A spoiled season

After bad apples removed, overall team chemistry better, players say

By Darin Gantt - Darin Gantt

CHARLOTTE -- All offseason, all anyone involved with the Carolina Panthers could talk about was how well everyone was getting along, how positive the atmosphere was.

So it stands to reason that with all the turnover on the roster and elsewhere, there must have been internal problems before.

Several times through the preseason, quarterback Jake Delhomme has referenced the "addition by subtraction." He winces when asked for specifics, but it's clear guys are gone and they're glad.

"I just mean that we've got the right guys in there now," Delhomme said. "You need the right mix. I'm not trying to say one person or people in particular at all. I'm just saying you need the right chemistry. That's what makes teams go.

"They can be good teams, but when you have that chemistry, ... I just think we have it now."

It's obvious that wasn't always the case the past two years, but especially last year.

Granted, teams that go 9-7 and go to the playoffs tend to get along better than 7-9 clunkers. But a number of players said beyond the obvious reasons for the 2007 decline -- chief among them Delhomme's injury absence -- was an undercurrent of distrust, even antipathy, in the locker room.

This year's fresh air has cleared some eyes and minds.

One of the entrenched veterans summed it up, when asked about the offseason binge and purge that created a new atmosphere.

"We got rid of some of the ... holes, is what we did," the player said simply.

It doesn't take a long look at the changes to get an idea who he might have been talking about, but the list might include a few names people don't suspect.

Defensive tackle Kris Jenkins was not a popular guy throughout the locker room -- largely for his refusal to attend offseason workouts and practices -- and his early season calling-out of the team didn't help. Players didn't like being scolded by a guy who wasn't working as hard as the rest of them. But as it turns out, he wasn't the only one.

The turning point early was a Sept. 30 loss to Tampa Bay. It capped a two-week spree in which the Panthers lost three of their five captains (Delhomme, Dan Morgan and Nick Goings) to season-ending injuries.

"As a team collectively, we have no heart, we have no energy, we have no pride," Jenkins said after that game, and followed it up the next day with another diatribe about the team's dysfunction. That was followed by a players-only meeting, called by veteran guard Mike Wahle.

As it turns out, Wahle might not have been the leader he was believed to be. The general response to the meeting -- according to several who were in the room -- was a lot of eye-rolling.

"All the talk," one player said. "Was being done by two guys nobody listened to."

They wondered what weird turn the season would take next.

Mostly, it turned straight into the rocks, under the incapable leadership of quarterback David Carr.

He's acknowledged that he wasn't ready for what was thrown on him, but that was clear from the start. Carr came shell-shocked from Houston, picking the Panthers largely based on the hope that he wouldn't have to play. By the end of the year, he got his wish. Coach John Fox held him out of home games because he didn't want him booed out of his own stadium.

That might have stemmed from his preparation, as some teammates wondered from the time camp started whether he was taking his job seriously, or looking for a (well-) paid vacation.

"The only thing that was consistent about him was the hair and gloves," one teammate said.

On the surface, Carr seemed well-liked, because of his easy sense of humor and lack of ego. But now teammates tell a different tale -- partly looking for a scapegoat but also shining the light on what they considered a farce.

One of the mid-season flashpoints for the Panthers was the day wide receiver Steve Smith scolded then-rookie Dwayne Jarrett, telling him in front of reporters that he needed to watch more film. The shirt-tail to that story is that Smith was frustrated because Jarrett had missed a hastily called meeting of the team's receivers and quarterbacks, as they were scrambling trying to find some cohesion.