How Much Pressure on KB13?

[Stroupe-a-loop]

take away the name on the back of his jersey, look at the stats/games of the people we brought in and compare them.

this is a 35 year old reciever who ended last season with a busted knee. Who could not get seperation, who made crucial drops last year (he made some great catches as well), who does not have breakaway speed. And then tell me why we would even try to pay that man 22 million over the next 2 years with the contracts we have coming up. It makes no fuging sense.

saying a receiver who had 10tds last season as bargain bin is stupid. And i don't care who tries to justify J. Cotch as a "bargain bin" player, because he is wayyy more than just that.

these guys we replaced smitty and lafell with don't drop the fuging football. They are literally the same type of players without drop problems/health problems.

and than oh yea that best receiver this year belongs to a man by the names of Greg Olsen (the most reliable receiver on the team last year)

I'm not saying pay Smitty 20 million over 2 years. If he was going to retire after the season anyway, then we would have dead money for whatever the bonus for those option years would have been. That's why I said it all depends on what the bonus would have been. If it was substantial, then you really have no choice but to cut smitty.

We got Cotchery for, basically, 2 years at 3 million. That is bargain bin shopping. Doesn't mean he won't be good (ala Ginn) but if he were something special, some other team would have offered him much more than that to be a starter. You can bring up his ten touchdowns from last year, which is great, but he also averaged 200 yards total the previous two seasons. He is a backup that played well when injuries forced him into the lineup, but he is probably more suited to being a backup.

I love Olsen, but he is surrounded by stop gap wideouts until Kelvin Benjamin is ready to play.

[Jmac]

The problem with your reasoning is that you think Smith would have made a difference at this point. He would not have made enough difference to justify the cap hit and D.G knew this. So he went out and signed players that could provide the same production (probably better at this point) without the money hit.This s called good business tactics.

[Stroupe-a-loop]

The problem with your reasoning is that you think Smith would have made a difference at this point. He would not have made enough difference to justify the cap hit and D.G knew this. So he went out and signed players that could provide the same production (probably better at this point) without the money hit.This s called good business tactics.

Eh, maybe. I just think Smitty has more left for next season than Avant or Cotchery. I suppose we'll see though. I hope you and the rest of the people on here are right.

[hepcat]

Reporters are so oblivious.  They just look at what happened in the offseason and go "They're going to struggle because they lost Steve Smith".  It's so fuging dumb to say that because Steve is 35 and obviously declining.  No one shed a tear when Brandon LaDrops was released and as much as I liked Ted Ginn, it's not like he set the world on fire in Carolina.  He had more value as a returner than a receiver honestly.  And Hixon?  He had one catch that mattered and without that no one would have even known he was on the team.

 

But in regards to Kelvin Benjamin, he won't be relied on as much as people think.  His mere presence on the field commands a safety keep an eye on him because of his physical gifts.  When you've got a 6'5 240 receiver with 4.6 speed, you can't leave a 5'10 corner on him alone or else he can get beat with height.  The Saints do it with Jimmy Graham all the time (see Carolina vs New Orleans in 2013 both times).  This will keep defenses from stacking the box and allow the running game to develop.  Doesn't matter if KB can run precise routes his rookie year because that's not what the Panthers will be asking from him.  They're asking him to run fade routes to back the safeties off and block his ass off to open up the run game.  Anything else they get from him will be gravy.  With Tolbert, Olsen, KB and Cam...Carolina will be very hard to stop in the red zone.  

 

These reporters are so misinformed they should just stop writing.  The Panthers have a solid winning formula and unless they get the ridiculous bad luck of 2012 again I fully expect them to contend for a playoff spot.  

 

 

 

 

[carolinarolls]

What is neat about this situation is that KB has the opportunity to come in and be very helpful to his teammates, very productive by rookie standards, and become immediately popular to the fan base without developing above the curve or even beginning to realize his potential. The situation is perfect. We need a goal line threat and he is one. Should be one almost immediately out of the box. He can catch 5 TDs and draw double coverage on all the others opening up some other opportunities.

This will buy him time and in that time Ricky Proehl will make him the very best receiver we have ever seen in Carolina and one of the premier offensive weapons in the entire league.

I said it when he was drafted. He is going to fill a valuable role immediately AND has the potential to grow leaps and bounds above that in the coming years.

It's a beautiful thing.

[Ace_Aladdin]

I've seen a lot of lofty projections for KB this year on the Huddlez, and those are somewhat silly IMO. If he can get 500-600 yards and 5 TDs, that's a nice rookie year IMO. Many of the best WR in the league today didn't do too much their rookie years, and I'd expect the same from KB and the green light to come on during his 2nd and 3rd seasons. 

 

For perspective, in other Top WRs rookie years...

 

Calvin Johnson - 15 Games, 756 Yards, 4 TDs

AJ Green - 15 Games, 1, 057 Yards, 7 TDs

Dez Bryant - 12 Games, 561 Yards, 6 TDs

Brandon Marshall - 15 Games, 309 Yards, 2 TDs

Alshon Jeffery - 10 Games, 367 Yards, 3 TDs

Roddy White - 16 Games, 446 Yards, 3 TDs

Julio Jones - 13 Games, 959 Yards, 8 TDs

Demaryius Thomas - 10 Games, 283 Yards, 2 TDs

Larry Fitz - 16 Games, 780 Yards, 8 TDs

Andre Johnson - 16 Games, 976 Yards, 4 TDs

 

Just for Panthers sakes, Steve Smiths first 2 years combined - 30 Games, 1,026 Yards, 3 TDs. 

 

6 of the 11 mentioned went above 500 yards their 1st year. Many of which were drafted higher and had lofty projections. 4 of the 11 had 5 TDs or more. Fans are obviously thrilled about KB's potential...but temper the expectations for awhile is all I'm saying. 

 

I expect KB  to be like Keenan Allen who had 1,046yds  for a rookie, but with more TD's. Our run game is going to be much better and along with the use of 2 TE set will open things up for KB than people are expecting. 

[panthers123]

Smitty would have been our best receiver this year. Cutting him makes us worse and that seems counter productive when we were a top 3 team in the NFC last year. It's just a question of whether the long term savings make up enough ground to justify surrounding your young quarterback with bargain bin wideouts and a rookie during what could be a playoff year.

 

Dude saying he is our best WR means very little. We had a pile of poo at WR last year. All the guys have left and became WR3/4 for other teams. Even hinting that Smith was the reason we were a top 3 team in the NFC is crazy. The man's best game was 69 yards last season in the reg season. That is very very sad for a number 1 WR. 

[Billy Love]

Smitty would have been our best receiver this year. Cutting him makes us worse and that seems counter productive when we were a top 3 team in the NFC last year. It's just a question of whether the long term savings make up enough ground to justify surrounding your young quarterback with bargain bin wideouts and a rookie during what could be a playoff year.

Steve smith wasn't even our best receiver last year. His production from last year will not be difficult to replaced, or improved upon

[pantherclaw]

I don't expect more than 500-600 yards.

Olsen will once again, be our leading receiver in catches.

What is do expect is him getting a lot of attention as a rookie.

I expect him to get at least 5 TDs.

What he does for the rest of the offense with him just being on the field, is important.

[pantherclaw]

Is there still heart break going on for Steve Smith?

[Stroupe-a-loop]

Dude saying he is our best WR means very little. We had a pile of poo at WR last year. All the guys have left and became WR3/4 for other teams. Even hinting that Smith was the reason we were a top 3 team in the NFC is crazy. The man's best game was 69 yards last season in the reg season. That is very very sad for a number 1 WR.

Steve smith wasn't even our best receiver last year. His production from last year will not be difficult to replaced, or improved upon

You can wave away his production, but his numbers were better than anybodys we brought in. To bring it back around to the original question, I think there is going to be a lack of quality receivers this year, just as last year, so the speed at which Benjamin develops is a big storyline for the team this year.

[AceBoogie]

The Steve Smith hate is disgusting, have some fuging respect.

[Rise of The Hive]

I don't see that much pressure, just go out and play your role.

[L-TownCat]

14 work days until camp.

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