Why so young?

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

As our team cuts some veteran players and has a serious youth movement, I couldn't help but wonder why and a few things occured to me: first I wanted to check the age breakdown of positions which is as follows:

C- 24.5

G- 24.5

T - 24.5

QB - 24.5

RB - 23.25

TE - 24.5

WR - 25.25

FB - 28

Average age at an offensive position - 24.875

DT - 24.9

DE - 24.25

LB - 24.6

CB - 23.16

S - 25.5

Average age at a defensive position - 24.482

LS - 24

K - 40

P - 31

Special teams specialists - 31.6 (kickers and punters dont count towards my point)

It is obvious that Carolina (other then K and P...) will be one of the youngest teams in the NFL. I started asking myself why would we do this now?

We are preparing our team for the lockout. If the lockout occurs next year, who is it going to hurt more, teams with aging veteran players getting paid the big bucks, or a team of players with small contracts and a lot of youth?

We will be set for the lockout and one of the best teams coming into 2013.

[holderoftruth]

Jerry Richardson is a business man who looking toward the future. The only problem with that is he is pretty much sacrificing the 2010 season. I am not saying the team will not win games in 2010, but having veterans on a team is always a positive. Just look at the Saints and the way Sharper impacted their defense because of his experience. If I were PSL owners I would be kind of mad because JR is pushing aside the 2010 season. My hope is that the Panthers lock up the young players they have on the roster (Beason, Kalil, etc) and build around them in the future, which they most certainly will.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

I couldn't agree more. I believe we are sacraficing the 2010 season to a point, but overall it is what is best for the team with the potential lockout. I feel that any team buying up free agents right now are going to truly sorry they made such big contracts with aging veterans. especially if there is no football in 2011

[invisible38833]

holder of truth. You are preaching to the Choir my man. That is exactly what is happening. We might add a vet piece here and there, but it will come cheap and it will be for one year.

[mountainpantherfan]

I agree that the poteniel of a lockout in 2011 played a part in some of these moves but I don't think it was the primary reason or the overwhelming reason. It is great to have vetern leadship on a team but it's not like that leadership was winning championships.

It's also not like we still don't have leadership on the team. Just because guys like Beason, Harris, Moore, Kalil and Williams are young doesn't mean they can't be leader on the team. Actually, they already are. Peppers, Diggs, Kemo, Lewis; those guys weren't the leaders of the Panthers.

[Leeroy Jenkins PhD]

I think the cap-free season played a big part in the releasing of our veterans. If and when the cap is reinstated, we will be in better position than almost every other team in the NFL!

Does anyone have our current cap number and projected cap number? I know, it would be hard to find

[Davidson Deac II]

Jerry Richardson is a business man who looking toward the future. The only problem with that is he is pretty much sacrificing the 2010 season. I am not saying the team will not win games in 2010, but having veterans on a team is always a positive. Just look at the Saints and the way Sharper impacted their defense because of his experience. If I were PSL owners I would be kind of mad because JR is pushing aside the 2010 season. My hope is that the Panthers lock up the young players they have on the roster (Beason, Kalil, etc) and build around them in the future, which they most certainly will.

I don't agree that he is sacrificing the 2010 season. I think that the team thinks highly of some of its young players, and is willing to let some of the older ones go because of that.

[rayzor]

its not an either/or.

they are building for the future and part of that has to do with the belief in the young talent they have and that among them they have a good young and solid core to build around. the other has to do with the reality of 2011 potentially being locked out and preparing for it.

those teams that are spending like crazy are taking some huge risks and gambles that may not pay off and might hurt them financially if there is no football next year. giving peppers, a 30 year old player, $14mil a year for the next three years when one of them might involve no football? then he comes back and is expected to play at a high level at 32years old and sitting out for a year? that is not thinking clearly.

peppers is an extreme example of what is going on by those who are signing players so far but the mentality is the same. those teams are banking literally on there being football in 2011. now it might pay off but it is an expensive gamble to make, especially considering the risk there is anyway when you pay these older players at the top of their game big money expecting them to stay on top of their game for years to come.

with all that said, who all have they lost that will have a huge negative impact on the team? what about the players that are still on the roster?

our secondary is still very much intact and should be improving over what was a solid '09 season for them.

the LB corps is still solid. diggs was wearing down and was seeing increasingly less PT and would have seen even less next year. he was the weak link there. we will be fine without him. we will need another LB to come in but we will get one from the same place we got diggs...the pool of cast offs that were passed over by most teams.

the DLine is young but still very capable of holding their own. we are going to be building around some really nice young talent. we did well at finding stop gaps at DT last year and this year will be no different. brown and johnson on the ends will be really solid fr years to come and it was only a matter of time before it was handed over to them anyway. get them carrying the load now so they can grow.

oline...still very solid. no problems here.

TEs...no change. good blockers and receivers.

RBS and FBs...still very much among the best in the league.

WRs....still a weak link that needs to be improved but whats different about that? we needed to upgrade over moose. his contract was up. the choice was to give him another one or go after a younger option with more potential. by all appearances we will be going after a younger option.

QB...we have a young QB who can take risks, is accurate, and makes good decisions. he doesn't lock in on just one receiver and gets rid of the ball when he needs to. he has done everything we have asked of him and has done it without making many mistakes. very little reason to believe he can't continue that.

what i'm looking at is still a solid team. young guys are going to have a chance to step up and prove themselves.

[carolinanimal]

its not an either/or.

they are building for the future and part of that has to do with the belief in the young talent they have and that among them they have a good young and solid core to build around. the other has to do with the reality of 2011 potentially being locked out and preparing for it.

those teams that are spending like crazy are taking some huge risks and gambles that may not pay off and might hurt them financially if there is no football next year. giving peppers, a 30 year old player, $14mil a year for the next three years when one of them might involve no football? then he comes back and is expected to play at a high level at 32years old and sitting out for a year? that is not thinking clearly.

peppers is an extreme example of what is going on by those who are signing players so far but the mentality is the same. those teams are banking literally on there being football in 2011. now it might pay off but it is an expensive gamble to make, especially considering the risk there is anyway when you pay these older players at the top of their game big money expecting them to stay on top of their game for years to come.

with all that said, who all have they lost that will have a huge negative impact on the team? what about the players that are still on the roster?

our secondary is still very much intact and should be improving over what was a solid '09 season for them.

the LB corps is still solid. diggs was wearing down and was seeing increasingly less PT and would have seen even less next year. he was the weak link there. we will be fine without him. we will need another LB to come in but we will get one from the same place we got diggs...the pool of cast offs that were passed over by most teams.

the DLine is young but still very capable of holding their own. we are going to be building around some really nice young talent. we did well at finding stop gaps at DT last year and this year will be no different. brown and johnson on the ends will be really solid fr years to come and it was only a matter of time before it was handed over to them anyway. get them carrying the load now so they can grow.

oline...still very solid. no problems here.

TEs...no change. good blockers and receivers.

RBS and FBs...still very much among the best in the league.

WRs....still a weak link that needs to be improved but whats different about that? we needed to upgrade over moose. his contract was up. the choice was to give him another one or go after a younger option with more potential. by all appearances we will be going after a younger option.

QB...we have a young QB who can take risks, is accurate, and makes good decisions. he doesn't lock in on just one receiver and gets rid of the ball when he needs to. he has done everything we have asked of him and has done it without making many mistakes. very little reason to believe he can't continue that.

what i'm looking at is still a solid team. young guys are going to have a chance to step up and prove themselves.

didnt we have a solid team with all the vets before this? so how can you remove these players and then say with out a shadow of a doubt all their backups will be solid in starter roles? this is what you HOPE will happen. we know from last year the performance of the vets but we dont know how these current players will play. experience counts for something.

They've jettisoned so many veterans it's as if they're laying them off.

"A season ago these guys were good enough to start. Now they're not good enough to keep.

Many of you are trying to figure out why."

i think fowler said the above qoute!

[rayzor]

didnt we have a solid team with all the vets before this? so how can you remove these players and then say with out a shadow of a doubt all their backups will be solid in starter roles? this is what you HOPE will happen. we know from last year the performance of the vets but we dont know how these current players will play. experience counts for something.

They've jettisoned so many veterans it's as if they're laying them off.

"A season ago these guys were good enough to start. Now they're not good enough to keep.

Many of you are trying to figure out why."

i think fowler said the above qoute!

foster was "good enough" to start his last year here. the next year wasn't good enough to be on the team.

i understand the concern and for the record the above was all my opinion and i didn't imply "with out a shadow of a doubt that all their backups will be be solid in starter roles." that's just the way i see it. they are untested in starter roles for the most part but side from a couple exceptions they are not untested.

the Dline is the only main concern i have but i think that we have a good base to work from and with the addition of a couple parts can have a good line again.

going back to diggs...i don't think that he was going to get better. it was/is more likely that he was going to be taking a step backward. like i said earlier, he was seeing less play time as the season came to a close. he was slowing down and was less effective. he was turning into a liability towards the end and most likely would continue to be one. for a defense that has to be fast, diggs isn't the answer going forward. will anderson or connor be the answer or will it be someone we bring int in the draft or via FA? i don't know. i do know that what i have seen from connor and especially anderson this past year i have liked.

aside from diggs, peppers, lewis, and brayton what have we really lost? will losing those guys mean a losing season? is finding replacements for these guys impossible? nope. it very well could be that we have more than enough talent on the roster to replace them and not lose a step. we could easily find stop gap players to replace those players who started out as stop gap players themselves.

[mountainpantherfan]

didnt we have a solid team with all the vets before this? so how can you remove these players and then say with out a shadow of a doubt all their backups will be solid in starter roles? this is what you HOPE will happen. we know from last year the performance of the vets but we dont know how these current players will play. experience counts for something.

They've jettisoned so many veterans it's as if they're laying them off.

"A season ago these guys were good enough to start. Now they're not good enough to keep.

Many of you are trying to figure out why."

i think fowler said the above qoute!

But any fan of the NFL will know that it is of equally no assurance that proven players continue to contribute. A lot of times a player's talent level/speed/athleticism drops off in a moment's time. Delhomme is a perfect example of this happening. And if a team isn't careful, they end up with a $12 million contract that they have to dump in order to put the best team on the field.

Teams are taking the exact same chance with signing or keeping vets as they are promoting younger draft picks and/or players.

[klumme]

"A season ago these guys were good enough to start. Now they're not good enough to keep.

Many of you are trying to figure out why."

i think fowler said the above qoute!

Two season ago those guys was on a 12-4 last year those same guys played like poo and was a 8-8 team. You don't play vets just because they are vets. Other than Peppers I really have a hard time seeing were we are getting worse than last year. The whole D-line is new but sure we could have kept them all and have teams run right through them once again like before Thomas came a long.

[theedaddy]

its a young mans game.

i learned a couple years ago that really a early 20s man in on drugs compared to mid-thirty man. 20 guy produces way more chemicals, hormones, HGH, test, endorphins, dopamine, etc etc. Theres a reason why the contract players are not in their 40s. Outside of punters, kickers, and long snappers, its hard to find late 30s/40 guys. Only thing that saves the old 30 guys is football IQ and experience. that what sucks about dealing with young people, they dont care, super dumb, jerks, egomaniacs, party way too much, unprofessional. aka most young people.

money is waaay in the favor of young ones too. 7th rounder gets 350,000? the lowest you can pay a 10 yr vet is 850,000. lucky the nfl helped the cap number be counted lower, cause fewer and fewer old guys were not gettting signed. but cap doesnt matter now. plus a young has the chacne to get better, while a old guy is on borrowed time and only gets slower and more injury-prone.

[carolinanimal]

my point is most teams TRANSITION to there young guys not a wholesale change. what team do you know recently has done something like that?

i will put it this way. if the vikings were to release every one on their starting line and promote each back up, you guys would say that they were crazy.

you transition your young guys in mixed with vets with experience. who has experience on the dline? no one has starting experience. the guys we had as backups were backups or scrubs on other peoples team. that is why we were able to get them.

you have to have the right blend of experience and youth to win. just because guys are young and "promising" doesnt make them better.

we havent seen enough of any of our dts or de to say they or solid. most of coming of ir. if these guys were so great how come they didnt start where they were or here? they were young and have talent right? that means they should have started somewhere.

bottom line is this. our line as of right now is made up back ups and rejects from other teams and players with no starting experience. that is the truth.