Carolina Panthers: Maybe Wide Receiver Should Be Addressed
The Carolina Panthers may need to broaden their focus beyond obvious needs in free agency.
The Carolina Panthers are supposedly set at wide receiver. Right? We have been talking of left tackles and defensive ends. Those are the trouble spots, aren’t they?
Perhaps the wide receiver position is more important than the current situation suggests. Ted Ginn is an unrestricted free agent. He is thirty-two and his qualifying aspect is his speed. His hands are always a little suspect. If he were Steve Smith then this would be a simple thing.
Deep shots are currently Ginn’s domain on the Panthers. This is because Kelvin Benjamin has not regained the form he had as a rookie. He was not able to gain separation last year even though he still showed the ability to catch the ball in tough spots once again. Ginn would no doubt return if asked.
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Cam Newton is not Tom Brady, but upgrading the receivers can help the value of Newton’s play. Brady’s best year was the year when the Patriots mated their star quarterback to a trio of Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Donte Stallworth. That was speed and size in Moss while there was Welker to work the slot.
The Panthers talked to free agent Victor Cruz about their own slot position. They need someone in that spot to take attention away from Greg Olsen in those routes.
Which brings us back to Ginn. If the Panthers are looking at Ginn and have money, then maybe there is another answer. This would be something different than placing Cruz in the slot. This would be an attempt to bring in DeSean Jackson from the Redskins as suggested by Bill Barnwell of ESPN.
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Jackson would bring the deep threat and better hands than Ginn. He would also be two years younger and his general attitude could mesh well with Newton’s. There is the danger of him doing something silly, but at this point in his career, Jackson is less likely to cause those problems.
A Benjamin, Jackson, Cruz, and Funchess receiving corps would be the best group the Panthers would have had since the Smith, Muhammad, Proehl, and Dyson group of the Fox Super Bowl team.