Pre-preseason Power Rankings

We had a Jags and Panthers fan on the email list. He said Priscoe was a Jags writer, but he wasnt that guy. Priscoe usually does not like the Panthers. But not always.

 

I emailed Pete to tell him what I thought of his opinions,lol. Here is what I sent:

CAROLINA PANTHERS RANKED AT 8th!!!

Come on Pete. Give us a break. Why do you think the defending NFC champs drop all the way to 8th spot? Didn't we upgrade our only weak spots on defense by getting CB Chris Gamble in the 1st round? What about upgrading our reciever corps by getting Kerry Colbert in the 2nd round? PLUS this will be Jake Delhomme's 2nd year as a starter. I am pretty sure that Dan Henning is going to open up the playbook more this year. Carolina will be more of a scoring threat this time around. In addition to that, our Defense is even nastier with a full Healthy squad of LB's with Mark Fields coming back from cancer, Jessie Armstead and Brandon Short! You will be proven wrong on this prediction. I might see us at 3rd or 4th best, but no way as 8th. We dominated Philly in the NFC championship game. Terell Owens is just one guy. How much is that going to help? Is Terell going to help McNabb from getting sacked? What did Philly do to help that? Is Kearse going to help Philly stop the run? What did they do to beef that major shortcoming from last year? I think the usual "BIG MARKET" favorites is clouding your judgement. It is the easy way out to pick the bigmarket teams as preseason favorites. Who cares about Charlotte, NC? Right? I am going to look forward to telling you I told you so. Carolina Panthers are going to be there again this year. Count on it. I'm out.

Sincerely,
Lewis Burgess
Charlotte, NC
Carolina Panthers Fan

 

After reading this post, I didn't need to click on the link.

 

It's easy to get hung up on the past and not look beyond it.

Jakes stats going 9-2 as the starter last year (shoulder injury kept him out for 5 1/2 games):

GS11 - Att.302 - Cmp.189 - Pct.62.6 - Yds. 2182 - YPA. 7.32 - TD - 15 - INT - 7 QBR. 91.2

I don’t think #2 is such a stretch. A while back I stated somewhere on this board that the Broncos would challenge the Pats to get to the SB. Plummer stepped up in Denver. The above stats are nothing like the OLD Jake people are familiar with. With a decent team (& coaches) around him Jake is dangerous. He has always had that potential . . . if he stays healthy they are going places. No, Portis will not take their running game with him. They will plug in yet another 1,000+ RB behind yet another efficient line, like they always do. All but two of their loses came at the hands of either the armless Kanell or the legless Beuerlein. Plummer made the difference . . . not Portis.

 

They lost their top RB. The guy that built the line has left Denver and is the Falcon's line coach. Shannon Sharpe retired, so no check down guy. Jake can't carry that team alone.

 

We shall see (btw- he's far from alone)

They have tons of quickness and speed with Griffin, Sapp, and 2nd round RB Tatum Bell . . . combined with Anderson to grind out the tough yards they will be fine. Carswell ain’t no Sharpe but they want to go more vertical to utilize a healthy Plummer and their excellent WRs and (much like us) the TEs they have left can block. Speaking of blocking:

Recent SportingNews team report -
>>>>“C Tom Nalen often gives up 20 pounds or more to defensive tackles, but he pushes them around as if they were on roller skates. Nalen's intelligence, quickness and hands are his best assets. He knows how to use an opponent's momentum against him. With line coach Alex Gibbs gone, the team needs someone to lay down the law during crunch time. Nalen can take on that role”<<<<

I see Nalen as being in the Mark Fields role when we lost JDR. Unlike us they will have their guy to lead and enforce the old philosophy on the field. We still made the SB without JDR because we still had great coaching at the top (that bastard Shanny is not too shabby).
Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on riding some unpopular QBs jock incessantly (like some have here) just to annoy folks. I just have a feeling that Jake is due that one shinning year . . . he's running out of time and he & Shanny are bound to know that and put it together.

 

Excuse me, gentlemen. When referring to Mr. Plummer, you really must use his last name. Around here, there is only one JAKE. :xyzthumbs

 

Excellent point Sir.

I wonder if my "pro plummer" stance subconsciously has something to do with his most excellent first name