hey, I was the one who posted the "mean Michael Oher" picture, but I didn't mean it literally! LOL

​I so totally see what you mean in watching the video again. A really helpful analysis. Thanks.

Need to sign off for the night after a day in which I obsessed a bit on the Panthers.... LOL. (The TD extension yesterday got me so stoked, just wanted to keep reading more Panther news...) But before I sign ogg: Here's more RR comments about Bene, and Peanut's comments about Bene in an article by Joe Person in the CO: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nfl/carolina-panthers/article24654826.html