The Panthers are scheduled to begin their last week of Summer School today, the last chance for all of the rookies and new players to get a chance integrate with the team and learn the playbook before training camp, which starts July 25th.

Obviously the biggest storyline of the last two weeks has been the presence of Jake Delhomme under center for Carolina. With Delhomme back, there seems to be that old air of confidence about the team. Delhomme’s rehab has gone great, and it appears that all the time he had off to work on his physical condition, actually made his arm stronger. Delhomme’s is getting worked off the pitch counts that he was under during minicamp, and has made of number of passes where he has had to putt something on the throw, a sign that Delhomme at least hasn’t lost any arm strength.

Not only has Delhomme’s arm seemed to have healed, but the roster additions from the draft and free agency, also appear to be working out very well, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Panther’s best player, Steve Smith. Smith said Thursday that he thought the Panthers had “finally made an upgrade (offensively)”. It appears that the new roster additions the Head Coach John Fox and General Manager Marty Hurney made are working out so far, at least in Smith eyes.

With a week still left to go, there are still plenty of things each player has work on, but everyone is moving in the right direction. Of course everything looks great now, Delhomme looks healthy, the offensive line looks solid, and the Panthers look like they could again be contenders, but so do the other 31 teams in the league that are just as excited about their new players. The real answers will come during training camp and then the regular season.

Also, Smith had high praise for one free agent pickup in particular: Keydrick Vincent. Smith said that Vincent has looked “outstanding”, which may indicate that Vincent, who was brought in to battle for the right guard position, has the edge right now.

And, if anyone is getting worried about D.J. Hackett’s knee injury, he returned to practice last week. There is really no need to worry because the trainers are using this time to get Hackett healed up, and are just being very cautious.