SB Nation User Blog: r3

Top 6 Players the Panthers Cannot Afford To Lose In 2009

r3 — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:23:57 -0000

MichaelP made a couple of astute comments (as he always does) that the Panthers' disappointing seasons that followed playoff appearances (the sad sack '04 and '06 seasons) were more the result of major injuries, and less about "hype" and "expectations" and all the attendant hoopla. Specifically, he noted:

Losing Steve Smith and Kris Jenkins along with being down to our 5th-string RB in ’04.

...

Losing Delhomme for the last three games of ’06, when we went 1-2 and came up one game short of the playoffs. Or losing Morgan, Wharton, and Hartwig within the first two weeks of the season?

I might add Mike Rucker's end-of-season ACL tear in '06. Not that I'm piling on. Just sayin', is all.

Sure, we sucked mightily those two years due to big-time injuries at critical positions. So let's spit in the eye of Fate and see who we could lose this year that would produce the same level of horrid results, countdown list style: Top 6 Players For The Love Of God We Had Better Not Lose!

6- Jon Beason - Losing the heart of our defense wouldn't be quite as bad as losing Morgan was in... well, all those (many, many) seasons when he got hurt. We've got Dan Conner as a more-than-capable (we hope) backup, which should otherwise allow the rest of the defense to keep rockin'. When Morgan went down, we had to move Witherspoon inside where he wasn't as effective and our weakside play was severely diminished. While Conner wouldn't be the Pro Bowl/All-Pro type player that Beason is, the hope is that he would at least allow the other LBs to remain focused on their positions.

5- Travelle Wharton - This is counter-intuitive, since we've got guys who can step in to fill the LG role. But Wharton's real value comes in his ability to step into the LT position in a time of need. If Gross is out for a series or two, or a game or two, Wharton moves over and the drop-off is not epic in scale. If Otah goes down for any serious length of time, then Gross can move to the RT, Wharton slides to LT and we plug in a guard. All of our contingency plans revolve around Wharton's ability to slide out to Tackle. If he's out there, it means we're not going to be as effective as we could be. But if he's not there, we're really screwed (See: Abraham v. Delhomme, 2007).

4- Chris Gamble - Big, big problems. Last season, Carolina was 8th best in the league at shutting down a QB's #1 receiver. We were 18th and 17th at shutting down their #2 and #3, respectively. That's the sort of drop off between Chris Gamble matched up on their top guy versus Richard Marshall against their third guy. We lose Gamble, then we're likely looking at CJ Wilson starting opposite Marshall, with Sherron Martin at nickel. That, my friends, is not a good position for us to be in.

3- Ma'ake Kemoeatu - As bad as it would be to lose our best pass defender, it would be one thousand times worse to lose our best run defender. You think we have trouble getting off the field on third downs now? Try it when the other team's looking at 3rd and 1 fifteen times per game, and our biggest D Tackle is an undrafted guy from the practice squad we signed off the Montreal Alouettes roster. If we don't have Ma'ake, we don't stop the run. Ever. Imagine the pain you felt in overtime of the Giants game last year, watching Derrick Ward go crazy, except that's happening in the second, third and fourth quarters.

2- Steve Smith - Armageddon? I don't think so. Not having Smitty costs us two or three games and knee-caps our passing attack, but it's not the end of the world. Remember the last time he went down, 2004? Moose had his best season, made it to the Pro Bowl and was named first team All-Pro (then signed with Chicago, and... nevermind, too painful). Wouldn't quite happen the same way, but the offense could adjust. We just lose the big play is all, and there are places where that'll cost us. Conversely, with him gone, Jake's not forcing the ball into places it doesn't belong (see: Nnamdi Asomugha v. Delhomme, Oakland '08).

1- Jake Delhomme - Yes, this really is Armageddon. Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! The Panthers cannot operate without competent and capable leadership at the quarterback position. We have seen no proof that we have anything of substance behind Jake (and whether Jake himself is a thing of substance... well, that's your call). We suffer at least five more losses without Jake. Seriously, if Jake goes down, we may very well be looking at new team management next season.

Any other vital players you think deserve to be on the list? Any on the list that shouldn't be? Obviously, if we go through halfbacks like we did in '04 or the '05 playoffs, we're screwed no matter how you shake it up.

Interested in Sports Illustrated photography?

r3 — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:08:10 -0000

Interested in Sports Illustrated photography?

This really is Panthers-related.

MP posted a link to an SI article from the Super Bowl about Jake sticking around to watch the Pats celebrate.

Reminded me of another great SI-related article from the Panthers' Super Bowl appearance, this one about the photography workflow that Sports Illustrated goes through for an event like this. Since it's obviously 5 years old, all of the technical details (what computers, what software) are all out-dated. But the process is still basically the same, and the article's just fascinating.

It is for me, anyway. But I'm a photographer. So I'm reading through the Photoshop stuff going "Oh, really?" And it's interesting as a time capsule piece about the industry conversion from film to digital, which magazines were the last to embrace.

But I think anybody can really enjoy quotes like this: "I've never seen so many guys say so many good things about their own take, and there's nothing but shit on the screen."

Trgovac's Kids Not Well Liked?

r3 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:46:11 -0000

Trgovac's Kids Not Well Liked?

He's not here anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't still talk about Trgo.

I stumbled onto the Wikipedia revision page for former defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac. Someone (maybe Trgovac himself) had added under the Coaching section: Trgovac also has a family. A wife Angela and two children. Jordan, a girl and Michael, a boy. These children are the best in the world.

Someone came through and wiped that last sentence with the following explanation: Deleted the crap about how his children are "best in the world". I've met them, and they are bastards.

I got nothing to add to that. That's just funny.

Falcons Cut Moorehead

r3 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:53:37 -0000

Falcons Cut Moorehead

Kindal Moorehead was released today by the Falcons. After five seasons with Carolina, Moorehead left via free agency and signed with the Falcons last season. One and done. His best season was with the Panthers in their 2005 playoff run, when he amassed 23 tackles and 5 sacks in a reserve roll.

Hopefully he makes it onto a roster for camp. We'll see where he goes from here.

Pro Bowl Watch: Panthers Earning Respect?

r3 — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 02:19:15 -0000

NFL.com released a list of Pro Bowl ballots by their writers, and there are a surprising (to me, anyway) number of Panthers making appearances.

Here's the full list.

Of the five ballots cast by their writers, I'll list each Panther who makes an appearance, and the number of ballots on which they appear:

DeAngelo Williams (1)
Brad Hoover (1)
Steve Smith (2)
Jordan Gross (3)
Travelle Wharton (1)
Ryan Kalil (1)
Julius Peppers (4)
Jon Beason (2)
Ken Lucas (1)
Chris Gamble (1)
Richard Marshall (1)

Winning sure does put peoples eyes on you, even if you're not on national broadcasts.

The biggest misses by the writers, from a Panther perspective, are at RB, WR, ILB and K.

Only one mention of DeAngelo, with Portis and Jacobs splitting the rest. AP and The Burner are locks. We've already had a whole post on this, so I won't belabor the point.

But to only have two votes for Smitty is silly. Sure, there's tough competition there, with the Arizona pair, Roddy White, Greg Jennings and Calvin Johnson all vying for four spots. I think Roddy White's presence is mandatory, but everyone's putting both Arizona receivers in, which I think is ridiculous. I don't have a single thing bad to say about either receiver, but look at the system they're in and tell me that they're more deserving than Calvin Johnson and Steve Smith, guys who are the only arial threats their teams have.

Jon Beason, based on his rookie year and this year should be a lock for one of the two ILB spots, but he's only on two ballots. Yes, both Barrett Rudd and London Fletcher had good seasons. But can't we all agree now that these two roster spots should, for the next ten years, go to Patrick Willis and Jon Beason? They are the class of the NFC ILB position. Let's just etch this one in stone and stop worrying about it.

As for John Kasay, I can't see how anyone could deserve the spot more than Kasay. Perfect on the year except for a 58-yarder. I mean, sure, Matt Bryant went through an unfathomable, emotional loss and still performed when it mattered most, and perhaps he deserves the trip for his fortitude. I'd be fine with that. But Robbie Gould (23/26, long of 48)? John Carney (29/31, long of 48)? Ryan freakin' Longwell (26/31)?!? A guy who misses five field goals should go to the Pro Bowl? Gah!

Okay, I'll stop my complaining now, and move on to the interesting bits beyond that stuff.

Jordan Gross looks like he'll finally make a trip to Hawaii, oddly on what I would say has not been his best year. Of course, it's also happening just as we're removing the franchise tag. Ick. That might spell trouble for the team, but I am glad he's being recognized for his talent.

The most interesting omission is Jared Allen, making only one appearance, while Justin Tuck, John Abraham and JPep get all the rest. I think that's completely fair, since those three guys are all complete players who do fantastic against the run and the pass, and Allen's more limited in his all-around game. But for the last three or four years, it's been my secret dream to have John Abraham and Julius Peppers lining up alongside one another. It looks like that's going to happen this year.

I look forward to hearing everyone else's opinions.

In case you don't have Showtime...

r3 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:33:16 -0000

If you don't have Showtime, you can't watch Inside The NFL in its current iteration. You also can't watch Dexter, Penn & Teller's Bullshit, or This American Life. But that's your own loss, and not really relative to the conversation.

The last couple of years of ITNFL was more "narrative" based, with heartwarming stories and the like, and relied on fewer game highlights. That sucked, and I stopped watching.

This season, they're doing it much better. Many more NFL Films sideline catches, and it really takes you into the game much, much better. I've only been watching for the past couple of weeks, but it's really given me a fresh look at the Panthers.

The highlight package from our Monday game with Tampa Bay was a perfect example. Of course, the ESPN crew showed us that nice footage of Smitty practicing his one-handed end-zone catches, but the NFL Films crew showed us Smitty talking to Jason Baker about how he didn't want to complain, but after this late Monday night game he had to take his kids to school in the morning. And, ya know, he's not complaining or nothing, but.... man, that's gonna hurt.

The really big insight, and what prompted me to drop a fanpost, was when Jake came to the sidelines after that second interception. You remember, the one where the ball goes straight to Jermaine Phillips in the middle of the field, and he juggles it a bit but keeps it an inch off the ground, then rolls over and actually secures it? Jake's asking the other QBs and the QB coach, "Okay, so somebody explain to me how twenty-three got the ball!" The QBs say something like "he moved." Jake can't believe it. "Wait, Stewie moved?!" The coach shows him the printout of the play, and says "Stew went this way, and twenty-three came in here." Jake really, really can't believe it, and his voice goes up an octave. "But he was lookin' right at me!!" and he throws his arms up.

What a great grab.

The week before, when JStew broke that big run at Green Bay and pulled up because his hamstrings tightened up, there's a shot of Smitty talking to him on the sidelines. They don't say he talking to JStew, but you can tell. Smitty's tells him, "Look, if you're hurt, you can't go. Okay, dog? We need you. If you got a bum leg, you gotta be smart about it. Okay? This ain't high school, that stuff don't fly no more."

All I'm saying is, if you don't have Showtime, and aren't going to get it, you should at least make more friends who have better TV options.

Panthers Camp Report

r3 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:32:36 -0000

Well, me and a friend were at training camp today, and the practice was... well, it was hot. Real real hot. It was also strange because so many people were out. Rosario, Beason, Harris, Robinson were all out, and Delhomme, Otah and Moose all practiced just once. But the DTs were in there, and JStew participated in both practices, so those were good.

Jarrett looked fine, made a few catches you'd expect him to make, ran good routes, but more importantly he seemed very engaged in what was going on. Several times during the morning practice (which Moose sat out) Jarrett sought out Moose and they talked about things. That's encouraging to see.

As for other receiver performances, Moose was spectacular in the afternoon practice, beating corners on long routes with double moves, on comebacks, crossing routes, and never dropped a single ball. Smitty was fine but not spectacular, and he was downright silent, never saying anything to anyone except chatting quietly with Kasay and a couple other people between reps. Carter was very good, with some nice routes and catches, but had a couple drops and made some special teams mistakes.

Now for the bad news. Hackett pulled up in the morning practice with what looked like tightness or pain in his calf or foot. Never saw him again. Not sure what that means.

Toefield looks fine if unspectacular, but Nick Goings looks better. I didn't realize what a fantastic athlete Goings was until I watched him stretch before the afternoon practice. He's got a dancer's flexibility, paired with huge strength.

Kasay and Lloyd both had good practices. Kasay was automatic on field goals (read: a danger to the cameraman) and got most of his kickoffs to the goal line. Lloyd was decent on FGs, missed a few, but boomed all of his kickoffs out of the end zone. The kid's incredible.

Holt and Godfrey started at safeties, Holt made a few good plays, and Godfrey looked fine but didn't make many plays. Nate Salley looked great, getting a nice interception and breaking on the ball well.

The DEs all look really good. Peppers is unreal. Brayton's a high-motor guy, and he was fun to watch going against Otah in the morning practice. Johnson had a couple good plays, including a batted ball he should have caught. McClover had a couple good plays in the afternoon practice, sniffing out a screen really well. They all looked good at one point or another. Peppers is the only sure starter, though.

Also, no one asked, but the MLB spot was manned primarily by Seward, with spot duty by Conner and Landon Johnson. Seward looks good in the role. I didn't notice either Conner or Johnson's play at all, even though The Na'il was out.

One of the more interesting things was, with Robinson out, the two people they had alternating kickoff returns were Stewart and DeAngelo Williams. That was interesting. Unsettling, but interesting.

Also worth noting: Matt Moore is absolutely, without any question, the number 2 quarterback. Excluding Delhomme, who's just a certainly the starter, Moore's got the best accuracy, makes the best decisions, and has the biggest presence. He's a leader that his teammates seem to like and respect.

There was very little smack talk, which was unfortunate. Only Thomas Davis had any chattering to do, loudly advising Delhomme at one point to put something on his highlight reel. The pressure from the whole Smith/Lucas fight seemed to weigh on the entire team, and everyone was on their best behavior. Which made for a more dull practice than I'm used to.

Online game: Goal Line Blitz

r3 — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:08:06 -0000

Like many of you folks, I like my football. I mean, if you're reading this in the middle of May when there is literally nothing happening in the football world, then you clearly are an obsessed fool like myself.

I also like football video games, and I played the heck out of the NFL 2K series (RIP). One of my favorite things to do was to load up the Season mode, and play through a half-dozen seasons or more with a team, until most of the squad were players I'd drafted. Nothing quite like watching your own players progress.

Well, there's now an online game that has that same quality. It's called Goal Line Blitz and lets you create players, own teams (or be the GM, or O- or D-Coordinators), and develop the players over the course of month-long seasons. I've only been playing for a couple of weeks, but I'm constantly amazed at the depth and complexity of what is a simple online game.

Feel free to try it out. If you don't like it, you won't hurt my feelings a bit. But if you, as I do, think it's a smart take on football sims, then make a player for this Panthers-related team, where I've got a 2nd-string Guard. Or just drop me a line. Either way.

Yeah, this is nice.

r3 — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:15:11 -0000

This shiny new SB Nation world is a nice one. Flowers and rainbows and nymphs splashing in waterfalls. All that, and a real nice WYSIWYG editor. What more could you ask for?

Okay, I suppose there are a couple of kinks. Or one, at least.

Like just now. I tried to post this new FanPost (because really, Diary? Diary?! Who came up with that name, a twelve-years-old girl?) with just that first paragraph, but it said "Your FanPost must be 75 words long!" What an arbitrary limit. Maybe I don't have a lot to say. Maybe I'm like Lincoln and can express my thoughts in few words. Either way, who are you to say I can't post short posts?

Unshackle me, SB Nation!

But seriously, this is nice. Good job, fellas.