MVN - Most Valuable Network

Looking to the future, garnering some hope…

Since John Fox came in as head coach in 2002, the Panthers have jumped back and forth between making and missing the playoffs. That will finally end this year, but there’s no reason to think next year won’t be a lock for the playoffs.

First, some reasoning for why you should feel so comforted. Tampa Bay is old. Really old. I can’t find stats on it, but the Bucs must have one of the oldest average roster ages. The big problem for them is that they ride the vets. Jeff Garcia is 37. Joey Galloway is 36. Derrick Brooks is 34. Ronde Barber is 32. Ike Hilliard is 31. All are stars leading but Bucs this season, and they won’t be able to endure this season after season, and there will a transition period for the youth.

The Atlanta Falcons are a mess. Bobby Petrino leaving didn’t help, but he’s a college coach, so what did you expect? It’s obvious this team will be a wreck for at least one more year — longer if they don’t get a serious coach (i.e. Marty Schottenheimer or Bill Cowher) and some good draft picks to turn things around quickly.

New Orleans is the one team bound to bounce back and make noise in the NFC South. They have far too much talent to be as bad as this season for too long. Once they develop some chemistry, they’ll be set.

Then there’s Carolina.  So much potential.  Carolina is just a game out of being in the playoff hunt, and that’s AFTER:

-4 different starting quarterbacks, from a solid starter looking to have his best season, to a wash-up former first pick, to by far the oldest quarterback in the league (oldest EVER to win a game), to a young rookie quarterback
-an unusually down year Julius Peppers
-yet another season with an early exit by Dan Morgan
-still no clear #2 receiver
-a season in which Steve Smith barely (relative to usual production) touched the ball
-little nagging injuries galore, like a team-wide plague

These are all such easy fixes.  The Panthers will be fired up next year and ready to snag the division, which it is due to do, based on the NFC South division winner rotation (2002 - Tampa Bay; 2003 - Carolina; 2004 - Atlanta; 2005 - Tampa Bay; 2006 - New Orleans; 2007 - Tampa Bay).

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.