My Steve Smith NFL Blog

Jimmy Clausen certainly seems to have the swagger of a champion. He has spent an ample amount of time saying the right things around the Carolina Panthers training sessions, and the Panthers have not said a whole lot about who will be leading the Panthers into the 2010 season. They named Matt Moore as the starter during the offseason, but that was before they used their top draft pick to draft Notre Dame product Jimmy Clausen. Since then, they have been largely quiet about who will lead the Panthers.

Moore has to be the odds on favorite to be under center on opening day, but he faces a number of challenges moving forward. Most of the problems he has are not related to his football skills. Moore is one of many Carolina Panthers starters that are to be free agents come the off season, and the Panthers clearly are not going to be able to sign them all. That group of free agents also includes all-world running back DeAngelo Williams, and the Panthers are sure to have him at the top of their list. Where does Moore fit in?

It appears that Matt Moore is going to be moving on regardless of his performance on the field. Of course, this could change with an incredible on the field performance, but it is not likely. He simply is not playing in the type of offense that allows a quarterback to put up big numbers. Sure, he has Steve Smith and some interesting rookie options at the receiver position, but the Panthers are really all about running the football. With Williams and Jonathan Stewart on the team, that is not going to change. The bottom line is, Moore is likely playing to make his trade value go up this year.

The Panthers need to recognize this, and get what they can from Moore. If they hope to make any type of trade and get something either from Moore or potentially Clausen if Moore is as good as he appears, they need to establish that Moore is their starter. They have been a bit dicey about coming out and saying so. That has to hurt Moore's confidence.

Hand Moore the football, tell him that he is the man, and then let the chips fall where they may. If the Panthers do this and Moore flops, it is easy enough to then bring in Clausen to see what he has got. There is no advantage to the Panthers to do otherwise. Moore needs to be named the starter and either win or lose the position with his on field play. By making it up in the air, the Panthers are essentially telling the rest of the NFL that Moore is not as good as they thought. That could hurt his trade value going into a tough off season next year.

Rodney Southern has been writing on the Carolina Panthers and NFL action since they first came into the league. He runs popular blogs on several players and the Carolina Panthers in general, as well as making NFL predictions weekly. If you are looking for content to be written, or just simply want to enjoy reading the hottest Panther and NFL news, then you should check out his work today.

All Carolina Panthers fans need to head on over today for the hottest Panther action and most entertaining Panthers blogs on the Internet! Come visit Carolina Panther Fanz today! Carolina Panthers rule in 2010!

Time management is a grand idea when dealing with the things in your life. It's all about organization, efficiency and getting things done. As a tool for leading people through change, however, it misses the mark. In fact, when leading change, the last thing you want to do is manage your time. Instead, invest it in the people with potential to become change leaders themselves, and the returns you get may surprise you. Following is an incredible story that illustrates the point.

A few years ago I became upset when a player on the NFL's Carolina Panthers beat up a teammate and subsequently was suspended for one measly game by the team. I felt this punishment was too lax (after all, the attacked teammate ended up in the hospital) and wrote an angry letter to the teams' owner, Jerry Richardson, expressing as much. Mr. Richardson not only acknowledged my letter after I figured it would end up in the trash but he went one giant-step further. He offered to come visit my thirteen-year-old son, who was a big fan of the team's, and me, along with the star player in question, wide receiver Steve Smith.

They made the two-hour drive each way from team headquarters to my home and stayed with us for three hours. I learned that day that Steve Smith is a good man who made a bad mistake and was willing to learn and take responsibility for his actions. I admire him greatly for that. From Mr. Richardson, I learned the power of a leader being personally invested in future leaders who can make a difference.

Jerry Richardson invested time in me that day, but more importantly he invested time and energy in Steve Smith, someone with potential to lead changes on the field of play. I can only imagine the discussions they had as they drove back and forth and the bonds they forged and then carried forward. It's no coincidence that the following season Steve Smith emerged as the team's biggest star and helped lead them to a Super Bowl appearance.

Mr. Richardson identified Steve Smith as someone I call a 'diamond-in-the-rough,' a leader of untapped potential. Then, he personally invested his time and energy to help Steve unleash his potential. You can do much the same for the uncut diamonds in your organization. Here are five tips to help get you started.

Hold yourself accountable for people development. Common comfort zones such as crunching numbers and formulating strategy have their place, but both are useless if you don't have leaders in place to execute. Therefore, hold yourself accountable for the people side of the equation too. Recognize more pressing issues will always come up, so do whatever it takes to make finding and developing people a priority. Schedule time for building relationships into your calendar. Make a list or create a spreadsheet to track your progress if you must. Set goals for people development and hold yourself too them. Identify your Steve Smiths, or your "diamonds-in-the-rough." You can't invest in your future change leaders if you don't know who they are. Some 'diamonds' are obvious. Their talent and ability dazzles and stands out, but others may require energy and effort to unearth. This may be especially true if you work in a large organization where talented people lay buried within the bureaucracy. In this case, use Tom Peters' old technique of management by walking around. Get out of your comfort zone. Visit places in your organization where you don't know as many people. Talk to at least one new person a day. Take the new guy or woman to lunch. When you visit remote sites, make it a point to meet people relevant to your line of business, then, follow up with those you meet. Once you find them, don't delegate your 'diamond' development. Certainly Human Resources and your training department have a role to play in polishing future leaders' skills and capabilities. But the savviest leaders take personal responsibility for helping people grow. Once you have identified the people you think could be future change leaders for your organization, get personally involved in their development. Jerry Richardson answered my letter and placed the initial call to me. Jerry Richardson invited Steve Smith to join him on his visit. Jerry Richardson even drove the car himself. He didn't delegate these duties; he owned them as his. Poor time management? Perhaps. But, poor time management often creates the conditions for great change leadership to occur. Polish your gems by asking questions. The best leaders ask questions - lots of them. They don't invest much time in running around telling people what to do. In fact, they don't hire people who have to wait to be told what to do. Instead, they unleash talent by presenting problems and asking for ideas versus offering solutions. They understand their job is to lead, not do. They encourage people to think. They encourage people to act. They remove organizational roadblocks that hold talent back. They ask questions versus bark orders. Explore ideas and build relationships beyond the boundaries of work. Engage people on a variety of topics beyond your common industry issues. Refining someone's leadership often means helping them look beyond the confines of their everyday world for novel solutions and product innovations they can bring back to it. Become emotionally invested too. Spend time getting to know your future leaders. Find out what matters to them, inside and outside of work. Sometimes engaging in small talk can lead to big insights. You may discover a personal situation that is holding someone down or holding him or her back, such as the illness or loss of a loved one. You may not be able to do anything tangible to help, but simply knowing that you care can be reassuring and provide a boost. If you want people to be there for you when the going gets tough, as it inevitably will when things change, you need to personally invest in them first.
A Final Word

If investing in people sounds like a 'soft' activity to you, you're right. It is. But rare is the business that can consistently return good, hard results without making soft investments in people first. People determine whether you win or lose, whether the game is football or business or life. To better lead change, stop managing your time and start investing it in people. Then enjoy as the wins pile up.

Dr. Gary Bradt is a change and leadership expert, speaker and author of The Ring in the Rubble: Dig Through Change and Find Your Next Golden Opportunity http://www.theringintherubble.com His diverse client base includes IBM, FedEx, General Motors, American Express, Marriott International, The Weather Channel, The Department of Defense, and NASA. For many years he was endorsed by Spencer Johnson as the primary speaker worldwide on Johnson?s business bestseller Who Moved my Cheese? He resides in Summerfield, North Carolina with his wife and two children.

The Carolina Panthers weren't able to build on their 12-4 NFC South title season of 2008. They won just eight games last season as quarterback Jake Delhomme held the offense back with his turnover problems. The Panthers said goodbye to their long time quarterback this offseason, and now they will turn to fourth-year signal caller Matt Moore, who led the Panthers to four wins in five games in last year's stretch run. More than anything else, the Panthers need Moore to make smart decisions with the football as running backs Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams carry the offensive load.

The Panthers typically play good defense, and their performance in 2009 was no exception, but now they are about to experience life without stud pass rusher Julius Peppers.

Offense: Bookend tackles Jordan Gross and Jeff Otah, and Ryan Kalil (center) and Travelle Wharton (left guard), are all key pieces to one of the NFL's best run-blocking units. These guys do the heavy lifting while Stewart and Williams get all the glory. Thanks in part to the boys up front, this dynamic running back duo is perhaps the best in the NFL. Last season, Stewart and Williams combined for 2,250 yards and 17 scores, and both players averaged over five yards per tote. As a result, Carolina boasted the third-best running attack in the entire league.

The running game is certainly Carolina's bread and butter, but the Panthers will have to throw the football more effectively in 2010 if they hope to improve on last year's record. The Panthers finished No. 27 in the league in passing offense in 2009, averaging just 174.9 yards per game. Delhomme was throwing interceptions at such a high rate that the coaching staff completely lost faith in the passing game.

The Panthers are hoping that Moore can pick up where he left off last season. They don't need him to be great, just good. The Panthers will certainly take his 2009 performance when he completed 62 percent of his throw for 1,053 yards and eight touchdowns with two interceptions in limited action.

When the Panthers do take to the air, Moore will be looking to hook up with No. 1 wideout Steve Smith. In a down year, Smith still hauled in 65 passes for 982 yards and seven scores.

Defense: Carolina was one of 11 teams to give up less than 20 points per game in 2009. Of those teams, only two failed to make the playoffs. Had the offense been better, Carolina would have had a great opportunity to punch its playoff ticket for a second straight season.

The Panthers were one of the better defensive teams on the all-important third down. They ranked No. 7 in the NFL in third down defense, only giving up the first down 35.5 percent of the time.

This Panthers could slip on third now that Peppers is in the Windy City. His pass rushing ability was crucial on that down last season. Peppers is the Panthers' all-time sacks leader. They're really going to miss a guy that recorded double-digit sacks year in and year out, especially since no one else on the roster had more than five last season.

While I'm not sure who is going to step up to provide some heat on the quarterback (maybe Tyler Brayton), I am sure that the Panthers will need even more leadership and stellar play out of Jon Beason, Thomas Davis and Chris Gamble to help make up for such a huge loss.

Prediction: 3rd NFC South - The Saints, Falcons and Panthers will all contend for the division title in what is becoming one of the NFL's toughest divisions. Any of these three teams can win it, but right now the Panthers look to be a little behind the other two. The NFL is a quarterback's league, and the Falcons and the Saints both have Pro Bowl-caliber signal callers. Be sure to check out my 2010 NFL predictions to see which team I have winning the division.

There has never been a repeat champion of the NFC South Division and the Carolina Panthers were the victims of the South curse last season, following up their 2008 12-4 record and division title with an 8-8 finish and no playoffs last year. And really that 8-8 record was a bit misleading because Carolina had to win its final three games to manage a .500 mark.

Jake Delhomme's turnover-plagued 2008 postseason continued on into 2009 leading Matt Moore, who led the mini-resurgence late in the year, to eventually replace him. Moore is now the starter until 2010 NFL Draft pick Jimmy Clausen is ready, while Delhomme is now a Cleveland Brown. The Panthers ranked just 27th in the NFL in passing last season and may not be much better this year with some major receiver questions outside of Steve Smith, who himself is recovering from a broken arm. Dwayne Jarrett seems likely to start opposite Smith.

But let there be no doubt: this will be a run-heavy team behind DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, arguably the NFL's best running back tandem. Thanks to those two, the Panthers led the NFC in rushing last year and were third overall. Stewart and Williams became the sixth pair of teammates in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards in the same season.

The defense could take a big hit this season as star defensive end Julius Peppers left as a free agent for the Bears - meaning only one defensive line starter is back from last season. And linebacker Thomas Davis, the team's best pass-rushing linebacker, was lost for the season this summer with a torn ACL.

Carolina coach John Fox has never coached two playoff teams in a row at Carolina. If that streak runs to three, look for Fox to be gone and the team to try and lure Bill Cowher out of retirement.

The oddsmakers put Carolina's 2010 NFL season wins total at 'over/under' 7.5. Let's break down the 2010 Carolina Panthers schedule:

Week 1: Sunday, Sep. 12, at NY Giants, 1:00 PM

Week 2: Sunday, Sep. 19, Tampa Bay, 1:00 PM

Week 3: Sunday, Sep. 26, Cincinnati, 1:00 PM

Week 4: Sunday, Oct. 3, at New Orleans, 1:00 PM

Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 10, Chicago, 1:00 PM

Week 6: BYE

Week 7: Sunday, Oct. 24, San Francisco, 1:00 PM

Week 8: Sunday, Oct. 31, at St. Louis, 1:00 PM

Week 9: Sunday, Nov. 7, New Orleans, 1:00 PM

Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 14, at Tampa Bay, 1:00 PM

Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 21, Baltimore, 1:00 PM

Week 12: Sunday, Nov. 28, at Cleveland, 1:00 PM

Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 5, at Seattle, 4:15 PM

Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 12, Atlanta, 1:00 PM

Week 15: Sunday, Dec. 19, Arizona, 1:00 PM

Week 16: Thursday, Dec. 23, at Pittsburgh, 8:20 PM

Week 17: Sunday, Jan. 2, at Atlanta, 1:00 PM

This is ranked as the seventh-easiest schedule in the NFL this season, with an opponents' 2009 winning percentage of.477 (122-134). Carolina has just five games against playoff teams from last season - it helps that only one NFC South team (Saints) made it.

The Giants will no doubt be out for revenge in the grand opening of the New Meadowlands Stadium as Carolina crushed the G-Men in Week 16 last year in the final of the old Giants Stadium. The Panthers have opened as seven-point underdogs.

Carolina really needs to be strong in the next five games because that stretch likely will determine its NFL betting lines with four of the games at home and only one against a playoff team from last year (Cincinnati) although the Bears and Niners could be in 2010. Should be interesting to see what Peppers does against Panthers star tackle Jordan Gross in that Chicago game.

That next three-game stretch also isn't that bad. Sure, the Saints are defending champs, but Carolina gave them trouble last year, winning the season finale at home (when New Orleans had zip to play for). Carolina has have won 11 of its last 15 against the Saints and hasn't been swept by them since 2001. The Panthers swept the Bucs last year and are 11-3 against them since 2003. The Rams haven't won at home since midway through the 2008 season.

Baltimore will be tough to beat before the Panthers could see Delhomme when they go to Cleveland on Nov. 28, although if Delhomme plays like he did last year he'll be benched by then. That matchup with Arizona is strangely the ninth year in the past 10 these two have played. Carolina has won six consecutive regular-season games over the Cardinals.

It's clear not much is expected of Carolina considering its only prime-time schedule game is that Week 16 matchup in Pittsburgh. The Panthers aren't a very good cold-weather team so it's hard to see them winning there.

If Matt Moore is just OK, this schedule really seems quite easy. I'd say that eight wins is probably very doable and that 'over' 7.5 seems like a lock, although the NFL Power Rankings indicate this is not a playoff team.

Doc Moseman is one of the pioneers of college football and the NFL Handicapping industry. Check out his Web site for up-to -the-minute NFL Odds and his famous winning college football and NFL picks.

The Carolina Panthers are a member of the South Division of the NFC. They are based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but the team serves as a representative to both North and South Carolina. Along with the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers history is short, as they became part of the NFL in 1995. An impressive accomplishment in Carolina Panthers history is their Super Bowl appearance in 2003, only 8 years since their inception. When the Carolina Panthers first became part of the NFL, they were a member of the NFC West division. In 2002, they were moved to the NFC south division, which was made more sense considering their location. The Carolina Panthers mascot is Sir Purr, and they are managed by Marty Hurney.

Carolina Panthers history started in the late 1980s after the approval of a professional NBA expansion team. The Charlotte Hornets, who are now the New Orleans Hornets, the basis for former Baltimore Colts player Jerry Richardson to discuss the possibility of having an NFL expansion team as well. His company, Richardson Sports, chose an uptown location in Charlotte where they would build a privately financed stadium that seated more than 70,000 fans. Everyone joined the effort to show their support for the cause, an effort to prove to the NFL that Charlotte was worthy of an NFL team. Preseason games were held in the area in 1989, 1990, and 1991, which were all sold out games, again as an effort to show support for the NFL. In 1992, expansion teams were discussed in Charlotte, as well as Baltimore, St. Louisville, Memphis, and Jacksonville. The vote was delayed until 1993, considering there was still a dispute within the league. It was on October 26, 1993 that the NFL announced that Carolina would be the 29th franchise for the NFL, which made them the first new team in the league since the 70s.

Carolina Panthers history during the 1995 Season; Dom Capers was appointed as the head coach, and they acquired their team through a newly formed method of drafting. Aside from popular draft picks like Rod Smith, Mark Carrier, and Kerry Collins, the Carolina Panthers were also entitled to use the free agency process. A notable aspect of Carolina Panthers history is that they won their first game of their career, playing the Hall of Fame Game against the Jaguars, who was also a new team that year. Of course this game was known as the "Battle of the Big Cats", we'll let you figure out why. The Panthers new stadium was still under construction, so all their home games were played at Clemson University.

Carolina Panthers history was rough in the late 90s; Rae Carruth was sent to prison for conspiring to murder his pregnant girlfriend. At that same time, Kerry Collins was cut from the team due to problems with alcoholism and accusations of making racial slurs about his teammates. Fred Lane, who had traded to the Indianapolis Colts in 2000, was killed by his wife shortly after trading teams. During this time, the team made no notable appearances on the field, and Dom Capers was let go after the 98 season. In 1999, George Seifert was hired to replace him, as he had won two Super Bowl titles with the 49ers. However, his time with the team was disastrous, and he was immediately let go in 2001. The Panthers attempt to acquire Steve Spurrier and Tony Dungy in 2002 were unsuccessful. So they chose John Fox as their head coach, who was a former defensive coordinator for the Giants. In 2003, Carolina was a much better team, landing them in Super Bowl XXXVIII, which they ended up winning! Considering their short history, this Super Bowl appearance was a great accomplishment and something notable to go in Carolina Panthers history!

Copyright (c) 2009 Matthew Love

Matt Love FootballCollectibles.com http://www.footballcollectibles.com/CarolinaPanthers.html
Carolina Panthers History, Blogs, Articles, Shopping and Memorabilia.

Who would have thought that the Carolina Panthers would start out the 2009 football season with an 0-2 record? This is the team that finished last year at 13-3, and looked better and better with each week that passed.

The Carolina Panthers were a dangerous football team in 2008. Armed with one of the best wide receivers in the game (Steve Smith), a great quarterback (Jake Delhomme), and arguably the best running back in football in 2008 (DeAngelo Williams), the Panthers were dangerous. Add a potent defense to the mix that no team wanted to face, and Carolina had the makings of a team with legitimate Super Bowl potential.

Hopes were equally high for the team entering the 2009 season. Nearly everyone was back from the year before, and things looked to pick up exactly where they left off in 2008.

For some reason, things haven't worked out this way thus far. In week 1, the Carolina Panthers were embarrassed by the Eagles on their own field. They lost this game by a score of 38-10. Their defense was pitiful, and Jake Delhomme looked just as dreadful at the quarterback position.

Week 2 looked somewhat better, but as they say, a loss is a loss. The team traveled to Atlanta for a matchup against the Falcons, and lost this game 28-20. While they looked a little better than they did in week 1, Delhomme was still less effective than usual, and the team failed to show the defensive dominance they exhibited week in and week out in 2008.

The Panthers travel to Dallas for a week 3 Monday Night Football game. Is an 0-3 start in the cards?

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