The anti-war youth movement of the 1960s had as one of its rallying cries: "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30!"
The Panthers have seemingly co-opted that still-popular slogan (shown above on a magnet available at a website called cafepress.com) for their 2010 team.
As my colleague Darin Gantt notes in this story, the Panthers have only five players 30 or over on the roster as the 2010 training camp begins. They are OT Jordan Gross, K John Kasay (the only one over 40), P Jason Baker, WR Steve Smith and DE Tyler Brayton.
Wow -- talk about going young and cheap. Here's my preview of the 2010 camp -- I think it's going to be a really difficult one for those players remaining. Coach John Fox will want to impose his stamp upon all these new players and also -- given the fact he only has a year left on his contract and may well be coaching somewhere else in 2011 -- he doesn't want to go out with a whimper.
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3 comments:
I really think you are being too simplistic about this youth movement.
For one, the Panthers simply had to get faster. While they had no business losing either the Buffalo or Jets games last year, in the losses to Atlanta, New Orleans and Philly, we were a step behind on every play and were never a threat to win. The lack of speed was obvious.
Secondly, all this talk of "going cheap" is making Jerry Richardson out to be as bad as Carl Pohlad was as the Twins owner in the 1990s - he was only interested in the cheapest possible roster, regardless if the roster didn't have a snowball's chance in hell to win. I don't see anything wrong with not paying $20 mill for a DE who frequently takes plays off. Jerry isn't going with all this youth simply to field the cheapest possible roster. He's trying to position the Panthers so that whatever the financial situation is under the new collective bargaining agreement, the Panthers will be able to take advantage. It makes sense to field a roster with a $70 million payroll. If the owners break the union again and get a $75 million cap, the other 31 teams are going to have to cut half their rosters to get under the cap and we'll be the only ones in a position to take on payroll. If the players break the owners and get a similar (or better) salary structure to the just-expired deal, most of the teams will be right around the cap and the Panthers will have more money than anyone, and will be able to pay for the best players available to fill whatever holes they have.
And I still say that just because the Panthers have a roster full of players that are young and/or not nationally known, that doesn't mean the young guys cannot play. Just because you haven't heard of them doesn't mean they suck. I think we have plenty of talent and I stick to my draft-day prediction that we will finish with a winning record.
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