Additions complete; how satisified are you entering 2010?

[BF91]

4.5

Am extremely unhappy with the budget limitations imposed by Jerry Richardson..all i have to say is this team better not let players like Beason and T.Davis go or I am not spending another dollar to support this team for a long time.

The budget limitations are in effect because of the potential lock-out/lower cap in 2011.

[panthers55]

i always respect your opinion on here, but i just dont think the team is in as bad of condition as you do.

QB position - there isnt experience, but as much as i liked delhomme, i doubt our pass offense is any worse than it was last year. i expect it to be much better accually. most on the board agree that moore is better than jake was, while there is a chance that claussen may be better than either of them

RBs - we will get williams signed i am sure. we have the best run-game in the league, i think that everyone in the organization wants to keep it that way.

Kalil Oline - our o-line is great. we wll sign kalil.

WR - smith isnt going away just yet. we will have a handfull more of good good years from him, and i think our rookie WRs, are going to be the best group weve had since the old moose/smith/proel days earlier in the decade. i will admit that anyone could be skeptical over rookies though, and i dont blame them

DL - yes i agree, we should be worried. i will point out that we werent very good against the run last year either, and that was with peppers. i think this is the weakest link on the team

LBs - we will keep both davis and beason. there is no way we can afford to have poor LBs and a poor defensive line on the same defense. Plus, i think that beason will be the "face of the franchise"

CBs / safety - i cant say we are any better, but i guess you could hope that we will have better coverage out of our safeties. we will probably lose marshall. probably will need to draft a corner in the first round next year.

John Fox - i cant really say what will happen, other than the fact that i hope we keep him, and that in turn will make hurney sign his contract as well.

and as for the lockout... i am just hoping that both the players and the owners realize that not playing football in 2011 is just a stupid idea, and they decide it is in everyones best interest to make sure that doesnt happen. i guess i am hoping for the best.

you are right about there being alot of question marks on the team, but i am just a little more optimistic about it, i guess.

Lets look at some of your assumptions.

I think Moore is gone after this season unless he has a probowl season. We will have already signed Clausen on a 5 year deal for 15 million or so. Moore even giving us a hometown discount will want between 8-10 million a year for a deal around 40-50 million for 5 years. If they believe Clausen is anywhere close to Moore in ability they will let Moore go or sign and trade him to someone else to save serious jack.

I think we won't sign Williams to a longterm contract if Stewart has the better year. We will use Stewart and fill in with Sutton and draft the "next Williams" next year with our top 10 pick.

We will also let Kalil go because frankly we can't pay everyone and we will figure we can find another center relatively easily.

Smith's contract runs out in 2012. That is not a handful but 3 years only. And behind him we have potential but nothing proven. Honestly I think Edwards may turn out to be the real gem among them. He might be our next Smith. But I am not sold on Jarrett although I hope between LaFell and Gettis, one of them shines.

We agree on the DL.

As for linebackers, I hope we keep Davis and Beason but honestly I could see us deciding not to pay either one big money. Beason is the most likely to get paid but are we going to invest 80 million between the 2 of them because that is what it will take. Before this year I would have said of course we would, but now I am not so sure. Finding and retaining talent seems to be taking second fiddle to saving money and doing the best you can with what you have or can draft.

As for Fox I think the writing is on the wall and he is already gone. Short of a deep playoff run, there will be anew coach in town with a new staff. I actually believe that part of the reason we aren't locking up players is to make it easier for the new guy to bring his own players.

As for the lockout I think there will be one, it will go on until August, and once resolved, there will be a reordering of the season with 2 preseason games and then the regular season.

Management will win there will be a rookie cap and regular cap but it won't go in effect until 2012 to give teams time to get under it.

And do you think that after this year we go back to business as usual or do we find that we can save 30 more million a year and still field a team that goes 8-8. If so this might be the wave of the future where players are routinely signed for their rookie contract and let go for new rookies who are cheaper. Unless there is cap floor again, we might not go back to spending big bucks anymore.

[Woodie]

I'm actually quite happy. Lets be real, nobody we let go was all world, so it's not like we let anyone go that was expected to be a key player...just rotational role players, at best.

Positionally, we really don't have that many holes.

QB - I think we all can agree that we are pretty well set here.

RB - Ditto.

FB - this is a big one for some. Well, first of all, I don't think Hoover was still the same player many are remembering him as, so I don't believe he was as big a loss as others feel. And secondly, I think we will be adopting the more current practice of incorporating the slot receiver in our offense (among other tweaks), which will spread the defense out, which, in turn, will help open things up for our running game. One of the reasons we needed a battering ram in our offense is because we were so predictable, and teams routinely loaded the box to try and stop us. But based on what I've seen from the draft and other things I am hearing, I think this will be the year Fox finally gives Davidson some extra room to open things up a bit. So I don't think we will be looking for the same things from the FB position as we have in the past.

OL - No reason to worry here.

WR - We still have Smitty, but we do need someone else to step up. But with the guys we picked up, I truly think we will be fine here.

DE - I think Brayton, Brown, and Johnson are a solid three deep DE rotation, and Hardy should fit just fine situationally. And while I think Brown will be improved as a run defender, we already know Brayton and Johnson are solid against the run, so we should be good in that regard. And I also think we have the horses to generate pressure on the QB. Some will come from a straight four man rush, other times it will come from blitzes (something we did a lot more of towards the end of last season), and possibly even lining Norwood up at DE on passing downs. No matter how it comes, I think we have the guys to get pressure.

DT - this was an area that I somewhat expected to bring someone in. I liked what I saw from the guys we have, but that was such a limited sample, and I never really paid attention to any of them prior to coming here. So, my assumption of adding a DT was based on my own limited personal knowledge of them (however I did/do think they have the potential to be at leastsolid starters this year). But, the lack of activity here tells me the FO has seen enough film of their previous stops along with what they did here to make Fox & co. comfortable with who we have. At worst, I don't think we will be any worse than last year, but they may surprise us and be much better than some expect.

LB - With our improved depth, I think we will be better at LB than we were. So, I'm very comfortable here.

CB - I'm not the biggest Marshall or Munnerlyn fan, but with that said, I don't see any reason why we won't be at least as good as we have been. However, I do have some depth concerns here, so that will be one area I will be keeping a close eye on once camp starts.

S - I actually think it was an overall gain trading Harris and moving Martin into the starting role. We may lose some physicality, but I think we will add playmaking and coverage ability. And to be honest, I think Harris' rep against the run was overrated (and not just because he's no longer here). The problem he had was that he too often went for the big hit, which often allowed the runner to either get by him, or at least get an extra couple of yards. And probably even moreso than at CB, I am concerned with our depth here. Hopefully some of the new guys will prove to be solid if called upon.

So when all is said and done, I don't see any reason why this will be a down year. We don't have the issue of the entire defense trying (and struggling) to learn a whole new scheme, our QB situation can't help but be improved, and we have a lot of hungry players out to justify their places on the team. Add that to an easier schedule, and we should be fine.