We couldn't afford Jonathan Stewart

[Easyt65]

Dwayne Jarrett - Another failed USC WR - his 3rd year and he can'tbeat out Moose who is something like 48 years old.

Brown: "Hey, I know this talented college Defensive End. He's only 5'10 but he's really fast. I think we should give away our 2010 1st round draft pick for him." The guy was MIA yesterday, got 'stoned' by the big guys, and is so far nothing more than a situational pass rusher. Not bad for NEXT YEAR'S 1st round draft pick.

Juius Peppers: 'Nuff Said! This whole off-season jerkin' around with him was a complete waste!Unless he gets 20+ sacks this year and single-handedly stops the run up the middle, and can throw better than Jake he wasn't worth it. I would rather have followed the Pats' philosophy - gimme a no-name who wants to be here and has some talent over a spoiled Forest-Gump Superstar!

I am sorry but Stewart is a great back, and having him and DeAngelo is awesome. Always have a fresh back in and pound the rock, like we did the year we went to the Super Bowl....unless you want to put the game in Jake's hands with his options being Smith....um, Smith....then there's Smith...and Moose, oh and Rosario...and Smith!

If you're looking for a scapegoat for our troubled finances, though, look no further than # 90 and a HUGE contract for Captain Bojangles!

[Delhommey]

Is someone bringing up zombie threads again?

[thennek]

I think the 'Brown' trade will end up hurting the Panthers much more than the Stewart/Otah decision in 2008. The Panthers gave up a 1st (and I think also a 4th) for a 2nd round pick player. And with the way the Panthers are currently playing, that 20101st round pick could be a top 10 pick.

Brown may end being a great player some day, but the Panthers gave up way too much to get him. They obviously planned on keeping Peppers this year, so I don't get this pick at all.

[frash.exe]

that is hindsight though....

entering last year DeAngelo hadn't proven that he was a legit RB that could fit the "Stephen Davis" mold that they obviously wanted to get back to. That piece is what everything else is built around.....so they went out and got that key piece in Stewart. He fit the bill 100%. DeAngelo then exploded and showed he can do it ALL and all the bs about him taking advantage of tired teams as more of a 3rd down back was all bs. Based on the talk and direction they wanted to get back to.....that ideal RB was the key.

Stewart show early last year he was an immediate impact play. Chicago for example.

I agree with the other posters...the Brown move showed a sign is desperation and was a much worse move. To make that kind of move you need to be sure they will be an impact player.......maybe it is just two games and he will.....but it doesn't look that way and he simply looks to small to be in for most downs except for 3rd and obvious passing downs.

Actually no, it's not hindsight, the minute we selected Stewart I was like "why the fug?" at the time and if you saw my posts preceding the draft my selections were something like OT in the first, RB in the 2nd, if at all. I never considered a trade up, nor did I think it would be good in the long run.

Matt Forte

Kevin Smith

Ray Rice

Steve Slaton

Tashard Choice

Tim Hightower

It's not like there wasn't depth at the position in this draft.

Brown was a side effect of this trade. Since OT was more of an urgent need we should've picked at 13 wait till the second or third for a RB. The next year we needed some talent on the defensive line so we panicked and traded near the mid second to pick a guy 30 other teams had passed up.

[King Taharqa]

I think the 'Brown' trade will end up hurting the Panthers much more than the Stewart/Otah decision in 2008. The Panthers gave up a 1st (and I think also a 4th) for a 2nd round pick player. And with the way the Panthers are currently playing, that 20101st round pick could be a top 10 pick.

Brown may end being a great player some day, but the Panthers gave up way too much to get him. They obviously planned on keeping Peppers this year, so I don't get this pick at all.

Not to mention they passed up drafting Pat White, the QB out of West Virginia who was still on the board when they moved up to nab Brown. He went off the board the very next pick.

[CRA]

Actually no, it's not hindsight, the minute we selected Stewart I was like "why the f**k?" at the time and if you saw my posts preceding the draft my selections were something like OT in the first, RB in the 2nd, if at all. I never considered a trade up, nor did I think it would be good in the long run.

Matt Forte

Kevin Smith

Ray Rice

Steve Slaton

Tashard Choice

Tim Hightower

It's not like there wasn't depth at the position in this draft.

Brown was a side effect of this trade. Since OT was more of an urgent need we should've picked at 13 wait till the second or third for a RB. The next year we needed some talent on the defensive line so we panicked and traded near the mid second to pick a guy 30 other teams had passed up.

well, they wanted to get back the 03 style of offense and get that "Stephen Davis" type RB. Williams at that point didn't appear to meet that. Neither did any of those RBs listed.

[frash.exe]

Not to mention they passed up drafting Pat White, the QB out of West Virginia who was still on the board when they moved up to nab Brown. He went off the board the very next pick.

eh I would've waited until later in the draft and picked Nate Davis.

he had a pretty productive preseason.

[Peppers90 NC]

Its funny how the fans talk about drafting a good QB, and the analysts say every year we NEED to draft a good QB, yet the front office ALWAYS disregards popular opinion. I am still pissed about the fact that we had a chance to get Joe Flacco and didn't do it. We even moved up high enough to get him when we moved up to get Otah...We could have put together a franchise OL AND a franchise QB in one offseason (especially since the incumbent QB was injured..the precedent was there to make a move).

the problem is we would never had played last year anyway, and drafting a QB is a risk that Fox would never take. I guess he feels that QB isnt that important of a position.

[Jaxel]

No one complained about this last year, so this is just a bunch of BS because people are mad the way the season is going.

Last year it was "THIS PICKS WAS BRILLIANT."

Stop crying whatever happened happened, also I garuantee had we drafted any Safety or QB, they would be sitting on the bench right now.

Get over it, Hurney has drafted well.

[frash.exe]

No one complained about this last year, so this is just a bunch of BS because people are mad the way the season is going.

Last year it was "THIS PICKS WAS BRILLIANT."

Stop crying whatever happened happened, also I garuantee had we drafted any Safety or QB, they would be sitting on the bench right now.

Get over it, Hurney has drafted well.

see this is kind of what i was talking about earlier about not being able to conceptualize.

[Jaxel]

There is nothing to conceptualize. You are trying to explain whey we don't have a "good" corner and QB on our roster, and wishing the draft went the way you wanted it. There is no garuantee that this team is better drafting the way you wrote this up.

[Kevin Greene]

NIce post. I agreed but would have liked to see Flacco with #13 here. You analasys on Stewart is what I think as well. A luxury we did not need.

My thoughts a week ago:

Enter the 2008 draft and we hold the 13th pick due to a terrible 2007 campaign featuring Vinne Testaverde among others subbing for an aging Jake Delhomme down with Tommy John surgery. No one even knew how an NFL QB would recover from that assuming Jake is still your choice in 2008. At the 13 spot Joe Flacco is still on the board and the Panthers would

be able to draft a Franchise QB for the future. I felt drafting Johnathon Stewart was an admission that Deangelo Williams was a mistake with the #1 in 2006. Two #1 picks on running backs in 3 years stunk of the Lions drafting wide receivers year after year. We then traded our 2009 #1 plus our 2008 2nd and a 4th round draft picks for Philly's #19 pick. Jeff Otah is a stud but the price paid was harsh indeed as we entered 2009 with no 1st round pick. We also saw how D Will's talents had not been used to full advantage for the previous 2 years as he broke out for 1500 yards when finally given the starting nod.

The 2008 offseason saw us face the Julius Peppers debacle. Almost any scenario would be preferable to the situation we faced as we had no cap room, could not make any moves in free agency and indeed long past the 2009 draft still did not know how the Peppers debacle would resolve itself. In fact we entered the 2009 draft not knowing if we would have a star pass rushing defensive end on the roster. This again led us to trade another future #1 draft pick to another team so we could use their 2nd round pick to protect ourselves selecting Everett Brown. Had the Peppers situation been handled more aggresively along the lines of the Patriots and Richard Seymour I don't think we'd ever have made that trade to acquire Brown and would still hold our #1 pick in the 2010 draft. It's far too early to judge the rest of the 2009 draft but time will tell.

Drafting Williams, then Stewart, passing on Flacco, reaching for Otah at such a high price then Everett Brown to protect a botched Peppers 18 million dollar contract battle have crippled the Panthers ability to better shape the Panthers roster for the future as well as today. The future would be bright indeed if Flacco was our QB, Peppers had been better handled and we still held next years number 1 pick. Even if that meant J Stew and E Brown weren't on the current roster.

http://www.carolinahuddle.com/forum/carolina-panthers/19788-hurney-disappointments.html

[frash.exe]

There is nothing to conceptualize. You are trying to explain whey we don't have a "good" corner and QB on our roster, and wishing the draft went the way you wanted it. There is no garuantee that this team is better drafting the way you wrote this up.

yes we are so good at drafting we have lousy QB depth, a patchwork DT rotation that wasn't that good to begin with, our starting FS is a guy who wouldn't make it past the practice squad of any other team, our 2nd receiver is a guy in his mid 30s because we haven't developed a single receiver to perform like a starter in 8 seasons, and we require 2 first round running backs to field the running game Fox is supposed to be adept at building but can't seem to do it without the best talent.

[Baschski]

The move made plenty of sense at the time. D-Will had not yet proven that he could be a top starting RB in the NFL, so they needed to get a strong RB in the draft. Also, Stewart is just a better RB than Forte. A few years down the road when we can trade Stewart for a 1st and 3rd round pick you won't be wishing we had Forte.