Rosario is a more efficient pass blocker than King...

[CatMan72]

Hey look - it's D.J. Hackett!

That may have been the closest he ever came to the ball while he was here?

[I am Hubby]

Iamhubby, you do understand that in one post you say "how can you judge Rosario based on the coaching staff he had to work with," then in the next breath say "hopefully we will not see any Clausen this year."

I hope to not see much of Clausen either, but not really fair to cast him away after only one year with the incompetent coaching staff as you say, then give Rosario another chance after he has had 4 years under the same coaching staff. Not trying to argue, but my point is average players don't normally become great just because they have a new coaching staff. Chud didn't go after Shockey because he was convinced we had the talent at TE.

Those comments were two different posts. One post we were discussing Rosario, and I mentioned that I thought the coaching staff is responsible for his under development. The other post was about Clausen and how I feel he plays scared. I am not sure any coaching staff could, or can, fix that. Two different posts about two different situations.

I believe Rosario has talent and has been under utilized. For that I blame the coaching staff. They very well could have made him an option, but they never utilized his talent. We do not know if Dante is average or not, because he has never been given a chance.

Whereas with Clausen, I do not believe there is anything, or anyone, who can fix him. Are we supposed to dumby down the play book to make him comfortable? I am sure opposing teams would love that. He could not move the offense, nor did he throw a TD. Sure most rookie QBs look bad, but Clausen set a new standard. I am not sure any coaching staff could have made him look better. I do not blame the coaches for how Clausen looked, I blame the coaching staff for drafting Clausen to begin with.

Rosario has shown glimpses of what he can be. Clausen has shown nothing. Rosario has shown he deserves a chance. Clausen has shown he deserves to be #3 or worse.

I hope that clarifies things for you. And GOOO PANTHERS!!!!!!!!

[d-run]

Rosario will more than likely be a FA, dependent on the outcome of the CBA. Hopefully he has impressed Hurney (and Rivera on tape) enough that he can get a new contract. He has to do that before he can try and beat anyone out for a roster spot.

[jayflip]

If King is gone, I don't know how I can handle watching PANTHER games without seeing the goofy white dude with those goofy ass long sleeve white shirts. Oh King, thanks for all you've done, but it's time for a real threat at TE to emerge.

[jtm]

Those comments were two different posts. One post we were discussing Rosario, and I mentioned that I thought the coaching staff is responsible for his under development. The other post was about Clausen and how I feel he plays scared. I am not sure any coaching staff could, or can, fix that. Two different posts about two different situations.

I believe Rosario has talent and has been under utilized. For that I blame the coaching staff. They very well could have made him an option, but they never utilized his talent. We do not know if Dante is average or not, because he has never been given a chance.

Whereas with Clausen, I do not believe there is anything, or anyone, who can fix him. Are we supposed to dumby down the play book to make him comfortable? I am sure opposing teams would love that. He could not move the offense, nor did he throw a TD. Sure most rookie QBs look bad, but Clausen set a new standard. I am not sure any coaching staff could have made him look better. I do not blame the coaches for how Clausen looked, I blame the coaching staff for drafting Clausen to begin with.

Rosario has shown glimpses of what he can be. Clausen has shown nothing. Rosario has shown he deserves a chance. Clausen has shown he deserves to be #3 or worse.

I hope that clarifies things for you. And GOOO PANTHERS!!!!!!!!

I see where you are coming from, but I just don't see it with Rosario. If I had a dime for every time Jake Delhomme or John Fox threw their hands up in the air because Rosario ran the wrong route or dropped a pass, I could get free coffee for a year.

I think Rosario has incredible athleticism, but he is a constant tease as another poster put it. I also disagree that he has been underutilized, he has been benched because Jeff King is a better tight end. Jeff King wouldn't be a starter on any other team in the NFL and Rosario can't beat him out. When you run wrong routes and drop passes you don't get many opportunities. This isn't because they haven't tried to use him - instead they have and he squandered those opportunities.

It is sad to say but Rosario is a back-up on a team that doesn't have very good tight ends. At this point with Shockey, he is probably 3rd on the depth chart. It wouldn't surprise me to see him launched after the CBA.

[rmoneyg35]

Maybe, but it's always seemed odd to me that Rosario has been our 2nd and 3rd string fullback at times but he's not a better run blocker than King?

Isn't athleticism a big part of run blocking?

I have a feeling that Rosario was in Fox's doghouse and as we've seen with other players once you got in Fox's doghouse it was almost impossible to work your way out. Couple that with the fact that King is a very smart player and a good leader and King's starting role may have had as much or more to do with his intangibles than with him being the best TE on the roster.

Rosario is a vet and has a clean slate now, I'm hoping he takes advantage of the opportunity, I think he has a MUCH higher ceiling than King or Barnidge.

I was thinking this as well. You brought up a very good point, I think we will have a lot of players breakout this year with a new coach. Fox has always left talent on the bench over experience. Look at Deangelo Williams and James Anderson both are talented players but they spent years either being buried in the depth chart or being a sub.

Rosario is one player who I thought was going to have a big year in 2008 when he caught the game winning TD with 2 seconds left against San Diego but he never broke out. I blame Fox because he never used Rosario properly, I would like to see us use him like Chris Cooley is used for the Redskins.

Now with a offensive coordinator that was once a great TE coach, Rosario will have a better opportunity of having a career year. I could also see Barnidge getting some much needed playing time and hopefully will continue to develop into a starting tight end. With the signing of Shockey our team is deep at TE. I don't know if we will re-sign King but if we do we will have 4 tight ends that are different from one another. The only problem is that Rosario might not have much of a breakout year statistically because Shockey will more than likely be the #1 and if King is resigned,Rosario could end up being the #3 TE.

[SorthNarolina]

i think the op is really more reflective of the offense and not the individual players. I don't Rosario can do King's job as well as King. It doesn't make King a better player or even a more valuable player, but I can't see how he's a better blocker.

[Snake]

I don't know....don't sleep on Gary in the recieving department. I think he has just as much potential as Rosario Dawson in that department. A lot of unknowns about our TEs since Fox simply refers someone with Kings skills set being involved.

Im not sure what to think of him. He is def not a blocker and wiffs on too many ST blocks for sure. Where he is a pass catcher he is very stiff running as well.

[Snake]

Hey look - it's D.J. Hackett!

LOL the guy who was supposed to be this big sleeper for the seahawks and turned out to just be asleep on most plays.

[jtm]

I was thinking this as well. You brought up a very good point, I think we will have a lot of players breakout this year with a new coach. Fox has always left talent on the bench over experience. Look at Deangelo Williams and James Anderson both are talented players but they spent years either being buried in the depth chart or being a sub.

Do people really think that Fox held grudges and didn't put the team on the field that gave us the best chance to win? DW was buried in the depth chart at that point because he was following one of the best players in Panthers history and hadn't (at that time) proven that he was anymore than a change of pace back.

Try and think back (honestly) how you felt when the Panthers were going into the year without Stephen Davis (prior to drafting Stewart) with DW as the starter. Many people like myself were happily proven wrong :)

[I am Hubby]

In a perfect world for Foxy, rookies would never see the field. The one thing that Foxy hated above all else was mistakes. Young players make mistakes, which is why Foxy loved his vets.

When you play Foxy style football, conservative and close to the vest, mistakes can kill you. So Foxy would only play players he thought he could count on. Players who would be in the right place at the right time. So it was frustrating when players we thought were more talented, got very little playing time.

Just a fact of life with Foxy. Did not make him a bad coach, just a frustrating coach.

At least that is how I see this.

[jtm]

In a perfect world for Foxy, rookies would never see the field. The one thing that Foxy hated above all else was mistakes. Young players make mistakes, which is why Foxy loved his vets.

When you play Foxy style football, conservative and close to the vest, mistakes can kill you. So Foxy would only play players he thought he could count on. Players who would be in the right place at the right time. So it was frustrating when players we thought were more talented, got very little playing time.

Just a fact of life with Foxy. Did not make him a bad coach, just a frustrating coach.

At least that is how I see this.

I agree that Foxy was a very frustrating coach, but I guess we can agree to disagree on Rosario. You feel he wasn't given chances and I feel he was and didn't capitalize.

I think a lot of people are expecting us to start airing the ball out this year. Our offense will be greatly improved (in my opinion) because of Chud and not having a bunch of lame duck coaches. But, we will still be a run first possession type of offense. I just think when we throw the ball we will not be committed to the same types of formations and plays. I expect Chud to run a lot of different WR sets so we are not too predictable when we throw. Tough to trick defenses when you run the same 3 WR sets every time. A lot of people don't realize it, but the Falcons have a run first offense.

With Cam, DW, and Stewy in the backfield, LBs are going to be forced to make some difficult match-up decisions. There will be a lot of D coordinators that have sleepless nights in the years to come. :p

[CatMan72]

If King is gone, I don't know how I can handle watching PANTHER games without seeing the goofy white dude with those goofy ass long sleeve white shirts. Oh King, thanks for all you've done, but it's time for a real threat at TE to emerge.

Yeah, I've wonder what is up with the sleeves... even on hot sunny days the guy is wearing long white sleeves?

Maybe he figures he can take that long sleeve shirt off and tie it around his waste if he craps himself again?

[PhillyB]

rosario has some mental problems to work out but he's one of the most clutch players on the team. this is an indisputable fact.