Inside Scouting Report: Quarterback Tony Pike

[CharlotteBeer.com]

I personally thought Cantwell did awesome in Preseason. I just don't like his last name.

I didn't really think any of our quarterbacks looked good last year in the preseason, to be honest. But Moore showed that sometimes you can't really determine how good a quarterback is by practice and preseason. When playing with the first team, Cantwell, Moore and McCown could have looked better, or they could have looked worse (when playing against first-team defenses).

[Darth Bobo]

I just don't get why the front office went quarterback-crazy when our starting quarterback (Moore) has looked worlds better than Delhomme of the last two years. I like the Clausen pick, and I recognize that it and the Pike pick were great values, but at the same time how many young quarterbacks are you going to keep? It's especially frustrating with the recent praise of Cantwell.

It was a weird draft, but all normal rules do not apply in the uncapped year. As I imagine Carolina's draft "war room", it went something like this:

The FO says to itself..."Hmmm, some teams think they can go to the playoffs now, and they'll pass on exploiting the uncapped year in order to maintain rosters and chemistry. Maybe they'll add an expensive player for one year, and deal with the contractual repurcussions later in 2011, when presumably the cap will return. But since we're in the same division with New Orleans and Atlanta, who will be strapped by the confines of retaining a presumed "playoff caliber" roster, we shall fully exploit the absense of the salary cap and eliminate any/all "top heavy" contracts which are projected to come to a costly end. Sure, this unique fire-sale will cost us talent, but only in a year of league chaos, with teams like the Jets and the Redskins sparing no expense to make a desperate lunge at the trophy. We will not pursue that flash-in-the-pan approach either.

For us, 2010 will be like the longest preseason ever, and we will know to the n'th degree the quality of every last player of the 53 we choose, and every rookie and bench warmer on our roster will get more than one chance. We will know in 2011 exactly what talent we have, and exactly what we do not. We will slay New Orleans and Atlanta through roster their attrition when the salary cap returns in 2011. While those teams suffer, we will have cap space to craft ideal contracts, and we will know exactly where to make the changes, while our division rivals will be struggling to fit untested players into surprise vacancies."

As I see it, Delhomme would have been kept to compete with Moore for the starting position if Delhomme had a cheap contract at the end of 2009, but instead his recently renegotiated contract was expensive. So the Panthers spent now to let Delhomme go, more because of the unique financial opportunity, and less because of the previous year's turnovers. My point in bringing Delhomme into it, is that even though Moore performed well at the end of the season, they expected Delhomme would be retained another year when they benched him. They did not know when Moore started, 2010 would remain uncapped, and Delhomme would be gone. They also didn't think Cantwell was worth more than a practice squad role.

So we went into the draft with Moore as our only projected starter. Considering that we were looking for a QB who would in no way hold his team back in a future year when we approach a Superbowl, we clearly needed to add major talent at the position, and our financial 2009 financial goals prevented us from signing a competent veteran backup who would require exactly the type of contract we were seeking to eliminate. So, the choice was to load the position with rookies, and it just so happened we got lucky in the 2nd round with Claussen, and we also got lucky (on paper) with Pike in the 6th round, as he was considered a top 5 QB in the 2010 draft.

Catwell's performance in practice sounds good but was not forseen at the time of the draft, and he hasn't been tested yet in a game.

I want to see who is going to win the battle between Claussen, Pike, and Cantwell. I think the final 3 of 53 may surprise us all. Is playing up Cantwell to the media a Panther FO ploy to take the focus off of Claussen? If Claussen was a super stud wouldn't we have heard about it?

[panthers55]

I think that's fair and it's always good to have depth, but under Fox we had drafted, what, like two quarterbacks? At least in regards to the quarterback position, Fox has been very reactionary. Instead of bring in depth a couple years ago, the front office decides to draft 2.5 in one single draft, and that's after Moore looked damn good last year and Cantwell seems to be a promising "experiment." I can understand keeping our options open, but this is ridiculous. I wish they were that worried about the defensive line.

In addition to drafting a few quarterbacks we also picked up a few in free agency under Fox. A few years ago we brought in a first round draft pick for depth- David Carr. Who knew he would suck. We also brought in another first rounder in Testeverde. Sure he was over the hill but until he got hurt, he looked pretty good.

It isn't like we haven't tried at times.

[Snake]

I think the FO is worried about the little things Moore does that defenses might figure out when they have tape on him and can study...

The fact is that happens to every QB. Delhomme was one of the worst we have had about telling the D what was gonna happen. Its the QB coaches job to teach him how not to do that.

[Snake]

I didn't really think any of our quarterbacks looked good last year in the preseason, to be honest. But Moore showed that sometimes you can't really determine how good a quarterback is by practice and preseason. When playing with the first team, Cantwell, Moore and McCown could have looked better, or they could have looked worse (when playing against first-team defenses).

McCown had horrible vision from what I saw. To be fair the Eagles were blitzing the crap out of him but Moore looked the best of the 3. I just think Fox got hung up on Delhomme and thought he would come out of his funk. The fact was Tommy Jone didnt let go.

[MadHatter]

Damn Tommy Jone.....you bastard.

[KatsAzz]

I personally thought Cantwell did awesome in Preseason. I just don't like his last name.

I suppose one would have to break his name down in 2 halves and pick the best half.

Cant--Thats bad

well--Thats good

[CharlotteBeer.com]

In addition to drafting a few quarterbacks we also picked up a few in free agency under Fox. A few years ago we brought in a first round draft pick for depth- David Carr. Who knew he would suck. We also brought in another first rounder in Testeverde. Sure he was over the hill but until he got hurt, he looked pretty good.

It isn't like we haven't tried at times.

Yes, Fox and Co. have brought other quarterbacks in, but I don't think they expected any of those quarterbacks to compete with Delhomme or unseat him from his starting job.

I just found it odd that, after Moore looked pretty good last season and it seemed we finally had a better option than Delhomme, they'd go quarterback-crazy.

Anybody else think Edwards would have been a fine choice as our third-string quarterback?

[The Saltman]

Did someone say Tommy Jone?

[davos]

I like his last name...

[panthers55]

Yes, Fox and Co. have brought other quarterbacks in, but I don't think they expected any of those quarterbacks to compete with Delhomme or unseat him from his starting job.

I just found it odd that, after Moore looked pretty good last season and it seemed we finally had a better option than Delhomme, they'd go quarterback-crazy.

Anybody else think Edwards would have been a fine choice as our third-string quarterback?

Given that Moore was on IR all of 2008, I can definitely see why he wanted a few other guys on the roster. I suspect that Clausen became part of the plan once he fell out of the first round. Edwards really was drafted as a receiver and return man. The fact he could play wildcat and be an emergency third stringer is just a bonus. Again I think that Pike was just BPA at that position and we figured we had such good luck with Moore, that we might be able to find a guy down the road who could help.

The fact that we took Pike suggests that our draft didn't reflect a win now- hot seat type of reaction from Hunrey or Fox. On the other hand it may be Hurney stocking the shelves for Fox's successor.

[Hairless Cat]

I think what she might be trying to say is Matt Moore hasnt had a full season yet. Once he starts playing games the teams will have more tape on him and since the FO doesnt think as highly of him as we do that they know something about him that we dont. Not sure what that might be because I havent heard anything about such things.

oh, well that certainly clears things up.

[Hairless Cat]

I like his last name...

me too, rymes with bone

[SorthNarolina]

God if he started we'd never heard the end of Hunter Can't-Throw-Well. Holy crap that would get annoying.

It's like my dread of FIAT coming back to a America. I pray I don't hear Fix-It-Again-Tony.