I am very sorry to say it, but the Carolina Panthers are officially the worst team in the NFL. Lets start by looking at the few positives from their 2010 campaign. Charles Johnson has been having a very strong season, currently tied for 7th in the NFL in sacks with 11.5. James Anderson has been another guy to come out of no where to contribute for Carolina. He currently has 120 tackles, along with multiple sacks, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries. In the secondary, Charles Godfrey and Captain Munnerlyn have both been respectable. Godfrey currently has 5 interceptions on the season, and Munnerlyn has been all around solid in the secondary, along with a good season returning the ball. As a team, the panthers are one of the top teams in opponents passing yards per game. Too bad that might be because teams rarely have to throw the ball in the 2nd half.
In this past off-season, Fox made some bold moves in letting go of formers stars and leaders like Julius Peppers, Jake Delhomme, Brad Hoover, and many others. The Panthers now are the youngest team in the NFL, with the only players over 30 being their kicker and punter (John Kasay and Jason Baker), and star WR Steve Smith. Now, with injuries to key players like Tackle Jeff Otah, starting QB Matt Moore and star RB DeAngelo Williams, the Panthers were without much of their offense. With these injuries, much pressure was placed on young quarterback Jimmy Clausen, who simply was not able to handle it. Although Clausen might have a good career in the future he needs more time to develop before he can make an impact on the NFL.
The Problems have started up top, with disagreements between Head Coach John Fox and owner Jerry Richardson. In around 2007, the two began to disagree on the direction that the team should take. This caused many of the conflicts that have taken place in Carolina, like all off the problems that the team had with Julius Peppers.
The Panthers are at rock bottom, and they need to figure out what to do next. For one, they should wait until the end of the season to figure out who their next head coach will be. After a bad experience with a coach who had been out of the league for a while, in George Seifert, they will want to go after a coordinator like Brian Schottenheimer from the Jets. Another option would be to go to the college ranks, and go for a coach like Jim Harbaugh.
After that, they need to make a good decision in the draft. With the number one pick, there are many ways that he can go. Andrew Luck is possibly the best QB prospect since Peyton Manning, and if he enters the draft, there is no way that Carolina can pass up on him. If he decides to stay at Stanford for another year, I would suggest going after DeQuan Bowers, DE out of Clemson. Pairing him up with rising star Charles Johnson could create an elite tandem for the future. Finally, they need to figure out what to do in free agency. I can not stress this enough, there is NOT a savior out there. It will be a long time until they get back into contention, and there is no point in going after a star who they will pay top dollar to, who would not be able to make a big impact on the franchise as a whole. It is going to be a long road back to the top for the Panthers, and they just need to take things one step at a time, so they don't end up being screwed for eternity, like the Oakland Raiders.
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