In order to improve from season to season, players must get better.  Believe it or not rookies can help improve a team more than by performing well.  You constantly hear that Luke Kuechly or Joe Adams had great stats but never how they served as a leader to the team.

Ron Rivera stated earlier this week that once Jon Beason was out for the season, the defense lacked communication.

Even if all of the rookie, which is very unlikely, are not starters, then if the starter were to get injured they must bring that leadership to fill in the void.  While coaches would want to have the void filled statistically, the rest of the defense or offence could suffer without that glue to make them a team.

I look at two rookies who I think will make an impact immediately:  Luke Kuechly and Joe Adams!

If Beason or Davis were to get hurt again, knock on wood, then it is important that Kuechly communicate and keep a struggling defense in tact.  Kuechly is a leader that can still be heard even if Beason is on the field, you could say that he has Beason’s blind side!

Joe Adams not only will bring a dead special teams back to life again, but he will encourage everyone in the process.  Many people that meet Adams refer to the Tennessee game, where he broke nine tackles on a punt return touchdown.  It’s that fight in him to never give up on a play that will really boost the spirits on special teams.

He will also carry a momentum to the offence to help them start closer to the endzone and finish drives more efficiently.

Other rookies like Amini Silatolu and Josh Norman will be two rookies that will give a good competition for there respective positions, but will more than likely extend on being a leader under Chris Gamble and Jordan Gross.

Rookie punter Brad Nortman will have to show that he can handle competition being that he is not the only punter on the team anymore, thanks to Nick Harris.

Frank Alexander will defiantly need to step up if he wants to start.  The opposite end of Charles Johnson needs to apply pressure and the only way I see Alexander showing leadership is that he steps up and plays big like he did in Oklahoma.

DJ Campbell, the last of the draft picks, can really only watch as the position of safety has seven people in the depth chart, with him being last.

It will be interesting to see how the rookies step up from here, but one thing that I do know is that the Carolina Panthers will most likely have improvement to their 6-10 season a year ago.

July 31, 2011; Spartanburg, SC, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton (1) signs autographs during training camp at Gibbs Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-US PRESSWIRE

With only one day left until rookie training camp starts for the Carolina Panthers, it is hard to know exactly how good the Panthers did in the draft until those players step out onto the practice field.

Obviously the players that will be looked to do the most are the players that got drafted.  I look for Luke Kuechly to impress the coaching staff immediately.  As if he hasn’t impressed them enough already, Kuechly said that he can’t wait to get going on the training camps and to show how good he is.

DE Frank Alexander and CB Josh Norman are going to be looked at heavily during the rookie training camp because they were sleepers in the draft that can be a great steal for the Panthers.  They showed great things in college and look to try and earn a starting job.

The one thing I will be looking forward to is the undrafted rookies.  Don’t get me wrong, I defiantly want to see our draftees also, but I haven’t seen game film on the undrafted rookies as I have the ones that were drafted.

There were twelve undrafted rookies signed after the draft last week, and you can look for all of them to compete for a job on the roster.  Carolina picked up three running backs, four wide receivers, two offensive linemen, one tight end, and two defensive linemen.

Head coach Ron Rivera stated that this year is going to be much harder than last year, in terms of practice.  “It’s got to be tough, it’s time to say we have come a long way since last year and even a long way since two years ago and develop a personality that is tough”.  He also mentioned that he and his coaching staff will be looking at what they can do and how well they retained their knowledge coming in.

The schedule for all rookie training camps and OTA’s are as follows:

Rookie Training Camp (May 11- May 13, June 12- June 14)

OTA’s (May 22- May 24, May 30-June 1, June4- June 7)

December 11, 2011; Jacksonville FL, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars punter Nick Harris (2) before the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Jacksonville EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

The Panthers recently signed punter Nick Harris, who has spent time with the Bengals, Lions, and Jaguars. Harris was brought in to add competition to the punter position, where he will be competing with rookie Brad Nortman.
Harris has a career punt average of 42.5 yards, which is pretty solid, so he definitely will have a shot at being the starter. This obviously isn’t a huge move, just Ron Rivera continuing to add competition to every position any chance he can, and there certainly isn’t anything wrong with that.