Ok, doom-and-gloomers, break it down for me! :)

[panthers55]

And there it is. We have essentially lost one player on defense that can't be replaced in Julius Peppers. The DL will get worse, but it wasn't anything special anyway. And yet, we still turned in the 4th ranked pass defense and the 9th best overall defense.

Now we're younger and a year into the new and better system. We've kept our leadership and our strengths. Overall, while the line may have gotten worse the defense as a whole isn't necessarily going to suffer THAT much.

And the offense should be better with Moore and our injured players back.

And Special Teams had nowhere to go but up, right?

And our schedule is easier.

Gloom and doom my ass...

We have lost a lot more than Peppers. We lost our entire starting defensive line as well as one of our most consistent linebackers. We also lost a lot of veteran leadership. The defense will suffer quite a bit.

On offense we still need a receiver or two and that will go a long way to defiining how Moore does. Hopefully we do at receiver what we did on the offensive line which bring in a bunch of guys and sift through them to find a gem. Still it seems to me that Moose on a cheap 1 year deal would give us some much needed insurance as well as significant veteran leadership. Moose is one guy who has helped alot with Smitty and Jarrett.

It isn't these players are that great by themselves. But when you take them away as a group you lose more than their individual parts. A tem is more than just individual players that you can plug in randomly. The chemistry we built last year has been completely dissolved. There is no guarantee that we will build it better or even as well this year.

[GRWatcher]

The FO is doing the exact same thing I do every year on Madden when playing franchise mode.

The key here is setting the user difficulty on easy for a season and giving your youth some experiance.

Good night everybody!

:smilielol5:

[GRWatcher]

Tyler, Leonard, and Irvin were hurt last year. Three back and two (Kemo and Lewis) are gone. How has depth been depleted?

Also, we can always sign a guy short-term like we did with Holllis Thomas.

But Hollis is so old they had to dig him up from under a pyramid! :eek:

[GRWatcher]

One thing is for sure.... If we were to go into 2010 with Kemoeatu, Lewis and Brayton on our line and they would tank it ( they did in 2009 with Peppers and Kemo is coming back from IR ) you would all call for Fox head cause he loves his vets and never play the young guys.

Now he goes with the young guys and he and the FO is morons who have thrown away the season.

You have the 2 groups of Huddle posters confused. Those who complained and whined about Fox & Hurney last year now believe they will save the day. I never said any such thing last year. Don't be lumping all huddlers together.

[Cyberjag]

We have lost a lot more than Peppers. We lost our entire starting defensive line as well as one of our most consistent linebackers. We also lost a lot of veteran leadership. The defense will suffer quite a bit.

Diggs was our worst Linebacker, and was long in the tooth. Although "most consistent" has a nice spin.

The entire starting defensive line isn't ever a good thing, but there's just one player on it who can't be replaced in Peppers. And while Lewis provided a little veteran leadership, the true captains of the defense are Harris and Beason. So really, we lost one player that's irreplaceable. And while it's a big loss, it doesn't make the entire defense go from good to terrible.

On offense we still need a receiver or two and that will go a long way to defiining how Moore does. Hopefully we do at receiver what we did on the offensive line which bring in a bunch of guys and sift through them to find a gem. Still it seems to me that Moose on a cheap 1 year deal would give us some much needed insurance as well as significant veteran leadership. Moose is one guy who has helped alot with Smitty and Jarrett.

It isn't these players are that great by themselves. But when you take them away as a group you lose more than their individual parts. A tem is more than just individual players that you can plug in randomly. The chemistry we built last year has been completely dissolved. There is no guarantee that we will build it better or even as well this year.

The chemistry we built last year carried us to 8-8. The year before we completely redid our offensive line and despite their lack of chemistry we went 12-4.

I think that they'll do as you suggested regarding the wide receiver, and also at DE and LB. I expect them to draft there as well. And I expect them to field a very competitive team, one with the potential to be a big improvement on the 2009 edition.

[panthers55]

Diggs was our worst Linebacker, and was long in the tooth. Although "most consistent" has a nice spin.

The entire starting defensive line isn't ever a good thing, but there's just one player on it who can't be replaced in Peppers. And while Lewis provided a little veteran leadership, the true captains of the defense are Harris and Beason. So really, we lost one player that's irreplaceable. And while it's a big loss, it doesn't make the entire defense go from good to terrible.

The chemistry we built last year carried us to 8-8. The year before we completely redid our offensive line and despite their lack of chemistry we went 12-4.

I think that they'll do as you suggested regarding the wide receiver, and also at DE and LB. I expect them to draft there as well. And I expect them to field a very competitive team, one with the potential to be a big improvement on the 2009 edition.

Actually the consistent comment was mentioned by Harris in his blog not me. You think he was wrong? Plus part of consistency is staying healthy which he did more than Davis for example last year.

Being a captain doesn't mean that you are the only guy who is a leader. Again go back to Harris blog and he points out who will be missed and who provided leadership. He doesn't mention everyone but certainly points out the losses which he thinks will be larger than you do. But what does he know???

The chemistry we built at the emd had us winning 4 out of the last 5 and going from 4-7 to 8-8. A lot more positive than you describe. The chemistry from 2008 to 2009 was largely the same as we returned 21 of 22 starters. The difference was largely Jake's poor performance and a new defensive scheme. That chemistry could have been preserved instead of ripped to shreds. Yeah I know that chemistry changes every year but units that work together over tie develop a chemistry which doesn't go away over the offseason.

Big improvement on the 2009 unit???? Must be drinking the koolaid early this morning. We will be very lucky to approach the success we had last year on defense let alone be a big improvement.

Big Improvement???? Sure you don't want to buy some prime waterfront property I have. Ignore that other folks call it a swamp. We prefer to call it lowcountry. HA HA HA HA

[Rags]

Dunno if it has been mentioned in the thread, but Charles Johnson might actually be one of the most surprising players of the year. He's learned a bit from both Rucker (one year) and Peppers. Brayton might've even thought him a bit.

C.J. has a total of 10 sacks right now spanning over 3 years. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a 7-8 sack season coming up. He's not going to be asdestructive or a force as Peppers, but he'll be a great pass rusher and a decent tackler.

Ed Johnson is literally Kemo 2.0., he's not going to be a pocket collapser or get into the backfield, but he can make the tackles.

Corvey Irvin is a question mark, he was hurt before last season really began, so we have no idea what he can bring to team or do in the NFL or how he'll do after the injury, I'm not even sure what his injury was. We might want to use a mid-late round pick to get another DT. Though we can use Tank Tyler as astarter and draft a DT in 2011 in the 1st round. If we have one.

Our first pick in 2010 should be a DE, weather or not we get into the First round , there is really good DE talent. Then the next pick a WR, and then finally a OLB. Then from there we just worry about depth.

This is not a "throw away season" we still have a chance to win, even with this young team.

EDIT:

Actually the consistent comment was mentioned by Harris in his blog not me. You think he was wrong? Plus part of consistency is staying healthy which he did more than Davis for example last year.

Constantly mediocre is still consistent.

[SmootsDaddy89]

I actually liked what I saw from Irvin in the preseason, especially considering how "raw" he was supposed to be coming out of college.

He's no Damione Lewis though!!!!!!11!!1

I actually think, based how we seemingly want to save money at all costs, (and assuming that the front office believes there will likely be a lockout in 2011.) that we'll trade next year's first again to get another early second and a fourth or fifth.

[Cyberjag]

Actually the consistent comment was mentioned by Harris in his blog not me. You think he was wrong? Plus part of consistency is staying healthy which he did more than Davis for example last year.

Being a captain doesn't mean that you are the only guy who is a leader. Again go back to Harris blog and he points out who will be missed and who provided leadership. He doesn't mention everyone but certainly points out the losses which he thinks will be larger than you do. But what does he know???

The chemistry we built at the emd had us winning 4 out of the last 5 and going from 4-7 to 8-8. A lot more positive than you describe. The chemistry from 2008 to 2009 was largely the same as we returned 21 of 22 starters. The difference was largely Jake's poor performance and a new defensive scheme. That chemistry could have been preserved instead of ripped to shreds. Yeah I know that chemistry changes every year but units that work together over tie develop a chemistry which doesn't go away over the offseason.

Big improvement on the 2009 unit???? Must be drinking the koolaid early this morning. We will be very lucky to approach the success we had last year on defense let alone be a big improvement.

Big Improvement???? Sure you don't want to buy some prime waterfront property I have. Ignore that other folks call it a swamp. We prefer to call it lowcountry. HA HA HA HA

You're right, we'll be lucky if we consistently play defense as well as we did late in the year. I think there's a good chance that we can play better than we did early in the year though, that was pretty bad if you recall.

And I think that the offense will be much better. I think you believe that too. I also think that special teams will improve as they add talent there and get a competent coordinator.

There are three parts of the team, right? We've regressed somewhat in one, but the other two are getting better. And I think they'll be getting better enough to attain a winning record.

If you solely focus on defense then there's cause for alarm. But when you look at the team as a whole, there's still a lot of room for optimism.

BTW, I think Chris Harris is great, and is a hell of a nice guy. I have yet to find a player he doesn't have something nice to say about. If you are going to give him credibility on Diggs, will you give him the same where Jake's concerned?