Minter on secondary losses

From WS Journal

Mike Minter was beginning to feel a little like the Lone Ranger in the Carolina Panthers' secondary.

But after the departures of three secondary teammates from last year's NFC championship team in less than a week, Minter at least could take a little comfort in the fact that the Panthers agreed to terms with free-agent cornerback Artrell Hawkins on a three-year contract yesterday. Couldn't he?

"I don't know much about that dude," Minter said. "But if the guys in the front office think he can play, let's hope they're right."

Minter knew plenty about the three defensive backs the Panthers lost through free agency earlier in the week. Free safety Deon Grant followed cornerbacks Terry Cousin and Reggie Howard out of town when he agreed a four-year contract worth nearly $10 million with the Jacksonville Jaguars late Tuesday night. Five days earlier Howard, like Grant an unrestricted free agent, had bolted Carolina for a six-year, $21.7 million contract from the Miami Dolphins.

The same day Howard agreed to terms with the Dolphins, the Panthers released Terry Cousin, saving about $1 million in salary-cap room. Though he eventually lost his starting job to rookie Ricky Manning Jr. late during the regular season last year, Cousin was in the opening-day secondary along with Howard, Grant and Minter.

Now only Minter remains from that foursome.

"That's usually what happens. You have some success as a group or as a team and you lose some of your guys because everybody sees how good you are," Minter said yesterday.

"I've been with these guys for awhile and we've been through a lot. I was with Deon and Reggie for three years, and with TC for two. You get close to guys. We've been through war together. I'm used to saddling up with those guys and getting after it. So it hurts. You're sad that they're gone. But at the same time, you're happy for them because you know that they deserve what they're getting. They've worked hard for it."

Minter said that it hasn't fully hit him yet that Grant, Howard and Cousin won't be around in the lockers next to his the next time he reports to work. The team's off-season conditioning program begins on April 5.

"It's going to be weird going into the meeting rooms and the locker rooms and not seeing them there," Minter said. "But when it's really going to hit me is when we hit the practice field for some of these mini-camps that are coming up. You're used to looking up out there and seeing their faces.

"Now I guess I'll be seeing three new faces. I'll have to get used to that."

General Manager Marty Hurney said that he would have liked to have kept the secondary together, but free-agent economics prevented it from happening.

"We would have liked to have had all of those guys back, but this is the nature of the business. It's a product of free agency," Hurney said. "Every year there is some turnover on every team. That's the way this system works."

Hurney said that he is optimistic that Hawkins, only 27, will help shore up a secondary that both he and Minter said was better last season than most people realized at the time.

"He's been a starter," Hurney said of Hawkins, who spent the first six years of his career with the Cincinnnati Bengals. "He's a cover corner who we think will help us."

Hurney said that Hawkins will compete with Dante Wesley, a third-year veteran, for the starting cornerback position opposite Manning.

"Our approach is that every year we come in and have open competition at every position in (training) camp," Hurney said.

Minter said that the rapid departures of Grant and Howard in free agency proved a point that he had attempted to make all year long with folks who did not think the Panthers' secondary was one of the team's strengths.

"It shows the respect that people had for our secondary throughout the league. Everybody wanted our players," Minter said. "So I guess it worked both ways for us. We know we finally got our respect and we knew all along that we deserved it. But now we won't get a chance to build on it.

"We'll have to get some new guys in there and see if we can't work up something spectacular with them like we did with the other guys last year. That's going to be a difficult thing to do, but I'm sure we'll have fun trying."

 

Seriously, the quote about Hawkins competing with Wesley to start opposite Manning should tell us plenty.
1). Wesley isn’t in the mix for the FS spot
2). The loser of that battle will be our nickel
3). They probably won’t be signing any other FA corners (like Vincent) . . . damnit

 

http://www.cincinnatibengals.com

 

eh, hurney also lied when he said they weren't going to cut Stuessie... so...

 

Thanks for the link, and the hope.)

I thought this was interesting (from same article) -

>>>>There is the growing possibility Burris’ replacement in the starting lineup at left corner is going to be one of Bengals defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier’s (when he was with Philly) two Pro Bowl cornerbacks from the 2002 season in Vincent and Bobby Taylor. Taylor’s agent, Jason Medlock, said Wednesday that he’s had encouraging negotiations with the Bengals but that his client won’t make any kind of a decision until he visits Paul Brown Stadium Sunday night<<<<


I hope that they (Cin) are leaning towards Taylor, but will Vincent agree to what would likely be a low-ball offer

 

minter will feel better the next time he lays out some poor dumb bastard...

 

Seriously, you can't tell anything from anything Hurney says in the offseason. They lie. They mislead. Everything said is to cover their plans from other teams, and to not create problems on this team.