Who Would You Rather Have? A Prime Stephen Davis or DWILL.

[Guest RT81]

as much as I respect #48 and what he meant to us in our superbowl run I gotta go with Dwill he the real deal and I can't wait to see him run wild again this year.

[X-Clown]

Deangelo since he has the higher breakaway speed.

[CRA]

after this year we could be saying a healthy Stewart also? He was pretty impressive as a banged up rookie even w/ Williams getting more carries. Davis imo has already moved to the #2 spot as far as alltime RBs in Carolina go. Williams in 1 season has claimed it for now.

[mountainpantherfan]

Davis.

I love Williams and think he will end up being known as the greatest back in Panthers history. I also agree with X-Clown that Williams has a lot more break away speed. However, the one thing I remember during the 2003 season was how every time Davis got the ball he gained at least 3+ yards. Davis reminded me of Emmit Smith in how he just plowed forward on every carry. For me, both Williams and Stewart get caught behind the LOS too many times.

I think another thing to consider is that we really only got one season out of Davis. What could his Panther career looked like if 2003 was only his third NFL season?

Understand that I'm not degrading Williams or Stewart. Davis was just a different type of runner that you don't see that much now and I think that Double Trouble's highlight reel runs makes many fan forget the amazing smash mouth runs Davis had.

All in all, its nice to have had all three of these guys.

[Guest RT81]

Davis.

I love Williams and think he will end up being known as the greatest back in Panthers history. I also agree with X-Clown that Williams has a lot more break away speed. However, the one thing I remember during the 2003 season was how every time Davis got the ball he gained at least 3+ yards. Davis reminded me of Emmit Smith in how he just plowed forward on every carry. For me, both Williams and Stewart get caught behind the LOS too many times.

I think another thing to consider is that we really only got one season out of Davis. What could his Panther career looked like if 2003 was only his third NFL season?

Understand that I'm not degrading Williams or Stewart. Davis was just a different type of runner that you don't see that much now and I think that Double Trouble's highlight reel runs makes many fan forget the amazing smash mouth runs Davis had.

All in all, its nice to have had all three of these guys.

Good post mountain.I know one thing I wish we never had IR Davis in 05.He might of made the diffrent in us getting back to the Superbowl had we got to play him in the seattle game but who knows now.

[JungleCat]

A tough question to answer. If Williams and Stewart can continue to put up numbers as they did last season, I think they can be two of the best ever in the NFL, not just the Panthers. Davis was a punishing runner; if not for his injuries, who knows?

[Bostonheelfish]

Davis. Without a doubt. He was incredibly fast for his size, and knew how to be a running back. He was unstoppable at Washington.

[OneBadassCat]

Good post mountain.I know one thing I wish we never had IR Davis in 05.He might of made the diffrent in us getting back to the Superbowl had we got to play him in the seattle game but who knows now.

I doubt it. He was too removed from his prime even in 05. He was put on IR because he hurt his knee.

Davis was a great running back, he could probably fit into any offensive system but I'd take Williams. We've just scratched the surface of what he could do and even though he's already 26, I think his football age is more 24/25 range seeing as he hasn't had that much playing time. Even as a starter he only got 293 carries or so and he was still the best in the league.

Stewart reminds me alot of Davis, just much faster.

[panthers55]

I agree that Davis was a great back for us and had a tremendous year in 2003. His best year ever was for Washington in 1999 when he ran for 1409 yards on 290 carries with a 4.8 average and 17 Tds.

So if we compare that to Williams in 2008, Williams has the edge. Plus DeAngelo is a little better out of the backfield as a receiver and where Davis ran people over all the time, Williams can run around them and at times over them.

If you look at Williams in 2008 he really didn't get negative yards very many times. If you asked me in 2007 or 2006 I would have given you a different answer.

I am not going to annoint Williams better yet unless he duplicates what he did last year. But if you look at the numbers De Angelo was every bit as dominant as Davis was in 2003 and still has plenty of upside.

[mantal]

As much as I love Williams and Stewart, I'm gonna go Davis. Not only did he punish the defense, he didn't do it in breakaway runs that allowed our defense to get rested before they had to go back out. It's an important distinction...

[hdevonxz]

As much as I love Williams and Stewart, I'm gonna go Davis. Not only did he punish the defense, he didn't do it in breakaway runs that allowed our defense to get rested before they had to go back out. It's an important distinction...

lol I don't think anyone on the defense was saying:

"Oh damn it Dwill, did you really have to score so fast?"

[Fireball77]

So if we compare that to Williams in 2008, Williams has the edge. Plus DeAngelo is a little better out of the backfield as a receiver and where Davis ran people over all the time, Williams can run around them and at times over them.

I love me some Big Country, but I was going to make the same point about the hands/ability in space.

[bigdog_10_2002]

great points from all.

I'm going to go with Deangelo.

While I agree with what Mintal has to say, I think Williams also brings that punishing style that Davis has. Maybe not to the extent Davis did it but he does punish a defense as times. He is also very shifty which is IMO another factor in wearing down a defense.

[mantal]

lol I don't think anyone on the defense was saying:

"Oh damn it Dwill, did you really have to score so fast?"

I don't think so either, but over a period of the game, it makes a difference that they don't have time to rest up between repetitions. This has been discussed and the general consensus was that scoring rapidly and not giving the defense time to rest is not really a good thing in the long run, sure, it's exciting for the fans, but since defense wins championships, well there you go...

That said, I love me some Williams and Stewart.