The Panthers ended their first official mini-camp last weekend, where Head Coach John Fox and General Manager Marty Hurney had their first opportunity to evaluate the new members of the team.

“It was really good. We’ve had an excellent off-season. We’ve got some new guys, some guys we know about like Mushin Muhammad who has come back to us. I feel good about our leadership in there. With some additions, I think we’ve got some new energy.” said Coach Fox on his first impressions of mini-camp.

The highlight of the weekend was Quarterback Jake Delhomme’s first practice since having to undergo Tommy John surgery last October. Delhomme was able to through a real football, upgrading from the Nerf ball he has been using the last seven weeks. Though he was kept on a low pitch count-34 throws to be exact-Delhomme seemed very positive.

“It feels great,” he said. “The rehab has gone great. We have been cautious and haven’t had any setbacks. I was very satisfied today.” This is reassuring to all the Panthers fans who saw Delhomme drop down in agony in the third game against Atlanta, causing any hopes of reaching the playoffs to crumble. Fox even has said that Delhomme’s arm looks “stronger than ever”.

Many people feel that the fate of Carolina’s season rests on the ability of Delhomme to stay healthy, missing a total of 16 games in two seasons. But even if Delhomme’s arm doesn’t hold off there is still promise. Matt Moore who started the last three games of the season went 2-1 in those three games, all of them against playoff teams. Matt Moore showed in those games that he has many of the intangibles needed to be a successful quarterback in the NFL, something David Carr clearly does not have. Coach Fox and Marty Hurney clearly think highly enough of Matt by not signing any veteran quarterback helps in the off-season.

Some other notable happenings over the weekend were Julius Peppers switching from left to right end.

“We’ll try him there a little bit. He might go back to left, but I can’t answer that. He’s a more natural left-handed stance guy.” said Coach Fox.

To put it nicely the Panthers need to do something. Peppers racked up a grand total of 2.5 sacks last year, his career worst by a mile. Some said he had an illness over training camp and he was never able to recover, but I think it may be something more that that, looking all the way back to his 2006 season, while he did compile 13 total sacks that season, 11 of those sacks came in the first nine games of the season. This means that Peppers has gone a total of 25 games recording only 4.5 sacks. Yeah it may be nothing, hopefully it is nothing, but it is possible that last year may have been more than just a bad season. Maybe with the changes that are going to occur in the next few month Peppers can get back to his usual pro bowl level, but we will have to see.

3rd round pick Charles Godfrey was thrown right in with the first team, playing safety. Fox and Hurney clearly want to convert the cornerback (though he started several positions in collage, including safety) into one of the teams two starting safeties.

Rookie Jonathan Stewart did not practice because he is recovering from toe surgery, but his doctors agree that he is on track to be able to start practicing in training camp on July 25.

Tags: carolina panthers, john fox, marty hurney, Training Camp