An optimists point of view..

[CatMan72]

In my mind, here are some good reasons why us Panthers fans should feel very optimistic about the coming season...

- Yes, the playoff loss was crushing and ended an otherwise great season on a very sour note, but I don't care who you are playing... if you turn the ball over 6 times you are going to lose. Jake played horribly in that game, but had a good season leading up to that and historically has a very high passer rating in the playoffs, so this one poor performance was an anomaly and I don't expect to see it happen again anytime soon.

- We have 21 of 22 starters returning from a 12-4 team. The one starter that is not returning was considered by many to be more of a liability than an asset.

- DeAngelo Williams is an emerging superstar, and there is no reason to think he won't continue his ascent to being an elite RB. When you are doing things that get your name mentioned in the same sentence as Jim Brown, it's more than a fluke.

- I believe Ron Meeks will breath new life into our defense. He made things work reasonably well in Indy with very uneven talent. We certainly have more overall talent on defense then Indy did, so I think the sky is the limit. I also believe that Meeks will be able to bond with Peppers, and develop Charles Johnson who has allot of physical similarities to both Freeney and Mathis in Indy.

- Speaking of Charles Johnson, he had 6 sacks coming off the bench... I think we have only scratched the surface of his potential. As mentioned above, if anyone can show a slightly undersized DE how to be successful, it's Ron Meeks.

I'm sure I could keep going on and on... but I'll leave some room for other folks to mention things they think we should feel good about this coming year...

[dksmith17]

Who is worried? And for those that our eliminating our season because of the hard schedule- Pitt had the #1 hardest going in last year and won the SB.

[dpanthersman]

i agree. even with a tough schedule i thnk were gonna be a pretty good team. plus if we get through that schedule with a pretty good record i thnk everyone will be more confident going into the playoffs since we have already proven we can beat so many good teams. as far as meeks goes, the only concern i have is the run defense. but im hoping since we seem to have guys that are a little bigger and more talented than indy did well be okay

[Section 505]

. . . .

(waits for lone buc fan to spew 'homer', 'biased' 'blah, blah, blah')

[CatMan72]

One more point I wanted to make....

- We do have a 1st round draft pick this year, his name is Jeff Otah and we already know he can play at this level. I don't see any tackle in this draft I would have taken instead of him.

[CatMan72]

. . . .

(waits for lone buc fan to spew 'homer', 'biased' 'blah, blah, blah')

LOL, you're damn right I'm biased - that's why I'm on a fansite... I don't visit bucs fansites and I'm not really sure why a bucs fan feels compelled to visit here other than to troll?

[CatMan72]

i agree. even with a tough schedule i thnk were gonna be a pretty good team. plus if we get through that schedule with a pretty good record i thnk everyone will be more confident going into the playoffs since we have already proven we can beat so many good teams. as far as meeks goes, the only concern i have is the run defense. but im hoping since we seem to have guys that are a little bigger and more talented than indy did well be okay

Great point, Steelers had the toughest schedule last year and all they did was win the SB.... I also think it's foolish to try and judge how tough a schedule will be before the season, there is so much flux in this league that you never really know who is going to be good.

[PanthaSan]

You forgot about Stewart. He is gonna do great things for us. I think we won't see his full possibilities for anther season or so but then, watch out.

[CatMan72]

Yup, Stewart has flashed some greatness... we've got a nice two-headed monster developing in the backfield.

[CatMan72]

Oh, and I also wanted to mention Rip Scherer<sp> our new QB coach. I think he's going to be a positive influence on Jake. Not to say McCoy was good or bad, but I think that even a good coach/player relationship can get stale and at a certain point even a good coach has taught you everything he can... Scherer looks at Jake with a fresh set of eyes and may be able to pick up on and improve things McCoy couldn't.

[mr beauxjangles]

catman - very well stated. nice post.

[CatMan72]

catman - very well stated. nice post.

Hey, thanks! I just felt like people were looking at our glass as half empty, especially heading into the draft when in reality I think we're setup pretty good.

[Lone Buc Fan]

Yup and don't forget about the "we almost did it" season coming, even if you do make the playoffs. Thank Jake Delhomme for that one.

[Jangler]