Dukesuckgounc
Let's go Panthers
Posted on Sat, Feb. 26, 2005
Tom Sorensen
We all have a budget, and if we bust it we better have a compelling reason. As good as Muhsin Muhammad was last season, he's not a compelling reason. The Carolina Panthers had no choice but to let him go.
Muhammad, who has been a Panther for life, was due a $10 million bonus next week and would have made $12.5 million next season. The only way he could have stayed with Carolina was to take a massive pay cut, and he chose not to, so he's gone. The Panthers jettisoned him Friday.
Only elite receivers command the money Muhammad was due, and you can't be one of the best receivers in the league when you're not the best receiver on your team.
What he has working for him: He's among the best blockers at his position in the league, he's big, he works hard, runs great routes and is in superb condition.
What he has working against him: He'll be 32 when the season begins, he is not terribly fast and he has gone through periods in which he's had trouble hanging onto the ball. Some of those periods lasted several years.
And he has never admitted he dropped a pass. One time I wanted to hear him say it. We all have to have goals, and this was one of mine. Now I'll never get the chance.
The bad part II: His two best seasons, 1999 and 2004, came when he was playing for a new contract.
The Panthers obviously are a better team if Muhammad is on it. When he was good, in 1999 and 2000, 2003 and 2004, he played with a quality quarterback. When the Panthers paired him with Steve Beuerlein and Jake Delhomme, Muhammad excelled.
Only when former coach George Seifert ran Beuerlein off and presented the offense to Jeff Lewis, who was to quarterbacks what Sean Gilbert was to defensive linemen, did Muhammad disappear.
Lewis, Gilbert and Seifert also disappeared, and have yet to emerge. Although Steve Smith emerged as Delhomme's principal target, Muhammad developed into one of the league's better complementary receivers.
Smith was the fearless fast guy with the good hands, and Muhammad played off him beautifully. When Smith got hurt -- he broke his leg in the 2004 opener against Green Bay -- Muhammad became the star.
Fans never embraced Muhammad the way they have Mike Minter or Jake Delhomme, Sam Mills or Wesley Walls. But he was more than a guy who played in Charlotte. His foundation raised thousands of dollars for kids, and when the school his children attended needed a speaker, it always could call on him.
Muhammad is a good player and a tough player and that will be his legacy here. Somebody is going to drop a multi-million-dollar contract on him, and he'll catch it.
You can't skew your salary cap to accommodate a player unless you know he will excel. With Muhammad, you don't know.
Carolina's concern has to be this. The two times the Panthers found a quarterback capable of throwing a forward pass, Muhammad thrived.
Tom Sorensen
We all have a budget, and if we bust it we better have a compelling reason. As good as Muhsin Muhammad was last season, he's not a compelling reason. The Carolina Panthers had no choice but to let him go.
Muhammad, who has been a Panther for life, was due a $10 million bonus next week and would have made $12.5 million next season. The only way he could have stayed with Carolina was to take a massive pay cut, and he chose not to, so he's gone. The Panthers jettisoned him Friday.
Only elite receivers command the money Muhammad was due, and you can't be one of the best receivers in the league when you're not the best receiver on your team.
What he has working for him: He's among the best blockers at his position in the league, he's big, he works hard, runs great routes and is in superb condition.
What he has working against him: He'll be 32 when the season begins, he is not terribly fast and he has gone through periods in which he's had trouble hanging onto the ball. Some of those periods lasted several years.
And he has never admitted he dropped a pass. One time I wanted to hear him say it. We all have to have goals, and this was one of mine. Now I'll never get the chance.
The bad part II: His two best seasons, 1999 and 2004, came when he was playing for a new contract.
The Panthers obviously are a better team if Muhammad is on it. When he was good, in 1999 and 2000, 2003 and 2004, he played with a quality quarterback. When the Panthers paired him with Steve Beuerlein and Jake Delhomme, Muhammad excelled.
Only when former coach George Seifert ran Beuerlein off and presented the offense to Jeff Lewis, who was to quarterbacks what Sean Gilbert was to defensive linemen, did Muhammad disappear.
Lewis, Gilbert and Seifert also disappeared, and have yet to emerge. Although Steve Smith emerged as Delhomme's principal target, Muhammad developed into one of the league's better complementary receivers.
Smith was the fearless fast guy with the good hands, and Muhammad played off him beautifully. When Smith got hurt -- he broke his leg in the 2004 opener against Green Bay -- Muhammad became the star.
Fans never embraced Muhammad the way they have Mike Minter or Jake Delhomme, Sam Mills or Wesley Walls. But he was more than a guy who played in Charlotte. His foundation raised thousands of dollars for kids, and when the school his children attended needed a speaker, it always could call on him.
Muhammad is a good player and a tough player and that will be his legacy here. Somebody is going to drop a multi-million-dollar contract on him, and he'll catch it.
You can't skew your salary cap to accommodate a player unless you know he will excel. With Muhammad, you don't know.
Carolina's concern has to be this. The two times the Panthers found a quarterback capable of throwing a forward pass, Muhammad thrived.
