Carolina Panthers owner Richardson to PSL owners: I take full responsibility

[Captain Obvious]

God Bless us all, every one.

No! You'll put your eye out.

[panthers55]

And those same pre-season power rankings hand the likes of San Fran, Cincy, and Dallas at the top. While Chicago, Tampa, and Kansas City can be found near the bottom of every list.

I put no credence in media power rankings.

I was more pointing out the mind set of nearly every poster on this board prior to the season. If you want proof of that, go pull the "Predictions thread"

There should be a laugh or two at some of the 13-3, 12-4 predictions that came about.

Let me ask you this: If Moore plays the same type of football that he played during the last five games last year, are we a 1-11 team.

I'm willing to bet we have wins against, New York, Cincy, TB (once), St. Louis, @NO, Cleveland, and San Fran.

Now I know we could play the "ifs and buts" game all day. I just wanted to point out that this team wasn't expected to contend for a number one pick. I think that's fairly evident by the Armanti trade. Hurney expected to be picking in the teens at the very least, hence why he took the chance on Edwards. No way he makes that deal if he thinks we are "top 5" pick bad

It is easy to pick apart rankings and point out the teams that are underacheiving as an indicator that the ranking are lousy but if you look at the totality of the ranking one thing is clear. People who are paid to evaluate teams and ranking all had us at the bottom.

If you asking me what I thought it is clear from 6 months ago that I was one of the biggest critics of the youth movement and told anyone who wanted to listen that we would be lucky to win 4 or 5 games this year. And that was with Moore playing well. I told folks that it wasn't one player or even 2 that would be the problem but replacing 7 or 8 starters with backups who were largely inexperienced and then having to rely on 8 more guys to be their backups with no experience at all. In essence replacing 16 guys on a 46 man roster. Then I went on to say that we could conceivably win 6 games if everything fell our way and we had few if any injuries and all the players expected to perform did so. But I went on to say that this kind of scenario never happens with us and we always have a rash of injuries at one spot or the other. Add that if only half of the replacement starters and their replacements play well, we will be in a bad situation. Add in that if we get in a rut of losing early because I also said that there was a good chance we would have a losing record at the bye ( no better than 2-3 but it could be 1-4 or even 0-5) and without veteran leadership there would be no mental toughness or ability to deal with the losing and we could go on a nose dive.

I would agree that neither Hurney or Richardson thought we would be this bad, but that just points out that they really were clueless. And the Armanti pick is a perfect example of gambling on projects when you could have made a much better safer pick who could have contributed right away. Sure everyone is happy Johnson is a beast this year but it is year 4. Believe it or not there are DEs who did well right away and are still doing well 4 years later.Look at a guy like Dumervil picked in the fourth round in 2006. Even being on IR all this year he has 43 sacks and 129 tackles at the end of his fourth year Not everyone has to suck for years before they are any good. I will wait to judge Edwards for a few years, but he hardly would have been my pick and there were guys available who could have made an immediate impact.

And yeah hindsight is 20-20 but so was my foresight and most pundits and people in the know. All I did was read what folks were saying and evaluate the situation for myself. it really was a lot more transparent than most folks want to admit.

[CatMan72]

I don't see how going into the season with one legitimate NFL WR is a middle of the pack team. Sounds to me like asking for trouble.

We won 4 out of 5 games last year with one legitimate NFL WR... I love me some Moose, but his biggest contribution last year was his blocking.

We expected Moore to be a good game manager and we expected to be able to run the ball, neither of those things happened. The loss of Otah and Vincent on the right side of our OL was more significant then anyone could have imagined.

[panthers55]

We won 4 out of 5 games last year with one legitimate NFL WR... I love me some Moose, but his biggest contribution last year was his blocking.

We expected Moore to be a good game manager and we expected to be able to run the ball, neither of those things happened. The loss of Otah and Vincent on the right side of our OL was more significant then anyone could have imagined.

It wasn't just the loss of Vincent and Otah but no one to take their place. We were starting guys in their place with less than a dozen starts between them. The problem was lack of depth and experience in event of injury which bites us in the butt just about every year on the offensive line. You would think we would learn.

[CatMan72]

It wasn't just the loss of Vincent and Otah but no one to take their place. We were starting guys in their place with less than a dozen starts between them. The problem was lack of depth and experience in event of injury which bites us in the butt just about every year on the offensive line. You would think we would learn.

Schwartz and Bernadeau filled in nicely at the end of last year, we assumed Bernadeau could play RG as well as he played LG... we were wrong.

[RockECU]

If you asking me what I thought it is clear from 6 months ago that I was one of the biggest critics of the youth movement and told anyone who wanted to listen that we would be lucky to win 4 or 5 games this year. And that was with Moore playing well.

And yeah hindsight is 20-20 but so was my foresight and most pundits and people in the know. All I did was read what folks were saying and evaluate the situation for myself. it really was a lot more transparent than most folks want to admit.

In panthers55 defense:

I predict we throw more and open up the passing game (barring further injury to Smith and at least 1 or 2 receivers stepping up).

I predict that our defense will suck early and gel into a top 10 defense the second half of the year.

I predict that at the bye we will no better than 2-3, Possibly 1-4. The get rid of Fox, bring on Clausen chants will get stronger and then fade away as Moore has a good season.

http://www.carolinahuddle.com/forum/carolina-panthers/39886-prediction-for-panthers.html

After looking at a lot of the predictions at the above thread and the below thread (I'm not going to sift through the game by game predictions)...

http://www.carolinahuddle.com/forum/carolina-panthers/39234-panthers-record-prediction-thread.html

I saw a lot of this word, and variations of it -----> OPTIMISM.

That is an easy word to hide behind, especially in hind sight. A lot of you need to get realistic. Even with that being said though, this team hasn't even been the least competitive. And I can't blame fans for being upset or wanting refunds/etc.. They bought tickets to what should be competitions, not practices.

Just for the record, had I posted and made a prediction it would have been no more than 4-12. I say this because I was asked by friends/other fans and that's what I told em. I thought those who expected at least 8-8 were out of their minds and did not see the writing on the wall a long time ago..

Anyway, special shout out goes to MurkN for what looks to be the correct prediction of 1-15!

[DaCityKats]

what grind my gears is some people on here were saying this team would not win 3 games this year. what i dont understand is the people who supposed to be EXPERTS at this sweared they were putting some good talent on the field and were a hot team. bullshit some fans are content with being ass- to average but some of us are really getting tired of it.

than the owner just comes out and says im sorry i knew were ass, but i saved a lot of money and maybe next year i might allow some spending to go on.all i have to say to him is stfu.

[Jbro]

what grind my gears .

[Jbro]

what grind my gears .

[Kakarot]

All I know is, we we're an 8-8 team last year that made no moves or major additions in the offseason. You cant expect to get better when you make no moves, so it was pretty easy for the realistic fan to see we we're going to be bad. Now, my problem with JR is he and the FO knew we we're going to be bad, just not this bad. To me, they we're content with 6-10 or 7-9, and that's unacceptable and pathetic. I dont want an owner who thinks like that.

Now people come in here and say, we expected Matt Moore to do this, we expected the running game to do this, blah blah, and that's cool. Even then, you have to prepare for what if it doesnt go down like that, injuries, etc, and we didnt prepare for that. We really didnt pick up any kind of depth, and again, thats unacceptable.

Oh and my view on his lil letter...when your a big part of the reason we're in this situation, yea you need to take some kind of responsibility. Duh..

[raleigh-panther]

It comes down to cleaning house to save money with dumping veteran contracts and not wanting to pay another coach while Fox is under contract, and oh yeah the CBA. Funny how other teams didn't feel the need to do the drastic things Richardson has done.

Fine.

All I can say, is for me, and many other PSL holders who have been forking out money to Richardson and the city of Charlotte (hotels, food, gas et al), is ole Jerry, what you do from January to April will go a long ways in determining what I'm going to do when I get that little invoice for $4.2K come April. .

Actions speak louder than words and the action this year was screw the PSL owners, the league comes first, doubt me, look at the symbol in the middle of the field.

My action will speak too. I love the team, have supported with $$s and time since 1995, but, enough is enough. Relationships take dual committment, and I just ain't feelin the love.

[jdogg66]

In an even more interesting note, apparently Fox didn't even know about the letter. Feel free to make a thread about this since I cant haha

http://android.usatoday.mlogic.mobi/sports/2249046/full/;jsessionid=1BAB69758D816BFDD82EA90C0A645490.wap2

[RockECU]

it comes down to cleaning house to save money with dumping veteran contracts and not wanting to pay another coach while fox is under contract, and oh yeah the cba. Funny how other teams didn't feel the need to do the drastic things richardson has done.

Fine.

All i can say, is for me, and many other psl holders who have been forking out money to richardson and the city of charlotte (hotels, food, gas et al), is ole jerry, what you do from january to april will go a long ways in determining what i'm going to do when i get that little invoice for $4.2k come april. .

Actions speak louder than words and the action this year was screw the psl owners, the league comes first, doubt me, look at the symbol in the middle of the field.

My action will speak too. I love the team, have supported with $$s and time since 1995, but, enough is enough. Relationships take dual committment, and i just ain't feelin the love.

this!!!!

[SCP]

Just got my letter out of the mailbox. I think Jerry's signature is a photocopy.

Now I'm really pissed off.