Mini Camp Articles (Blogs/Columns)

[carpanfan96]

Couple from Reed.

CHARLOTTE – The NFL regular season is still more than four months away, so it's no wonder nobody who works at Bank of America Stadium seems all that concerned over the absence of Julius Peppers from mandatory minicamp practice on Friday.

Not his coaches. Not his teammates.

Coach John Fox reiterated what general manager Marty Hurney has said in the past -- that he expects Peppers, the team's franchise player, to be in Spartanburg, S.C. for the start of training camp July 31.

“That’s kind of what I expect. That’s typically when our season starts,” Fox said.

Of course, a lot could happen in the meantime, including a trade.

As for Peppers, it’s hard to know exactly what he’s thinking since he and his agent Carl Carey have gone underground since the team slapped the franchise tag on him against his wishes.

Peppers’ teammates have no ill will against him, even though he’s said publicly he doesn’t want to play for the Panthers anymore.

“We’re good friends and I want the best for him,” linebacker Jon Beason said. “If he wants to be somewhere else then he will have my blessing. Obviously I want him here. But I definitely have love and respect for Pep first.”

Defensive tackle Damione Lewis has been through this once before in St. Louis when offensive tackle Orlando Pace staged a holdout after getting slapped with the tag.

The difference there, however, was Pace wanted more money, not necessarily to leave the Rams.

Regardless, Lewis feels it’s all just business.

“It’s a normal deal (in this league),” Lewis said. “It doesn’t make Julius a bad person… He hasn’t signed his tender. When he signs it he will be here.”

Although he hasn’t spoke with Peppers in more than a month, Lewis firmly believes Peppers will play for Carolina this season.

And he said teammates will gladly welcome him back.

“We’re going to take him and then it’s, ‘C’mon, let’s go.’ He’s the leader of this defense. From a players’ perspective there is nobody in the league who does it better, so we want him here,” Lewis said.

But what happens if Peppers doesn’t show for training camp and stages a holdout? How will Carolina’s defense be without its longest-tenured defensive starter?

“Young,” replied Beason. “That is the best word to describe how we’d be. We all know what Charles Johnson can do coming off the bench. He’s a very productive player. As a starter, we don’t know. And then we have (second-round pick) Everette Brown, a very talented guy coming in and Hilee Taylor will have a year under his belt too. I think we have a talented group, but obviously with Pep you’re better.”

Life without Peppers is not a scenario the Panthers are seriously considering -- at least not yet.

The assumption here, from coaches and teammates, is Peppers will be at training camp -- if not for all practices, then at least some.

And if he does return, it’s expected he’ll be just as productive as last season when he registered 14.5 sacks, 63 tackles and five forced fumbles while earning his fourth trip to the Pro Bowl.

“He’s going to lock it in,” Lewis said. “I guarantee he’s somewhere working right now so when he gets here he’ll be in shape. So when he comes here he will be ready to go. At the end of the day it’s about him making plays on Sunday and us feeding off him. So that’s what we’re ready to do.”

Providing, of course, he shows up.

Link

CHARLOTTE – John Fox doesn’t believe the Carolina Panthers defense will change all that much under new coordinator Ron Meeks, but thinks his mere presence will be a big boost.

Meeks replaced Mike Trgovac, who left the team this off-season to become the new defensive line coach for the Green Bay Packers. The Panthers gave up 29.5 points and more than 389 yards per game over the final seven weeks of the season.

Along with defensive coordinator, the Panthers changed coaches at defensive line, linebacker and in the secondary this past off-season.

“Sometimes change is good,” Fox said. “I think Ron Meeks is a proven coach in this league and a very fine coach. We have some new additions on the defensive side of the ball and there are some changes and tweaks, but our guys are a very energetic bunch anyway, so I think they’ve been very receptive.”

As a whole, however, what the Panthers do this year won’t change all that much from what they did last year scheme-wise.

“In this league there aren’t too many new things,” Fox said. “It’s all pretty much the same, really. I think if anything we started from square one and we’re doing some basic things in this minicamp and putting the emphasis back on fundamentals, which is what you do every year. Other than somebody that looks different up there presenting it, it’s still football in the National Football League.”

Fox downplayed the significance of Meeks running the Tampa 2 defense more than other teams.

“We’ve run it for seven years,” Fox said. “I think all 32 teams run that defense. It’s not a new defense. It’s not conducive to one or two teams. I think everybody in the National Football League runs that defense.”

Link

[AKPantherFan]

foxspeak at its best

[hdevonxz]

how the hell did deangelo and stewart get injured during the offseason?

they tore their ACLs dancing in a Rave.

[beastson]

John Fox doesn’t believe the Carolina Panthers defense will change all that much under new coordinator Ron Meeks

*sighs* Here will go ALREADY

[rayzor]

John Fox doesn’t believe the Carolina Panthers defense will change all that much under new coordinator Ron Meeks

*sighs* Here will go ALREADY

what fox has been saying is that it is all NFL defense and there really isn't that much difference between them.

players have been showing that there is a lot of changes, though. there is talk about another scheme, new playbook, new mentality....lots of changes.

i'm learned that fox talks to people in broad general terms and doesn't bother with details. i'm at peace with knowing that fox will never let you know what it is when he says it is what it is.

[Fireball77]

Dovetails a bit with what Mr Scot posted as far as observations.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/panthers/story/700247.html

“It's been a while since we've done some different things,” Delhomme said. “The older you get, the more important it is to hone … fundamentals. Things can slip. So I'm excited about this.”

The coach he always raves about having an impact on him is Mike McCarthy who was on him all the time like white on rice. He likes that. Maybe all you guys were right about McCoy.

[scpanther22]

post from gantt

Caught up with new defensive coordinator Ron Meeks for the first time since his hiring in January. We'll have more on him in tomorrow's Herald, but a few things became clear.

One, he doesn't feel a particular loyalty to the "Tampa 2" scheme he's been running in Indianapolis, to the extent that he'd beat square pegs into round holes here. He talked a lot about the "skill set" of his new personnel, and how to maximize it.

Rest assured, there will be principles of the defense in play here, but it won't be a pure version of that system. It's still going to have a nose tackle with size (which the Panthers have and the Colts never did), but many of the particulars are close to what they've been doing.

-- CB Chris Gamble (hamstring) and DE Charles Johnson (excused) were out Saturday morning, joining the group that included RBs DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart and LBs Jon Beason, Na'il Diggs and SS Chris Harris.

-- RB Mike Goodson (illness) was back to work after skipping the afternoon yesterday.

-- To make up for some numbers at RB, they signed Markus Manson, an undrafted rookie from Valdosta State.

We'll have some more notes on the depth charts later this afternoon.

[dpanthersman]

i really like the comment about making the most of the "skill set" of the personal

[monstercat]

I'm liking Ron Meeks more and more. If nothing else, it seems as though he will change the attitude of this defense.

[rayzor]

i really like the comment about making the most of the "skill set" of the personal

think of that statement that he made and peppers criticism of the situation here. coincidence?

[monstercat]

The Ron Meeks interview is up on Panthers.com.

[Kurb]

http://www.heraldonline.com/665?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3aded44479-eff0-4fb5-98bf-9edb9d130913Post%3aa66c318a-7fb6-4b4d-b833-0864f1450ef4&sid=pluck.heraldonline.com

afternoon update

[carpanfan96]

Interesting I wonder how Taylor looked going against Gross.

[JakeFlake]

Sunday wrapup from Gantt

In other TE news, it might not be any fault of his own, but his ill-time back problem could render Dante Rosario a forgotten man. He's having surgery tomorrow (instead of, I don't know, January maybe), and he's supposed to be fine for training camp. We'll see.

He's a bit of a one-trick pony, and the addition of FB Tony Fiammetta could make him obsolete, especially if they like Kevin Brock or some other TE who's not here yet.

-- Line coaches on both sides of the ball are generally loud, but with new DL coach Brian Baker, it's a different, maybe more hard-boiled loud. That's no offense to former assistant Sal Sunseri, who said things I had to go look up before I realized I couldn't print them.

Baker's on his group hard, very demanding. It's a young group, so they need it, too.

http://www.heraldonline.com/665?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3aded44479-eff0-4fb5-98bf-9edb9d130913Post%3ac4eb14ed-2478-442b-a367-ce5587b420b1&sid=pluck.heraldonline.com