How would you turn this thing around?

[OneBadassCat]

Promote Ron Meeks to HC, hire a more creative OC. Or hire an offensive minded coach.

1. Resign Kalil, Beason, Charles Johnson, Anderson, TD, and make an offer for Deangelo.

2. Resign Matt Moore cheap, sign a vet QB

3. Draft OG or DT with the 1st pick. Unless Green is on the board.

4. Try to tag and trade Richard Marshall. Listen to offers for Dan Conner.

5. Sign an OT with some talent that can be groomed

6. Look for some FA DE's. We don't have time to wait on rookie DE's to develop.

Can't really touch on WR right now because we won't know how much better LaFell, Edwards, and Gettis will be next season. Same goes for Devin Thomas.

[Kevin Greene]

First off, assume Fox leaving is a given. What would be the first 3-5 steps you would take to raise the Titanic?

1. Get a young, hungry coach and not a retired guy who is simply bored and wants back on the merry go round. Or even a not-so-young but even-more-hungry coach. Let that coach make mistakes his first year without saying "where did we get this bozo?" Even Chuck Noll, who won four Super Bowls, made one of the dumbest coaching moves in Super Bowl history (see SB X). Don't expect Parcells/Shula/Walsh all rolled into one. There will be some games lost due to coaching.

2. Keep the current college scouting department. Make changes in the pro scouting department.

3. Build around Beason on defense and Clausen and DWill on offense. Everyone else is tradeable. Except maybe Kalil. You have some of the best college scouts out there. Give them picks to work with.

4. When you hire the new coach, make sure fans see the new direction you are taking. If it looks like you've hired another Fox, you've already lost a lot of them. Tell them you are building around a young quarterback, whether that is Clausen or someone else, and you are maintaining the strong defense standard that Carolina has typically had.

5. Announce that you are changing the stadium policy. Have a family friendly section of your stadium where the current atmosphere is encouraged. The rest of the stadium is for fans who want the same NFL experience most fans get to enjoy.

I actually like that idea.

[Paintballr]

@ you guys who want to trade the whole offense.

A coach with swagger and a proven system. I know who I want to bring in, somebody who knows the road to the SB, I'd rather have someone like that than someone trying to figure it out.

We have a good core group. I'd get some vet help on the Oline. A good quality starter in place of #73 and a starter quality backup (pro scouting) for Otah and a bruiser FB.

I'd look at Thomas the next couple games to see if he can be a #2, if not we'd get a vet. I don't think going wholesale young is the formula for winning championships you need veterans.

Not so much blow up the whole offense just the the o-line basically. Young group of backs, qb, and wr's aren't really a bad thing in the long run

[Matt Foley]

1. Agree with those saying we need an offensive minded coach. We have never had much of an offense. Young versus old is irrelevant as long as they are effective.

George Seifert

[mav1234]

to the guy who wanted a poll to decide how you build your team, just look at how "diverse" many of these suggestions are.

[AceMan]

They really are diverse...I think that's sorta good for discussion purposes...but bad in the fact that we have no idea where we're headed in the future...

[panthers55]

George Seifert

Look at the numbers for Seifert. We had one year, 1999 and that was Beuerlein not Seifert. We dump Buerlein in 2000 and we go from 6th in offense in 1999 to 20th in 2000 and 30th in 2001. For that matter in 2008 we were 10th in offense. Goes to show you even poor coaches and coordinators can get lucky for a year but can't sustain it.

[kdrh5]

As for as our own players, Kalil is probably first priority, since Beason's contract doesn't run out at the end of the year. I wouldn't worry about him leaving at all, hes basically as close as you can get to a face of the franchise and am confident he's not going anywhere unless he gets hurt. Marshall could be upgraded.

Not sure what to do about Williams. Id like to keep him, but I fully understand trading him before the deadline to squire draft picks and improve other areas. If this were Madden I would see about trading a pick we get for him for Glenn Dorsey but that's a stretch.

When it comes to free agents, I'd like to see a veteran QB like Shaun Hill or Billy Volek brought in to mentor, and they can both start in a pinch.

A starting DT would be good, so I'd like to go after Barry Cofield.

Will Blackmon could be brought in as CB depth and to return punts.

Both Jeff King and Rosario are UFA so an upgrade like Marcedes Lewis would be nice, or depth at TE like Ben Patrick.

If no WR steps up, Legadu Nanee would be a good pickup.

[Matt Foley]

Look at the numbers for Seifert. We had one year, 1999 and that was Beuerlein not Seifert. We dump Buerlein in 2000 and we go from 6th in offense in 1999 to 20th in 2000 and 30th in 2001. For that matter in 2008 we were 10th in offense. Goes to show you even poor coaches and coordinators can get lucky for a year but can't sustain it.

Seifert had many powerhouse offenses at SF and the 99 team in Carolina. I think he started as Walsh's D Coordinator, though. But you have to admit, that 99 offense was the best the Panthers ever had, at least in terms of explosiveness.

[Brooklyn Bully]

1. New head coach, new offensive coordinator, new team philosophy!

2. Sign a FA qb if Clausen isn't for real. We'll know that answer by the end of the season. Also, draft a qb in the first round and let him learn from the FA qb for a year. Something Clausen doesn't have now and why we don't sit Jimmy.

3. Trade either J-Stew or D-Lo and get something great in return. We should no longer be a run first team (see: philosophy).

4. Keep Meeks and keep building and molding the great D. Become the Ravens/Steelers, D wise.

5. Sign a better TE in FA or draft one and start using TEs more. Mercedes Lewis may be available.

6. Get a FA wr in here. Maybe via the RB trade. Smitty ain't getting younger, these rookies ain't ready to lead. We need to pass the damn ball and we need trustworthy hands and someone who can separate.

7. Fix the damn O-Line. If people have to go, so be it.

[kdrh5]

I'm just hoping we sign the best head coaching candidate period, and surround him with a great staff. Not really worried if he is an offensive guy specifically.

[KillerKat]

1. Harbaugh, Zimmer, Frazier, Dermott, Rivera, Grimm, Gruden, or Cowher as HC

2. Fire Davidson and Rip Scherer

3. Cut Nick Hayden

4. Pick up a #2 WR (unless Thomas or Gettis prove they can be by the end of the season)

5. Trade Richard Marshall and pick up another CB through trade/FA/draft

6. Pick up a better LT and trade or cut Gross. Pick up a better RG and cut Bernadeau. Pick up a better RT for depth. Keep Schwartz as a backup guard.

7. Pick up a full time PR

8. Pick up a couple soild DTs

9. Get new pro scouting

10. Make the stadium rules less strict and make the place actually feel like we're at home

[rayzor]

note: all of this works great if CBA gets signed before the 2011 season

1- re-sign williams, kalil, beason, and davis (esp. if he comes back strong)

3- hire jim harbaugh* reasons for this hire are plentiful.

4- hire curtis johnson (WR coach for the saints) as OC. role would be to help implement offense and work with the WRs. he is about the best WR coach there is and bringing him in as OC would be the only way to get him away from the saints. on top of turning the scrub WRs the saints have into very good receivers (it isn't all brees) he worked as the miami hurricane WR coach from '96-'05 and has worked with the saints since '06. in miami he worked with reggie wayne, santana moss, and andre johnson. all three of those guys were first round picks and have done very well since then, i would say.

5- keep skipper and magazu (if they want to stay).

6- get best and most aggressive DC available. i haven't thought to much about who that would be. not sure about keeping meeks in since fox had to step in last year. if meeks stays, the defense needs to stay fast and swarming like it is. i wouldn't mind keeping meeks and the rest of the D coaches for continuity, but they might want to follow fox.

7- get aggressive in FA before heading into the draft. pick up pennington or whatever smart clipboard carrying QB we can find who could do ok in a pinch if needed. get the biggest and best DTs, OG, and maybe WR available.

8- if steve smith is grumpy, trade him off and get a third for him (or an early 4th). then package that third with another pick to trade for some younger stud WR. you don't let smith go without replacing him with another great (and younger) vet WR.

9- first round draft patrick peterson (CB/PR from LSU, scrap the AE as PR guy and let marshall walk) or AJ Green (if no solid WR was grabbed via FA and/or due to #8, or andrew luck*

10- rest of draft used to just fill needs. don't go and trade any of 2012's picks. just use the 10-11 picks they will have available already. that should be enough. if any trading is to be done, trade 2011 picks for earlier 2012 picks and start stockpiling.

10- throw the fans a bone and put the panther logo on the 50 yard line.

* if harbaugh decides he wants to work with clausen, cool. he did recruit clausen only to have clausen decide on ND instead. harbaugh "allegedly" gave him the snub when stanford played ND. if harbaugh would rather draft luck, then trade clausen to whatever WCO team will take him for whatever we can get. best case scenario, harbaugh encourages luck to stay in stanford for another year and decides to work with clausen for a year. if he harbaugh and clausen work out, cool. if not, do the best he can with clausen for the year and then pick up luck in the draft the following year and trade off clausen to KC for a clausen/weiss reunion (hopefully his trade value will be up enough for him to be worth something and weiss will still be alive).