Looking at our roster

[CarolinaXblue]

It may be coincidence but it feels like we have seasoned veterans in all the right places yet having a mostly young team. To save face for a lengthy post I won't list obvious positions (i.e. QB, RB, LB). Also, apparently Cam Newton is the only person on the team, (see every message board that is not the Carolina Huddle) I would like to highlight some areas in where our veteran leadership should really shine throughout the season.

Let's start with the Offense.

• O-Line: C - Ryan Kalil - Kalil has been with the Panthers since he was drafted back in '07. He has been in every scheme, seen every plan in the Ron Rivera era, although he did miss some time in 2012. He is a great leader for our young O-Line and who better to help Cam direct protection than Kalil. He also has only two fumbles, one being his rookie season.
• Tight End: Greg Olsen - In his 5th year with the Panthers, Olsen is a rock solid part of our offense. His skill set is widely used in sealing the edge and/or releasing to the next level for run blocking. As for passing, it goes without saying he is our safety net. He has always been a big part of our game plan but with Benjamin out, his veteran experience will be needed now more than ever. Out of his first four seasons in Carolina, 2011 is the only one that he had fewer receiving yards than any season in Chicago.
• Wide Receiver: Jerricho Cotchery - The conversation that surrounds the Panthers is the WR Corps. While Cotchery may not have burner speed or freakish athletic ability, he is a great possession receiver. The vet is good to move the sticks and get some rhythm going in a rather slow starting offense. From '06 - '08 alone he saw 364 targets with the Jets, he's no stranger to workload and again, his experience can only be helpful to our young guys. Last season he hauled in 61% of his targets.

Now let's look at Defense.

• Safety: Roman Harper - Although I was one of the ones against signing Harper, looking back on it I think I was wrong. He's not only a veteran of the league but also of the NFC South. He's been up against the same offenses that we face since before his arrival in Carolina and knows the divisional competition we face every year. He's a great person to compliment Kurt Coleman who in my opinion, while at Philly, was up against arguably the toughest division in the league being the NFC East, at least at one point. Harper and Coleman are both guys I like having behind our young guys because inevitably, they will make mistakes and these guys will be their to help them learn.
• Cornerback: Charles Tillman - Age is just a number. This guy is a ball hawk. Out of his 12 seasons in Chicago, only two he posted 0 INT's. One of those was last year where he played two games and was out for the season with injury. The other 10 seasons were multi-INT seasons. With upcoming guys like "Big Play Bene" and Josh Norman, whose becoming a lockdown defender, there's no question that having a guy like Peanut on the field is a great combo.

These are just a few areas I wanted to shed some light on. It's always Cam Newton this and Cam Newton that, we have some really good talent and veteran leadership on this team. Again, the QB, RB and LB spots do not go unnoticed, but we all know them well by now. 

 

[Daddy_Uncle]

it's almost as if Riverboat, and Nipple Shorts know what they are doing with this NFL roster construction  thingy

[Fright]

Our punter's kindddddd of a beast too... whoever he is...

[O-Ther]

Our roster is legit. There's not much you can do when the 2nd most important player on the entire roster suffers freak accident season ending injury. 

That's the truth. We're handling Benji's loss a lot better than Atlanta would handle Julio's absence if they lost him for the year

[t96]

Our roster is legit. There's not much you can do when the 2nd most important player on the entire roster suffers freak accident season ending injury. 

KB is not near the 2nd most important player on the roster.

[heelsnum1]

KB is not near the 2nd most important player on the roster.

Depends on how you evaluate importance:  Importance relative to other starters at different positions is one thing.  Importance relative to how much a player is needed in place of his backups is another.

[KB_fan]

Agree.

What you say ties in well with the blog entry I just posted re: rookie starting % and wins.  Too many rookies with significant starting time = fewer wins it seems.  And yet most of the winning teams did, last year, seem to give their rookies a good amount of "play time" (different from starts) - all part of the seasoning and learning from the vets, I think.

I'm excited for this season and how our vets like Kalil, Luke / TD, Tillman, Cotch, Stew, Greg, are in a position to be able to mentor & teach the young guys.  Hopefully we've got the right mix of experience & youth!

[PoundCat]

There was a thread not too long ago that showed that we had the 2nd oldest team in the NFL, based on average age.

[KB_fan]

It's interesting as I look at the list of vets names I typed above, only Tillman is new to the team.  So what's different than last year?  Maybe it's a question of the "rookie wall" KB mentioned he hit.  Maybe being a rookie there's only so much you can absorb about playing in the NFL your first year.  Maybe the learning and growing REALLY begins in earnest in the sophomore season?  Just thinking aloud.   It probably varies by position.  I know for some positions like pass rush, many here have said that most rookies don't really begin to reach their potential until year 3....

[CRA]

2 weeks of football don't tells us much...

when we finally face a good QB with weapons....I don't think people are gonna love Harper's veteran leadership.  Dude IMO should of been replaced.  That is gonna be an issue IMO.  We now have two older and slower DBs on the backend....haven't faced a team equipped to really start addressing everything 

[t96]

Depends on how you evaluate importance:  Importance relative to other starters at different positions is one thing.  Importance relative to how much a player is needed in place of his backups is another.

Either way he's not even close to the 2nd most important player on our team.

[CarolinaXblue]

 

That was my bitch about him last season. And I remember at least once he got burnt, but who doesn't? I feel like with the young talent we have in the secondary though, he doesn't have to shoulder the load as much. Now I do agree we haven't seen someone like Julio yet but I was more or less going toward the fact that regardless of having Benjamin or even if Kevin Norwood dropped a pass, there are some guys out there making plays being leaders.

 

[KB_fan]

2 weeks of football don't tells us much...

when we finally face a good QB with weapons....I don't think people are gonna love Harper's veteran leadership.  Dude IMO should of been replaced.  That is gonna be an issue IMO.  We now have two older and slower DBs on the backend....haven't faced a team equipped to really start addressing everything 

Agree Harper is looking like a bit of a weakness.  Didn't name him as one of the key veteran leaders.  I'm ok if this is his last season with us, and if someone younger earns his spot during the season.

[Seltzer]

2 weeks of football don't tells us much...

when we finally face a good QB with weapons....I don't think people are gonna love Harper's veteran leadership.  Dude IMO should of been replaced.  That is gonna be an issue IMO.  We now have two older and slower DBs on the backend....haven't faced a team equipped to really start addressing everything 

Exact reason we aren't going to get respect until we beat someone Games 5-8 (SEA, PHI, IND, PHI).  The Panthers look like an above average team, and I'm not going to dismiss starting 2-0.  It beats the alternative, and Jacksonville and Houston are not in my opinion going to be the dregs of the league.

Still, there are legitimate questions about whether the offense can pick us up when the defense plays poorly or against a team like GB that is going to score 24+ at home regardless.

I will say this- scoring 24 against the Texans was a step in the right direction, and the offense looked pretty good overall after a horrid start.

Still, anyone objectively looking at our roster still sees a major question mark at receiver, and a smaller one on the offensive line.  We are still potentially an injury away from a major regression on the offensive line, and the run blocking has not been good.  The threat of Cam running masks a lot of the below average run blocking.

I am overall optimistic about the team, and 2-0 is the best record they could possibly have right now.  The only area of concern on defense is a consistent pass rush, but overall I would stack our defense up against anyone.  Our LB group is the best 4-3 group in the NFL, and Norman and Coleman make the secondary serviceable even with a past his prime Tillman and Harper.  Bene is one of the best slot CB's in the league.

If we can win and go to 3-0, then I think inevitably the comparisons start to the 2003 team which did make a Super Bowl, and that's where the roster deficiencies at WR become apparent.  Our current group in no way shapes up to Smitty, Moose, & Proehl.  However, when you factor in the Newton factor and Greg Olsen... maybe we can bridge the gap enough with this group if Funchess and Norwood can develop into contributors, and Ginn & Brown catch the ball.  But we still haven't seen enough out of the offensive line in terms of run blocking, and we have to stay healthy going forward.

The roster right now looks like on defense a floor of an above-average defense and a ceiling of a superior defense.  On offense, based on the current roster we have a floor of a sub-par offense with a ceiling of an average offense.  We can definitely make the playoffs with this roster- time will tell if there is enough development (and health and luck) on the offense to make this team capable of being a SB contender.