Everybody always yearns for the '03 Panthers, look at the key players from '03

[Cyberjag]

He's an older guy with a fat contract who was trying to make the team ran by a guy intent on recreating USC in the NFL.

What's really surprising to me is that, in going through all the news stories out there, teams were either saying that they aren't interested or wouldn't comment. And all articles said that Houshmandzadeh was narrowing HIS choices down. As if he had a choice, huh?

So I guess we'll never know if the Panthers went after him, because they stopped calling Gannt and telling him all the things they were doing sometime after 2008 season, right?

It's interesting that he was released, that teams weren't throwing big deals at him (he signed for the minimum), and that people here are convinced that he would be a strong fit. Well, that last part isn't very interesting, I guess...

[Jangler]

Well yes, "choose" might not be the right word, but choose from the teams that were interested, and we will never know if the Panthers were interested....probably not, but we will never know.

[Cyberjag]

Can we at least all agree that his choice had nothing to do with the Free Agent percentage of our 2003 team?

[Jangler]

*high 5*

[Delhommey]

There aren't many teams that were as lucky as our 03 team. Last year's Jets team is one that comes to mind.

The 05 and 08 squads were better overall.

[magnus]

When did I ever say that playing your own guys was a bad thing? The whole f'ing point was that a MIX of both was the best.

you said the word 'mix' in your post, sure. You also said that your post was about "the key players", and then listed nothing but free agents - many of them inconsequential. Maybe mixed messages are your thing, but you should probably work on making the "point" your key argument and don't bury it in a bunch of nonsense that says something else.

It's also possible it's easy to change your point when being challenged. I figure it's one of those two.

[CAVSS]

I have made this same statement in almost every "lets sign (TJ, TO,etc.)" thread. If we wanted a proven #2 that was years past his prime and had lost a step, then we would have kept Moose. Moose was cheap and has 0 character issues. So we are not going to be signing any 30+year old WR. None, not one. We are certainly not going to pay 7 mil a year for someone that couldn't cut it on Seattle's roster (they don't exactly have the best WR corps in the league) and has a checkered past to say the least. .

Secondly, dismissing trades in your argument makes 0 sense SMF, literally 0 sense. They are a player who was acquired from another team and not through the draft. By your logic, as it is stated above, you would still be upset if we had traded DJ for Housh straight up 3 weeks ago because he wasn't technically a FA signee. Seems pretty silly to me an acquisition is an acquisition.

[magnus]

It's more than that though. Charlie Dayton crowing about how gee-golly-awesome it is to have basically nothing but free agents on the team is indicative of the new philosophy the team has adopted this offseason: Draft picks only, don't even make any initial inquiries into free agents that would have a chance at upstaging our own draft picks.

Like I said in the hypothetical 5-11 scenario: If we end up sucking this year, am I supposed to take solace in the fact that we did it with only 1 of our 22 starters being free agents?

it isn't a new idea, we barely signed anyone in 2008 or 2009. And yes, the team's happy they grew their own talent and didn't have to pay a premium to fill jobs they knew were coming two years before they needed them. I'm much happier plugging in a Dan Connor than having to panic and trade, or pick up someone else's scraps and hope they'll be ready in five days.