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Jordan Gross interview

CarolinaVeins

By CarolinaVeins,
in Carolina Panthers

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neverlosethefeeling Apprentice

neverlosethefeeling

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Recap from podcast:

Gross on media lockout: The organization has been through so much change in the last 6 months with drafting of Cam and other rookies, new coaching staff from top to bottom. Felt it was important to have a private setting where they could get back together, get to know eachother, spend some time together going over the new playbook, QBs taking snaps from center and throwing to WRs all without being scrutinized. Just trying to take care of guys who don't necessarily want to answer to media on day 1. Good thing though, everyone got out 100% healthy and there there no injuries. Gross feels like "mission accomplished."

On Newton during the workouts: Had Cam over to his house, and told Cam he had some preconceived notions about him, but Cam has won him over. QB position has been less than desirable in years past. Gross is a Matt Moore fan, though. Says "I thought Jimmy did OK last year." Knows Cam is in shape and he's doing tough work that a prima donna wouldn't want to do. But not just Cam, the whole team was out there doing that stuff. They were out on Lake Wylie on the boat and said Cam was fitting in with the O-line and having a good time.

More on privacy: Saints having open workouts is different than the Panthers because they haven't had the changes that the Panthers' organization has. Thought the Panthers needed time just to get Xs and Os figured out. Goal was "if everyone on offense can know the cadence, personnel, formation and 5 or 6 basic plays, then I'll be happy." But he says they blew by that. He was up at night studying the playbook so he could give guys new information the next day because they went so far beyond what they expected.

On Shockey: Gross never knew him, says everyone had spoken highly of him. Couldn't go week 1 because of a trip out of the country. But came to all the workouts this week, went white water rafting and Jordan said Shockey was "shaking his head" because the Panthers were doing more than he had done since College.

On things that impressed him: LB Corps. Been working out with TD since March, and he's back to his old form. Connor is doing every drill full speed. Beason speaks for himself. The team can hang their hat on the LBs. Pilares was also impressive. Blowing by everyone, hitting his routes, eager to learn. Sione Fua missed week 1 because of graduation, Gross says he looks solid, is very fit. Said the QB group worked "so well" together. Leading the offense, Jimmy helping Cam, Matt helping Jimmy, just being mature and professionals.

On Plaxico: Said he was happy to see big names come into Carolina when they signed Shockey. Guys that weren't the "typical" Carolina signing. Shockey told Gross he wants Plax in Carolina, and Gross says he'd love to have anyone here that can help improve the team. But mentions he would "never say never" on anything about Steve Smith, whether he's staying or going.

More ramblings: Lockout has proven him wrong a lot of times over the last couple months. Could be tomorrow, could be October when it is over. Just wants to have a normal season. If they get to training camp on time, he thinks they'll be fine. When they broke the huddle today, just told everyone to stay in shape and be ready. Said he had a bunch of former players out there including Moose, Buerlein, etc helping coach the drills.

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Ivan The Awesome Mentor

Ivan The Awesome

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Recap from podcast:

Gross on media lockout: The organization has been through so much change in the last 6 months with drafting of Cam and other rookies, new coaching staff from top to bottom. Felt important to have private setting where they could get back together, get to know eachother. Spend some time together going over the new playbook, QBs taking snaps from center and throwing to WRs all without being scrutinized. Just trying to take care of guys who don't necessarily want to answer to media on day 1. Good thing though, everyone got out 100% healthy and there there no injuries. Gross feels like "mission accomplished."

On Newton during the workouts: Had Cam over to his house, and told Cam he had some preconceived notions about him, but Cam has won him over. QB position has been less than desirable. Gross is a Matt Moore fan, though. Says "I thought Jimmy did OK last year." Knows Cam is in shape and he's doing tough work that a prima donna wouldn't want to do. But not just Cam, the whole team was out there doing that stuff. They were out on Lake Wylie on the boat and said Cam was fitting in with the O-line and having a good time.

More on privacy: Saints having open workouts is different than the Panthers because they haven't had the changes that the Panthers' organization has. Thought the Panthers needed time just to get Xs and Os figured out. Goal was "if everyone on offense can know the cadence, personnel, formation and 5 or 6 basic plays, then I'll be happy." But he says they blew by that. He was up at night studying the playbook so he could give guys new information the next day because they went so far beyond what they expected.

On Shockey: Gross never knew him, says everyone had spoken highly of him. Couldn't go week 1 because of a trip out of the country. But came to all the workouts this week, went white water rafting and Jordan said Shockey was "shaking his head" because the Panthers were doing more than he had done since College.

On things that impressed him: LB Corps. Been working out with TD since March, and he's back to his old form. Connor is doing every drill full speed. Beason speaks for himself. The team can hang their hat on the LBs. Pilares was also impressive. Blowing by everyone, hitting his routes, eager to learn. Sione Fua missed week 1 because of graduation, Gross says he looks solid, is very fit. Said the QB group worked "so well" together. Leading the offense, Jimmy helping Cam, Matt helping Jimmy, just being mature and professionals.

On Plaxico: Said he was happy to see big names come into Carolina when they signed Shockey. Guys that weren't the "typical" Carolina signing. Shockey told Gross he wants Plax in Carolina, and Gross says he'd love to have anyone here that can help improve the team. But mentions he would "never say never" on anything about Steve, whether he's staying or going.

More ramblings: Lockout has proven him wrong a lot of times over the last couple months. Could be tomorrow, could be October when it is over. Just wants to have a normal season. If they get to training camp on time, he thinks they'll be fine. When they broke the huddle today, just told everyone to stay in shape and be ready. Said he had a bunch of former players out there including Moose, Buerlein, etc helping coach the drills.

This makes me very excited for the future. I hope there is a full season. Thank you for the thorough recap. I sincerely appreciate it.

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bleys Newbie

bleys

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Gross continues the feeling of optimism coming out of various interviews and actions. Great to hear about Pilares and Fua, and obviously Cam.

definitely like what I'm hearing about Pilares.. if we can get our 4 youngsters to step up as solid draft picks, dangerous.

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prowler2k8 Newbie

prowler2k8

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definitely like what I'm hearing about Pilares.. if we can get our 4 youngsters to step up as solid draft picks, dangerous.

As excited as I am to hear about Cam, I'm just as excited to hear about Pilares, especially with Smith's future with the team in question. I think this guy has the potential to be a real weapon as a slot WR. I think we're going to be pleasantly suprised with Chud's offense.

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rayzor Grand Master

rayzor

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talks about why they locked out the media.

gross said mainly it was just to piss everyone off. seriously, it was to give the team a lot of quality time together working on stuff without having to worry about being scrutinized for every little thing that happened. mentioned how people would be onto every little thing like completion percentages for warm ups and how a minor thing like someone rolling an ankle a little would have been blown out of proportion (said luckily everyone got out of there injury free).

asked about newton (of course) gross said he had him over to his house last week and told newton that he had a lot of preconceived notions about him...basically that he thought newton would probably have a sense of arrogance having won a nat'l championship, the heisman, and getting picked #1 overall. said he wasn't sure about the pick itself although he liked it for the potential but he didn't know what kind of guy they were getting but said newton has won him over.

gross said that the QB position the last couple years hasn't been all that great. he's a matt moore fan (TRD rejoices that he isn't the only one) and said that jimmy did alright last year (:lol:) but he knows that there was/is a lot of room for improvement there but he;s hopeful that cam can be what they have needed at QB.

talked about how in shape newton was (seems like that is something that all the players have been talking about) and was really impressed by the obvious amount of work that he had put into doing that. said that he was out there doing every little thing that he was asked to do, esp. flipping tires and hitting them with sledgehammers and their kettleball workout...and he said it was the things that a primadonna diva wouldn't be doing. fwiw, he the mentioned that all of the guys on the team were out there doing the same things. the things he said was that newton wasn't really acting above everyone, which i guess he assumed would be the case. that he was doing everything you would want him to do as a player. saying and doing all the right things and he was really stressing that it was a natural work ethic and attitude, nothing forced onto or coached into him. gross said that he had him out on lake wylie skiing and that he was doing a lot of stuff with the guys on the oline and having a lot of fun with them (smart move). newton's really working to fit in instead of stand out.

got back to talking about privacy in the workouts....they accomplished what they wanted to. said that people kept mentioning how other teams had things more opened, but he said that those teams didn't have as much to accomplish as this team with a new playbook on offense and defense. trying to get things down with the rhythm of it as well as getting to know each other. gross had set several goals that he wanted to accomplish, such as a handful of plays but ended up getting a lot more of the playbook done and implemented than he thought they would. everyone was very willing to learn and work hard and soaked it all up.

talked about shockey being there and worked all week and shockey said that the work they were putting in was more than he has had to do since playing in college. said that shockey was really working to fit in as well.

gross was asked who really stood out (other than newton and shockey) and said that the LB corps looked great. that TD and connor have really come back to full speed. the rookie he liked was pilares. really impressed by him and what he did there. running by everyone in sprints and asking lots of questions, running his routes and really eager to learn. also talked about fua being really impressive.

talked about how well the QBs work together and really helping each other out. really mature and professional.

asked about bringing plax in, esp. since shockey has played with him before and it appears that smith won't. said one thing that impressed him about this year was the interest in bringing big name guys in like shockey, in his words, not the typical panthers signing. said that shockey wants plax here and a bunch of other guys are talking about it as well. gross said he wants anyone here who can make their offense better. he doesn't know one way or the other what smith is going to do, but if they are interested in plax and he is saying and doing all the right things then bring him on.

asked about the lock out and said the only thing he has learned is that he doesn't know enough about what is going on to say anything. key is for everyone to be ready for when things start back up. parting words for everyone was to keep in shape. if the lockout is still going on when they usually get back together, then they will probably plan on doing something like this again.

said thanks to charlotte christian for helping with everything and taking the heat for the media being locked out.

he also talked about how they had a bunch of former panthers come out and help with drills, guys like moose, beuerlein, wesley walls, natrone means, michael dean perry, and kevin donnelly. said it was really cool to have all those guys together at the same time.

weezie closed out and said he's talked to a lot of people, including coaches, who said they were really impressed with what gross did putting this thing together.

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