A Brief History of the Carolina Panthers

[Shadow]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14658742/ten-moves-took-carolina-panthers-losers-cusp-super-bowl-title-nfl

I really enjoyed reading about how we got to where we are.  Barnwell does ask an interesting question that I'd never considered before: If Hurney's star draft picks were given time to flourish, would he have been fired?  I think at the time he had to be.  He was giving out huge contracts like candy and it wasn't sustainable over the long haul.  That fact that we're just now finally out of the woods with the contracts says a lot.  But he does have Cam, Luke, Josh, CJ, TD, Kalil, and trading for Olsen to his credit.  I'm so glad that we've been able to turn the ship around and become a Super Bowl team!

[joemac]

Everybody knows Hurney hit is first round picks out of the park...that was his best quality as a GM. Gettleman is head and shoulders above Hurney as an overall GM. DG has had great first rounders so far too...along with cleaning up the toxic waste spill Hurney created with the salary cap.

[RealBitsOfPanther]

Great read. Its nice to see how far we've come. 

 

 

[Khyber53]

Both guys have a knack for seeing talent. The difference is in how they handle the cap. Hurney was doing well until the Panthers started becoming a better overall team and some star players started to emerge. He killed us first over trying to keep Peppers here, then kept kicking the can down the road on Delhomme instead of just paying him at the time. Fox wanted to keep both parts of Double Trouble, and Hurney saw that either or both could go out in the free market and be paid like experienced starters. He ended up over paying for both, and Smitty was expensive, along with Gross, and we can't forget the money Jon Beason had. We had some really good players, and in an effort to keep them all, Hurney paid them all like they were Great players. 

Sadly, there just isn't enough money to go around doing that. Those signing bonuses and long term guaranteed money eventually come back to bite you. Sometimes you end up paying a QB millions to go and sit on Cleveland's bench, sometimes you pay a defensive end millions and he gives you a half-assed effort and then moves on next year anyway.

Gettleman proved he can bargain basement shop with the best of them and this last year he proved he can pick really good players out of the pile of mid-priced journeymen. I think he has an eye for seeing what people have in them, particularly when it comes to football. He can tell who still has fuel in their tank, who's never gotten the chance or coaching to make the most of themselves, and those who got missed completely because they've been nobodies elsewhere.

John Madden had someone put together a team like this for him in the 1970s and they lived the bad guy role. And they were legendary. Rivera's had DG on hand to build him a team like this, but good guys this time, and they might, just might, become legendary.

Black and Silver, meet Black, Blue and SIlver.