10 Positives For The Panthers Heading Into 2019/2020 Season
Now that the dust has truly settled let's take away some positives from a TOUGH year last year. Here are 10 things to be happy about from last year/going forward Panther Nation!
1. We clearly have a great owner that cares about the team and wants to build a consistent winning environment. Tepper is visibly working toward change. It's one thing to talk about it and so far in his brief tenure it also looks like he is going to be about it!
2. Marty Hurney is unrecognizable anymore in the best sense of the word. There was a time where he would drop the craziest contracts which put us into cap hell but since he took over again after gettleman left he has been great with money and has been making boss moves. For example the Kelvin Benjamin trade that nobody understood in the moment but makes all the more sense now
3. Speaking of boss moves? You know the moves that nobody likes like not resigning Davis....as much as that hurts it's actually a good thing for our future and this is why. The fact that we're willing to cut fan favorites like a TD shows that our front office is now ready to make the tough/bold moves that need to be made to form a winning culture. Why do you think teams like the Pats have such a winning formula??? Cause they don't just cut players once they hit the wall they cut them a year EARLY so there team never has to go through the struggles of a declining player and then they're one year ahead of schedule on the next prospect. Again it might hurt like hell but if we truly care about winning this is a good sign for the future.
4. going young! We're starting to clear the decks with all of this older last leg talent and are making way for a younger/faster/more explosive defense. Even if this doesn't work it is the right thing to do and will at least be exciting! And for our management to realize it doesn't need to be a complete blowup/rebuild mode is a good sign too. We still have more than capable pieces but some pieces we got rid of could give us a better overall team by adding in fresher legs and not getting emotionally attached to the older players.
5. Not being stubborn and trying something new. I mean just a few years ago we were all on this let's get Cam big receivers hype train and we clearly hopped off it which is great. Might seem simple enough but alot of people will run something like that in the ground to prove they're right. It's nice to see us admit we were wrong and go in a new direction.
6. DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel. This duo weren't getting the reps they probably deserved early in the year and despite the losing streak the second half of the year and the first half of the year not getting their desired snaps they both had moments of brilliance and look like they could be a formidable duo for years to come. We haven't had a consistent 1-2 punch at Wideout since Smith and Muhammed and that long layoff in between may finally be over.
7. McCaffrey is a bad BADDD man! If his Rookie season wasn't great enough his sophomore season just further validated that he was worth the high pick and put all of the doubters to bed. It'll definitely be interesting to see what he does with the rest of his career.
8. No Concussions for Luke last year. What's so great about this you wonder? Well concussions seemed to be coming in waves for our superstar MLB and leader of our defense and there was starting to be legitimate worry if he was going to have to call it an early career but last year he came out the other end squeeky clean and it looks like for now at least that we have avoided another terrible Dan Morgan nightmare all over again.
9. Rivera with pressure on him! Rivera can be an average coach at best and become very complacent when he has job security. On the other hand when he's not comfortable and his feet are to the fire he's shown he can be a very effective head coach and with tepper wanting results NOW and him laying out a plan and foundation to Rivera there will be alot of pressure on Rivera to execute which as I stated above tends to bring out his best coaching.
10. Even though it could be a bad thing if it goes the other direction this is kind of a make or break year for Cam. If his shoulder gives out again idk how we can continue to stick with him any longer but...the good side of this is we're going to have a motivated QB that's out there to prove the world wrong and that just so happens to be when not only Cam but our ENTIRE team plays their best.