Where to go from here

I had a couple of comments from people on my last post asking about the Panthers, and it's probably better to address all of the Panthers woes in a separate post. It may get a little lengthy.

My initial thought of Carolina looking like a 7-9 team seems very generous right now, seeing the Panthers would have to go 3-2 to get there.

The remaining schedule is as follows, with games where the Panthers will not be favored in bold:

Dec. 2: vs San Francisco
Dec. 9: at Jacksonville
Dec. 16: vs Seattle
Dec. 22: vs Dallas
Dec. 30: at Tampa Bay

The Panthers better win against the 49ers this week, because the schedule is brutal the rest of the way.

The game at Jacksonville and the home game against Dallas are practically guaranteed losses. My best guess now it Carolina will find a way to beat the Niners, then spring an upset on either Seattle or Tampa and finish 6-10. But I wouldn't be surprised if the team finished 4-12 either.

A couple of other thoughts:

I've heard from a bunch of people that this season cannot be necessarily blamed on coach John Fox or general manager Marty Hurney because the Panthers have been beset by a rash of injuries. I don't buy that for a second. It's the responsibility of the general manager - and coach, too - to put together a team that is capable of overcoming big injuries. Jake Delhomme has gone down with a major elbow injury, and might never be the same again. The Panthers brass hand-picked David Carr as the much-needed backup, and it was a bad signing. Thinking back to when it happened, more teams were interested in Trent Dilfer than Carr, who got serious consideration from only two teams.

The team also relied way too much on Dan Morgan, who will almost certainly be forced to retire now, and tries to skirt through positions with little to no depth.

Carolina essentially has three defensive ends - Julius Peppers, Mike Rucker and Stanley McClover. Charles Johnson has been inactive this year. At linebacker, the story is the same. Beason is a monster player, and Thomas Davis and Na'il Diggs are quite serviceable, but the lone backup who could actually produce is James Anderson. The secondary is patchwork. Richard Marshall is a solid option at No. 3 cornerback, but Panthers management stubbornly refused to get a big safety. Then they tried to sell Deke Cooper as a viable option, even though he's been cut by several teams throughout the league.

Offensively, it's not a lot better. DeShaun Foster got a a fistful of money for having produced very little as a Panther, and the zone blocking schemes have been mediocre to this point.

I'm not trying to blast this team, but if you take a long, honest look at evaluating this roster from the top down, it's not very good.

The big question is where does that leave Fox and Hurney at the end of the season? The team needs to show at least some signs, or both will be gone. Both may be gone regardless. But if the Panthers show some life in these last few weeks and finish on a high note - say 7-9 - that could be enough.