The Carolina Panthers have seemingly taken a 180-degree turn in their pursuit of Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers. According to his agent, Carl Carey, the Panthers have "not made a single inquiry this offseason" in regards to contract negotiations with the team's top pick in the 2002 draft. This is a complete reversal of their strategy from last year, where head coach John Fox and general manager Marty Hurney seemed adamant about keeping Peppers in town, eventually placing the team's franchise tag on him when negotiations for a long term contract fizzled out. Hurney made it clear that Peppers was, in the team's eyes, an absolute necessity to the team's future plans, and went so far as to answer questions from fans on a local radio show following the team's decision to place [...] Continue reading →

Carolina Panthers' Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers was named today in a release by the NFL that detailed the 15 active players participating in this year's Pro Bowl who are also on the league's All-Decade team of the 2000's. The full 53-man roster will be released on Sunday during Pro Bowl coverage, but the list that including this year's participants was made available Wednesday.  Peppers is the third Panther to be included on an All-Decade roster in the team's fifteen year history.  Kevin Greene and Michael Bates were on the All-1990's squad. Peppers was drafted second overall in the 2002 draft by the Panthers, who were coming off the dreadful 1-15 season of 2001.  Pep was John Fox's first draft pick, and was the first selection in what turned out to be the team's best [...] Continue reading →

I'll be taking the stairs today, as the elevator is out of order.  I'm not sure when it will be fixed and nobody seems to be able to give me a timetable either. Instead of taking the approach I've taken after (almost) every other Panthers game this season, highlighting the ups and downs of the team's performance, I'm going to take this time and space to start the discussions that will reign over the water coolers, message boards, chat rooms, newspapers, blogs, and conversations from February to August regarding this team and this franchise as a whole. The time has come for change in Carolina. Actually, the time has been here for a while, but it has taken 12 weeks of [...] Continue reading →

The Carolina Panthers may have finally found a formula for success in 2009: chaos.  Steve Smith called the Panthers' no-huddle offense they displayed on Sunday "controlled chaos," saying that the fast paced ever-changing game plan kept the Falcons' defenders guessing all afternoon.  Jake Delhomme handled the two minute-like offense masterfully, as he usually does, and completed his third straight game without a turnover. Speaking of Smith, the frustrated wideout caught his second and third touchdown passes of the year on Sunday, both four-yard hits from Delhomme.  Delhomme finished the day 15-of-24 for 195 yards and those two touchdowns, completing 62.5% of his passes and heading home with a quarterback rating of 115.8.  It was Delhomme's first game this season that saw him end up [...] Continue reading →

The Carolina Panthers aren't nearly the team they were for the first three weeks of the 2009 season.  They are far removed from the dreadful 0-3 start and the horrible play calling that doomed them to it. With that being said, the Panthers are also a long way from being the team that went 12-4 and captured the NFC South title last season. The Panthers traveled to New Orleans this weekend to take on one of the NFL's only two remaining undefeated teams in the Saints, a division rival they have had great success against recently—especially in the Superdome.  After racing to a lead that still sat at 17-6 heading into halftime, the Panthers succumbed to their nemesis that had been absent the last few weeks:  turnovers.  The Panthers fumbled five times Sunday, losing three of [...] Continue reading →

The Carolina Panthers seem to have re-established their identity as a run-heavy team.  Twice in the last three weeks, the Panthers have eclipsed the 265 yard mark on the ground, racking up 267 in Tampa Bay and 270 last week in Arizona. Sandwiched in the middle of those great performance is a game that can be summed up with a single character: ? The Panthers threw the ball 44 times at home against the league's worst rush defense and wound up losing painfully to the Bills, 20-9.  After that game, it was unclear whether Jake Delhomme would remain the team's starting quarterback, or if this squad had anything left in the tank for the once-promising 2009 season. After the performance that was put on in Arizona, the question of whether or not this team has the ability to make [...] Continue reading →

The Carolina Panthers, for a day at least, looked like the Carolina Panthers of old. DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart combined to chew up 245 yards on the ground and the Panthers rushed for a total of 270 yards, good for second-best in franchise history. The Panthers' defense was everywhere on Sunday, proving to be equally as involved in the impressive 34-21 win as the offense. There are some wildly ironic numbers that can be found on the stat sheet from Sunday's game.  Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme's close friend and mentor from their NFL Europe days, turned in a performance that was nearly identical to Delhomme's in last year's playoff loss to the Cardinals.  Warner completed 27 of 46 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns. It starts to get weird when you look at what [...] Continue reading →

The Carolina Panthers are sticking with Jake Delhomme--at least through Sunday. Head coach John Fox said after practice Wednesday that Delhomme would be under center Sunday in Arizona, putting to rest any ideas that backups Matt Moore and A.J. Feeley might have a chance at grabbing the starting role. Fox said that, in his eyes, Delhomme still gives the Panthers the "best chance to win."  A city full of fans and a growing number of NFL analysts beg to differ, but that doesn't matter. Delhomme leads the league with 13 interceptions through seven weeks (six games) and has shown a tendency to overthrow his receivers all year.  No Panthers wide receiver has caught a touchdown pass this season, and Delhomme only has four to his credit--all to tight ends. Calls for Delhomme to hit [...] Continue reading →

And just when you thought things might be turning around... The Carolina Panthers published their latest installment in a series of embarrassing outings on Sunday afternoon against the visiting Buffalo Bills, losing 20-9 and falling to 2-4 on the season.  What unfolded at Bank of America Stadium can only be described as "spooky" in light of the upcoming holiday, and will surely give Panther Nation nightmares for days to come. The Panthers dominated in literally every major stat category and still found a way to lose the game, thanks in large part to another trio of interceptions by embattled quarterback Jake Delhomme.  Carolina had 20 first downs to Buffalo's 9, gained 425 yards of total offense compared to 167 by the Bills, ran 17 more plays and held the ball for nearly ten [...] Continue reading →

The Carolina Panthers learned Monday that special teams ace Dante Wesley will miss one game for the bone-crushing blow he delivered to Buccaneers' Pro Bowl return man Clifton Smith. The play has been a large topic of conversation on blog sites and at water coolers across the country today and rightfully so. The hit was late.  The hit was brutal.  The hit certainly warranted the 15-yard penalty it brought about. But the ejection and the suspension?  Not so much.  Hear me out. Watching the play live was shocking.  I could not believe that Wesley had laid into Smith with that type of tenacity and ferocity before the ball got there.  After viewing the replay, though, I felt a little different about it. No, I don't think the play should be deemed as 'acceptable,' but Smith [...] Continue reading →