The good and the bad - Fox Hurney through the years.

From a personnel perspective - let's look back:

2002:

Good:

Damn near everything.

Benching Weinke for Peete ( this was Henning, too, FWIW )
Lamar Smith - RB cheap.
Mark Fields
Terry Cousin was OK

Draft was good - Peppers, Foster, Spoon.

Trading Jay Williams to MIA for Al Wallace and a 4th rounder was amazing.

2003:

really a mixed bag.

Good:

Delhomme - hell yes.
Stephen Davis - fuckin' A.
Proehl - Amen

Gross
Manning
Moorehead

Bad:

Nelson
Seidman

Doug Brezinski - and letting go of Jamar Nesbit for him.
Kevin Dyson

2004:

Good:

Brandon Short

Gamble
Colbert ( meh )
Wharton
Carter ( meh )

Bad:

ADAM FUCKING MEADOWS and the Steussie cap hit.
Travis Claridge ( to make up for losing Jeno James )
Matt Willig and all that.
Losing Deon Grant, Jeno, and Howard in post Superbowl FA.

2005:

Good:

Ken Lucas
Mike Wahle
Marlon Mcree

BAD - BAD - BAD

Morgan

10 draft picks. We essentially only have Thomas Davis to show for it.

Losing moose.

2006

Good -

Hartwig
Ketshawn
Damione Lewis
Mcadam ( ST )

BAD -

Losing:

Spoon

The draft seems decent. Nothing outstanding, which has been a pattern since 2003 with Gross and Manning - regardless of who they are now, they made big plays for new kids. Ditto for Foster that year, and Peppers and Spoon for 2002. That's troubling.

2007 -

About the only thing that looks good is Beason. A bunch more day 1 picks that do not ( or cannot ) contribute, a bad run in Free Agency with Carr sucking dick, letting go of Key, etc.

Basically - looking over this, it seems that they HAVE NOT made many stellar, playmaking pickups in years. Literally since the 2003 draft, which was poor. Davis, Beason, MArshall, and Wharton have been OK - but have NOT been bog time difference makers. Beason seems the most promising.

Williams has not done much.

Fuck. It's really been poor - and they've really been coasting on the aquisitions of 2001-2003.

 

Agreed

 

Who was the Assist GM that left about 2004-2005? I remember hearing that he was the Player Personnel man and that Hurney was the bean counter. I remember thinking that the Panthers maybe in trouble if that was true. (It appears that it was.)

I can't remember his name.

 

the st's coach/asst coach? or the scouting director?

 

Bushofsky.

Gantt has a different perspective:

http://www.heraldonline.com/247/story/169550.html

 

a little too optimistic. But overall consistent.

As for Keyshawn (and many of the other guys we lost above), it's not as much letting them go as what we did to replace them. You don't have to have Key, but not having Key and then not having another vet because you have to run damage control? Bad. I'd have been fine with a crusty vet here, but we drafted ourselves into a corner. If you fail on Jarrett, then it only compounds, because we could've had another prospect there that wouldn't have been duplication, but not having a vet now is hurting us now. We couldn't replace Key, and we couldn't keep him. What a mess.

Just like if you let Gross walk, you have to find something good to replace him. I could give a shit if Jordan Gross is on this team, but we need two good tackles.

It goes all the way back to early times. You don't have to have Howard Griffith, even if losing him was stupid. But if you need a good FB, you replace him with a good fullback. Not Scott Greene.

 

I agree with Gantt that you need to look at the full picture, not just a couple of years.

And the full picture has been outstanding, particularly compared to the rest of the NFL.

Since Fox came, I've hoped he would stick around for a generation - like noll, cowher.

I still do. I don't want to go 4-12, but I don't want to go 4-12 this year and then 7-9 next year with a new crew. Ironically, that new crew would likely be lauded for going 7-9, where Fox would be chewed up and spit out.

 

whats amazing is that they are one game out of first in the division with
-2nd,3rd, and 4th string QB
-D line that cant get pressure on the QB..Peppers might as well be out for the year
-no passing game..Smith might as well be out for the year
-mediocre at best running game
-conservative as hell playcalling on offense
-horrific special teams
-0 home wins

and as bad as the NFC-S is, record wise it's better than NFC-W and AFC-W

 

Would you agree that the talent level has depreciated since the Superbowl run?

That's my beaf, Fox has proven he can effectively coach talented players, we're just lacking in finding and/or keeping them.

 

I think it's a combo of things.

Fox found these guys from that run:

Stephen Davis
Jake Delhomme
Deshaun Foster
Ricky Proehl
Will Witherspoon
Julius Peppers
Ricky Manning

I think alot of the problems have come in poor drafts / UFA since then. That said, we have not totally flopped on drafts the way we did previously ( when Fox came on board Morgan was our only 1st rounder on the roster ).

I think our problem the past 2 years - 2006 and 2007 - has been Delhomme's health. Delhomme fucked up a good bit when he was in, but he clearly gives us a chance that we just don't seem to have without him. Maybe that in itself is poor team building - but even THAT is better than anything that's ever been done in Charlotte.