QB

Matt Moore

(+) Moore should open the Pre-Season as the starter; he was 4-1 last year and can take care of the ball
(+) The Panthers have a great run game to help support Matt; this should help him feel comfortable running the offense
(+) Jake Delhomme is gone, so we needn’t worry that Coach Fox will decide he just can’t go thru life without him
(–) Jimmy Clausen was the first Carolina pick of the draft; 2nd round – 48th overall
(–) The Panthers, at this point, have zero #2 wideouts and a clear weakness at TE.  This should cause plenty of problems for Moore

RB

DeAngelo Williams

(+) Has averaged 1,316 rushing yards and 12.5 rushing TDs on over 5 yards/carry the last 2 years
(+) Has one of the easier rushing schedules in the NFL
(+) Carolina has ranked 6th and 2nd in rushing attempts the last 2 seasons
(+) His wear and tear has been minimal due to Jonathan Stewart taking roughly 1/3 of the team’s carries and short-yardage work the past 2 years
(+) Williams is in a contract year
(–) Stewart is just as good as he is and might start to take more carries if Carolina plans on him being their RB for the future
(–) Besides Steve Smith, there’s not enough talent at the WR and QB positions for defenses to worry about

Jonathan Stewart

(+) Has capitalized on every chance he’s gotten and proven to be just as good as the guy in front of him (DeAngelo Williams)
(+) He has an awesome offensive line in a run-based offense and is used as the goal-line back
(+) With DeAngelo’s contract up after this year, Carolina may look to get him more involved to take over in 2011
(+) Has a relatively easy schedule against the rush
(–) Will have to split carries, at best, with DeAngelo Williams
(–) Bruiser running style leaves him prone to injury and is coming off of offseason Achilles surgery
(–) Besides Steve Smith, there’s not enough talent at the WR and QB positions for defenses to worry about

WR

Steve Smith

(+) One of the toughest, most talented receivers in the league, hands-down
(+) Smith looked to have some serious chemistry going on with Matt Moore at the end of last season
(+) He seems to WILL his team to victory at least 1-2 times during the season
(–) Coming off of a broken arm in the offseason
(–) Plays in a major run-based system, doesn’t have a WR2 or WR3 to protect him, and is too small to do beat double-teams consistently
(–) Has one of the most inept coaches in league (WILL be fired mid-season)
(–) Likes to beat up his teammates (overly fiery temper)

Brandon LaFell

 (+) Because Dwayne Jarrett has been such a huge disappointment his first three years in Carolina, LaFell will have every opportunity to start
 (+) He’s a big, physical receiver who would work well opposite Steve Smith
 (+) Was a great red-zone target in college
 (+) Has soft hands, can catch balls in traffic, and doesn’t mind using his body to go over the middle
 (–) Doesn’t possess great speed and sometimes has trouble gaining separation from defenders
 (–) Has been said to lose focus during games
 (–) Is coming to a team that loves to run the ball (Carolina has been in the top-10 in rushing attempts and bottom-10 in passing attempts the last three years)

Dwayne Jarrett

TE

Jeff King

-  The Carolina Panthers came off a 12-4 season in 2008 where they reached the to begin a 2009 season with high expectations
-  They began the season 0-3 and many blamed Jake Delhomme for throwing so many picks
-  Delhomme was eventually replaced later in the season as starter after compiling a 4-7 record. Matt Moore, Delhomme’s replacement, won 4 of his 5 games at the end of the year.
-  The team finished 8-8 and are poised to head into 2010 with Matt Moore as their starting QB

2009 Total Points Rank:           17th (97 tot pts)
2009 Average/Game Rank:     26th (6.1 pts/gm)

FR=Fumbles Recoverd, PA=Points Allowed, FP Rank=Fantasy Points Rank, FP/G=Fantasy Points per Game

2010 Panthers Defensive Outlook... 

Is there anything Jon Beason can’t do?  Apparently there is, he cannot get the Panthers to Fantasy relevancy.  Being a good defense and being a good fantasy defense are two very different things, sure, they often line up, but what you’re looking for is an opportunistic defense that can carry the day on sack points throughout the season.  Caro has the turnovers, the pass defense, and Jon Beason, but they just don’t get to the QB enough.  Losing Julius Peppers this off season certainly won’t help matters.

They could surpise, but we can’t put them anymore than a mid level backup for your league. 

-  Jon Beason led the team with 142 tackles, Richard Marshall had 88
-  The Pantehers had 31 sacks last season
-  Leading sacker was Julius Peppers with 10.5
-  Who will replace the pass rush with Peppers now gone??
-  Richard Marshall and Chris Gamble led the team with 4 INTs each
-  Team forced 23 fumbles
-  Team forced a total of 45 turnovers

Team PYRO is hyper about Offensive Lines!  Understanding who will be blocking for the players on your roster is vital to your teams Fantasy success.  We take many factors into account when we rank these units, including weight, height, starts together as a unit, starts per year played, rushing average, sacks allowed, draft position, contact situation, pro bowl/all pro honors, Adjusted Line Yardage (ALY) and Adjusted Sack Rate (stats found at the link below).  O-Line Rank is one more piece of the puzzle that directs us towards delivering you a Fantasy Football Championship. 

Here is another great resource for looking at O-Lines…    http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

The fantasy lifeblood of the players sitting on your roster boils down to one EXTREMELY important stat.  Drum Roll please……………………………  ATTEMPTS!!!!  Ahhhh, there, we said it.  Before you can make a play, you gotta have the pill in your hands.  It’s pretty simple really, in the immortal words of the maligned Keyshawn Johnson… “Just give me the damn ball”.  There is no “I” in the word “team”, but don’t fool yourself, it’s in the word rotisserie twice. 

For the QB, it’s Pass Attempts, for the RB, it’s Carries, and for the WR and TE, it’s Targets.  If you look at the players in the league who are amassing large quantities of points, they are the ones who are seeing the rock come their way the most often.  Sure, you have to be good enough to do something with the p-skin when you get it, but never forget, you can’t make a play until you have the pill in your hands. 

The PYRO Offensive scheme charts aim to deliver you perhaps the most important information you could attain before and after draft day; Will my player get the chances they need to put out or will they be shut out?  It really boils down to what the offensive game plan on Sunday is.  These charts should provide some perspective on which teams are going to live by land and which are going to live by air. 

By Air

-  Matt Moore is positioned to be the teams starter from week 1 unless he is surprisingly supplanted by
        one of the two rookies
-  During  his 5 games started Moore threw for 1,053 yards and 8 TDs
-  Steve Smith injured his shoulder playing flag football but when he comes back he is clearly the best
        receiver on the team
-  The TE position was a position of decent output for the panthers with both TEs, King and Rosario,
        having 25 and 26 catches respectfully

By Land

-  The Panthers biggest strength was their run game. With two stars in the backfield, DeAngelo Williams
         and Jonathan Stewart the Panthers have one of the best running games in football
-  As a team the team had 2498 yards on 535 attempts along with 18 TDs on the ground.
-  The team ran the ball 53% of the time last season, so look for a similar ratio with a first year
         starting QB

RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number you see is Red Zone Touches (a pass attempt, a carry, or a target inside the 20 yard line).  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

% of Teams RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number is the players percentage of touches cut out against the total number of the Teams Red Zone plays called.  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.  So, if Thomas Jones received a touch in 45 percent of the Jets Red Zone calls last year, and Knowshon Moreno received a touch in 38 percent of all the Broncos plays last year, Jones would be ranked higher at his position than Moreno would be.

RZ TD Success Rate (Position Rank) = The first number is the percentage of which an individual player was able to score a TD against his total number of touches.   The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

Why Should I look at this Chart?

We couldn’t possibly take up a whole minute of your valuable fantasy football research time babbling about the importance of Attempts for your team and then leave out Red Zone Tendencies.

Yep, same drill with these charts, only a lot more important if scoring TD’s is what you’re leagues about.  The PYRO Red Zone Tendencies chart delivers a touchdown focused microcosm of the Offensive Scheme section.

To score a TD, your player needs a touch (pass att, carry, or target), and when they get a touch inside the 20, great things can happen for your Fantasy teams total points line.

It’s really easy, touches are King and converting a touch in the red is Fantasy Gold.

PYRO 2010 Panther Leaders in the Red Zone...

1. DeAngelo Williams
2. Jonathan Stewart
3. Steve Smith
4. Brandon LaFell
5. Jeff King

Grade* = Team PYRO took this number directly from NFL.COM - not a number devised here by us, you know, your friends who don’t sleep?  In other words, proceed with caution knowing the source, but we thought it was at least a worthy effort and could help you gauge just how solid the teams draft was.  We hope it helps, we think it will.

Draft Bits...

QB Jimmy Clausen was one of the big stories of the draft. With Matt Moore ahead of him, there’s a chance he could see some time this year, but Coach Fox replacing QB’s is like old people having sex…  pretty infrequent at best.  His best chance would be to win the job in the Pre Season.  If he gets in, he is in a good place to succeed.  Carolina has a great running game and a legit number one wideout in Steve Smith.  He’s likely the future, and should see some time late in the season if Carolina struggles. 
WR Brandon LaFell looks be slotted alongside Steve Smith as the number 2 wide for Carolina.  The QB situation is a bit concerning, but LaFell could see significant time on the field.
WR Armanti Edwards should win the Kick Return job.  He is completely Fantasy irrelevant.

Team PYRO considers our Strength of Schedule data an essential part of building you a Fantasy Championship.  This data is integral in helping us rank our players each year.  So far, so good.  We go to GREAT lengths to deliver you this PYRO nugget and we know nobody else in the industry is putting forth this type of effort, which puts you at a great advantage if you have been using us as your fantasy football research outlet.  Our SoS considers three factors when determining rankings for schedules for the upcoming year:

1) 75% weight is applied to the strength of defense from the previous season.  This is determine by fantasy points given up (run and pass).  Easy right? Here's where Team Pyro goes deep: before we get to that number, we factor in the quality of teams that these defenses had to face (essentially, a strength-of-schedule for the prior season).

 
2) 20% weight is applied to Free-Agent, Trade, and Injury Returns that will help or hurt the team for the current year.  We rank each players impact to their former team (2008), sum it all up, and then rank each team accordingly.

3) 5% weight is applied to the NFL drafincoming rookie impact.  It's a challenge to successfully gauge a rookie's effectiveness (too many Jamarcus Russells out there) which is why we valued it so low.  Some teams not only drafted highly touted defensemen this year, but will be immediately filling deficient positions from '09 with rookies, and usually, anything is an upgrade when you are starting a rookie.

Chart Key =

Ranking:  1=easiest  32=toughest

QB's, WR's, and TE's

(INDY) Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark have the EASIEST passing schedule in 2010

(BALT) Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin, and Todd Heap have the HARDEST passing schedule in 2010

RB's

(SF) Frank Gore has the EASIEST rushing schedule in 2010

(MIA) Ronnie Brown has the HARDEST rushing schedule in 2010

June 23, 2010

Signed DL Eric Norwood.

June 22, 2010

Signed QB Tony Pike.

June 17, 2010

Signed DE Greg Hardy, S Jordan Pugh and CB Robert McClain. Waived TE Andrew George, S Matt O'Hanlon, RB Daniel Porter, T Mark Ortmann, P Blake Haudan and PK Aaron Pettrey.

June 15, 2010

Signed WR David Gettis and CB R.J. Stanford.

June 10, 2010

Announced the retirement of WR Muhsin Muhammad.

June 8, 2010

Signed LB Thomas Davis and CB Richard Marshall to one-year tenders.

May 1, 2010

Signed RB Josh Vaughan and WR Trent Guy.

April 28, 2010

Traded S Chris Harris to Chicago for LB Jamar Williams.

April 16, 2010

Claimed KR Brian Witherspoon off waivers from Detroit.

April 12, 2010

Signed S Aaron Francisco.

April 6, 2010

Signed PK Todd Carter.

March 17, 2010

Agreed to terms with DE Tyler Brayton on a three-year contract.

March 15, 2010

Signed T Rob Petitti and DB Marcus Hudson.

March 8, 2010

Released FB Brad Hoover.

March 5, 2010

Released QB Jake Delhomme, DT Damione Lewis, DT Maake Kemoeatu, LB Na'il Diggs and LB Landon Johnson.

March 4, 2010

Released DT Damione Lewis

February 17, 2010

Signed DT Ed Johnson to a one-year contract.

January 30, 2010

Named Jeff Rodgers special teams coordinator.

January 21, 2010

Named Tyke Tolbert wide receivers coach.

January 18, 2010

Announced the retirement of receivers coach Richard Williamson.

January 14, 2010

Fired special teams coach Danny Crossman.