Release Therapy

Ok after a couple weeks off the grid due to a hectic schedule, I've been able to sit down and go over the off season happenings of the Carolina Panthers. Initially I was excited to see that Dom granted me one of my Christmas wishes 3 months later by giving me Moose back...giving me a recieving core of... Mushin Muhammed, Steve Smith, Drew Carter, and Dwayne Jarrett. Not too shabby at all, in fact I'm pretty excited seeing as how Delhomme is progressing nicely post-surgery. However, Moose seems to be the only transaction that has been positive for Carolina. Mike Wahle, Dan Morgan, Deshaun Foster, and David Carr were cut, with Carr being the only one I was happy about(I've seen more athletic charisma at a pick up game of basketball in the Philippines). Since we cut one of our most valuable defensive assests in Dan Morgan, we've pretty much screwed ourselves, hoping for a steal on the Free Agent market, or end up doing some dumbass trade closer to the season to get a linebacker that's sub-par. With Foster cut, we have D'angelo Williams - who I'm a big fan of due to his explosiveness/quickness - and Nick Goings - who has been injured more times than Dan Morgan in the last couple years and is much less productive than a thumbless film critic. Now I know it was kind of weird that Foster was a starter on an offensive that should've been geared towards a more charismatic game plan - aka starting Williams- but he got the job done this year after Delhomme went down. So to repay him for a good job we cut him. Now we are left with two scat backs, when in all honesty its 1 1/4 scat backs with Nick Goings chasing the Steve Young concussion record. Given there are many good running backs coming into the draft this year, but I personally think we should sign a power back with a few years under his belt and concentrate on our sodomized defense. Kris Jenkins went to the Jets, Mike Rucker is officially a Free Agent and we're looking at Rod Coleman who's been plagued with injuries - wait wasn't that why we cut Morgan?- and the Bears still have the secondary, which according to Dom should be given back anytime now. Waiting sweetheart, waiting.

Bottom Line: we need to make moves quickly, because this is ridiculous. The managerial moves made here are about as consistent as John Fox's season-to-season records. Sign Derek Smith, stop destroying our defense, and for the love of god, start replacing/resigning people. Draft picks won't solve last year's mistakes.
More after the jump...

Panther Rants...

Ok, so with the NFL season over as well as the NC-dub Football season over, a small part of me has died and now I have all this free time to sit on my ass and do nothing. However the free-agency period is coming up and teams are making some sal-cap room. As stated, I am a Carolina Panthers fan, and have been since the team's inception in '95. So let's just talk about what the hell happened this season.

We were 7 - 9 this season, having a quarterback controversy as bad as the Chicago Bears. We also were in one of the weakest conferences of the NFL this year as shown by the poor showing of Buc's in the first round of the playoffs. Our leading touchdown passer was Delhomme who played just over 2 1/2 games. We set an NFL record by starting the oldest player ever (who managed to win - against the Cards but whatever). We had to transfer over our first round draft pick Jon Beason to MLB since Dan Morgan was injured again. I won't even start talking about our busted secondary lead by....Chris Gamble eee...sorry 4real, but he was not worth the hype.

After our season we decided to keep our streaky coach who seemed to lose favor with Jerry Richardson. But after a couple weeks of waiting they decided to keep Fox. I guess we'll just see if the wound gets any worse before we make any rash decisions....right.

Well with Delhomme successfully throwing Nerf balls in rehab, his recovery looks very good for the 2008 season. We can finally use him to take advantage of our playmakers that we pay good money for. Sorry Vinnie, but when our 2nd round draft pick was born when you won the Heisman, it's usually never a good thing. Old balls. But my question is, who the hell are the Panther's gonna pick up that's as good as Morgan? I guess we'll see with the free agency period creeping up, but considering Morgan was a headline player for us, support for Beason does not look to good. Well hopefully we'll drop David Carr to clear up more salary cap room to drop some bills on a decent LB, OR sign an up and comer and revamp our sub par secondary. Dom, how about this? You give me my Super Bowl secondary back and we give you Carr. He's got Po I swear.
More after the jump...

Quick Draft Update

The NY Jets reportedly have decided to stick with Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens. That means that Matt Ryan with the 6th pick no longer makes any sense. Also Laurinaitis has decided to return for his Senior year which I suggested would happen in Picks 1-6, but doing what one should never do I second guessed myself in Picks 7-12 and suggested he was NFL and New England bound. To ratify those egregious errors here's a Draft Update 2.5, complete with an extra pick.

With the 6th pick the New York Jets fans will be looking running back or offensive lineman. Well they've got Thomas Jones and although he only had one rushing TD last year he performed well (3.6 YPC) and Leon Washington gave him a few breathers and managed to rack up a 5 YPC average over 70 carries. I don't think Running Back is where they'll be going but their running game does need a lot of help. Here we should see OT from Boise State Ryan Clady coming off the board and heading out to New York as the Jets fans boo, because that's what they do on draft day.

Now at 7 the Patriots have a choice to make. And for them this is more of a luxury pick than anything. Lawrence Maroney had a decent year in a pass first offense so I don't think they're going Running Back here despite some good Running Back talent waiting to be picked up. Laurinaitis is no longer available so are they still looking at LB. I see Penn State LB Dan Connor getting picked up. Their Linebacking corps is still getting older by the Minute and they should be looking to the future. Dan Connor could easily be that future.

Of course at 8 now Baltimore is looking at Matt Ryan or Brian Brohm. Yes I know they still have Troy Smith and Smith looked pretty good in the last few games of the season when he saw some playing time but passing up on Matt Ryan for a 5th rounder who's barely 6 feet tall is going to be hard to explain to Ravens fans. If they aren't looking to get Ryan then they better start listening to some trade offers. If Matt Ryan really is available going in to pick 7 or 8 expect to see a lot of phones ringing in an effort to make a move up there where no one thought they would be available. I say Ryan but I expect a trade.

Now at 11 Buffalo is also licking it's chops at a top QB that didn't look to be available, Losman even said he wants out of Buffalo and I don't think Trent Edwards is the future. So Brohm and Woodson are available here. I think Brohm has the edge right now but all of that could change going into the combines. Maybe Woodson moves ahead, maybe Brennan surprises a lot of people, maybe Dennis Dixon still interests, but Brian Brohm should be the pick here.

And for the additional pick that I promised, the Carolina Panthers with the 13th pick go to the offensive backfield and they will take Andre Woodson from Kentucky. Delhomme has been average since that Super Bowl run, Matt Moore is not the future, and Testaverde simply can not play another year, it's against the laws of phyisics. If they aren't one of the teams to trade up looking for the slipping Ryan, then expect them to jump all over Andre Woodson right here. Unless they think they can get Brennan or Dixon in Round 2 and they're happy with that.

So an updated Recap:
1. Miami - Glenn Dorsey, DT - LSU
2. St. Louis - Chris Long, DE - Virginia
3. Atlanta - Darren McFadden, RB - Arkansas
4. Oakland - Sedrick Ellis, DT - USC
5. KC - Jake Long, OT - Michigan
6. NYJ - Ryan Clady, OT - Boise State
7. New England - Dan Connor, LB - Penn State
8. Baltimore - Matt Ryan, QB - Boston College
9. Cincinnati - Vernon Gholston, DE - Ohio State
10. New Orleans - Mike Jenkins, S - South Florida
11. Buffalo - Brian Brohm, QB - Louisville
12. Denver - Kenny Phillips, S - Miami
13. Carolina - Andre Woodson, QB - Kentucky

Don't forget to keep up with the draft action with Picks 1-6, picks 7-12 , picks 14-20 , and an UPDATED picks 21-31.
More after the jump...

NFL Weekend Wrap-up

The NFL had all but faded away in the big picture of sports. Few cared about the professional gridiron with everything else going on. The college football season that was (upsets, ever changing polls, bowl season for many) and the college football season that wasn’t (Hawai’i, among a few other programs being shafted in the championship picture, Michigan losing it’s first 2 games after being a preseason #5). The Mitchell investigation stealing time away from the NFL stories on many a radio, internet, ESPN, and blog posting. Tiger being the best in the game, again. So many sports stories taking the front page, a lot forgot about America’s true past-time. And then this weekend happened.

1) The Miami Dolphins win, ending they’re stretch at the most futile team to step on the turf. The game winning TD in overtime against the Ravens, a 64 yard TD pass to Greg Carmarillo. His 4th career reception came at a very opportune time for the Fins. They managed not only to avoid the 0-fer mark but they also managed to squeak out a win in the 14th game, so as not to tie the previous mark of 0-14 by the 76 Bucs. Did I mention that this win came at the hands of the Ravens team who 2 weeks ago almost, and could have beat the Patriots if not for a few stupid penalties. My personal favorite quote from the affair came from the former Fins DE Jim Mandich, in attendance with most of the rest of the ’72 Fins celebrating their 25th anniversary of the season, "One-and-15, is just another forgotten, bad season… you had the perfect-season Miami Dolphins, and the fear in the back of your head that it could be the win-less Miami Dolphins in the same building, was something I didn't want to talk about for a long time.” Pretty much summing up the fact that his ’72 team was incredible, and that this team was destined to lose the next two, the winner of 2007’s backhanded compliment award. If only the Ravens could have pulled out that win 2 weeks ago, even more glaring. They could have been responsible for ending both perfect seasons.

2) The Jacksonville Jaguars are 10-4 after a good victory over the once mighty Steelers (0-2 in the last 2) and primed to make a strong playoff push in the increasingly comparable AFC. Who saw that at the start of the season? I’ve always thought Del Rio would be able to do something there, it looks like he’s finally doing something right.

3) The Cleveland Browns. Now 9-5 after an 8-0 whooping of Buffalo in a winter wonderland, play the Bungles and the Niners, pretty much ensuring their second playoff appearance since they re-entered the league. You have to cheer for this Browns team. Destined to mediocrity over the last few years, and starting as an expansion team with a storied history not too long ago. The only downside is how this team will falter in the playoffs. I think this would be the best story if they could pull off a Super Bowl win after all that has gone wrong in Cleveland over the last 25 years, but history is not on their side. If you look at major accomplishments over the last quarter of a century featuring a team from Cleveland, they are usually involved on the right side of the post-game column.

4) The fourteenth game of the century this season, once again featuring the Patriots, in the epic battle of Man-genius vs. the Hoodie. In what many thought was going to be the biggest blowout since the forward pass was invented (it opened in Vegas at 27.5) the Pats pulled out a simple 20-10 victory. And Embattled Chad Pennington actually outplayed the GQ Cover Boy Tom Brady.

5) Carolina beat Seattle, further confusing everything in NFC playoff picture, under the apparently competent arm of Matt Moore (official ESPN.com picture at right), their 4th starting QB of the season. The undrafted Free Agent completed 19 passes for 208 yards and no INTs. Is this the next Tony Romo? Probably not but if it is I get credit for calling it first.

6) Jon Kitna might need to ask for a little more help from the Guy Upstairs. The Lions, who tricked many after the 6-2 start to the season, have returned to the real Matt Millen era Lions we all know and love after losing the last 6, most recently to the Bolts 51-14.

7) Bromo needs to stop bringing girls to the game to watch him. With the gorgeous Jessica sitting in a suite upstairs in her pink Number 9 jersey, Bromo put on a show with 0 TDs and 3 Picks in Dallas’ second loss of the season. In last year’s December Philly game in Dallas when Carrie Underwood was in attendance, Romo’s boys lost and he posted a sub 50 QB rating. This year, same game, new gal-pal, the star of Blonde Ambition hitting the shelves at the Hollywood Video near you, Romo posted a career low 22.2 rating. In those two games combined he’s 27 for 65 for 356 yds 1 TD and 5 picks. Stop playing the Eagles in December at home. Stop bringing your blonde, singer girlfriends to the game. Stop throwing picks. Although I didn’t mind the camera flashing on either one of them repeatedly.

That’s a quick overview of this weekends NFL action and now you’re all caught up ready for post season action. Bears V. Nordics tonight, Orton is starting. Are you ready for some football? Stay tuned for a more in depth breakdown of the dismal Cleveland luck of recent years. If I don’t get to it sometime soon, I’m sure 4 Real might make a guest appearance to put one up.

More after the jump...

Weekend Picks (delayed)

Well my weekend has started off just fantastic. I mean that literally, Boston College beat VaTech in a dull game up until the last 5 minutes. Matt Ryan keeps his Heisman hopes alive and my initials are glorified nation-wide. Anyways in hopes of keeping with this my pool will survive this week...

The Big Contenders
Oregon over USC-Dennis Dixon is too much for the USC defense right now, and I applaud the decline. Jonathan Stewart has almost 1000 yards rushing this year, and he's gonna get nasty on USC. Along side Stewart is Colvin, Dickson, and Williams throwing up over 1000 recieving yards combine for this year. Let's not forget the fact that Arizona put up 13 points on this "Pete Carroll" defense...and Stanford put up 24. Trojan Horse defeat thee, cocky bastards

South Florida over UConn - South Florida is pissed about their loss last week, Grothe is a certified badass. UConn also has yet to play a real team...and win.

Cal over AZst- After a two game skid, Cal is an actual program that bounces back correctly. They won't kick Longshore out of the starting spot, fire their coach, and bring in a historical cheater. Then again, I hate ASU and again, they haven't played the top half of the Pac-10. Stop blowing smoke up their ass.

Upset
NCState over UVA - the spread is 3.0 points, NCState has yet to win a game in conference and they've had a NASTY schedule, where UVA has had a middle of the road schedule and with UVA's depressing win margin at 4 points, the Wolfpack actually have a shot.

For Sunday...

Panthers over Colts - It's a stretch, but there's a chance. With Harrison out, Panthers coming off a bye week, A veteran veteran at the helm, there's a damn good chance here.

World Series? Don't really care now...

I leave you with... The last drive of the Boston College game

More after the jump...