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)

October 9, 2011; Atlanta, GA, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera looks on at the game against the Atlanta Falcons at the Georgia Dome. The Falcons beat the Panthers 31-17. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-US PRESSWIRE

Ron Rivera’s going on only his first full season as a Head Coach and now 2 drafts, but they speak volumes in a number of ways.

Here is his first draft class:

RD SEL # PLAYER POSITION SCHOOL
1 1 Cam Newton QB Auburn
3 65 Terrell McClain DT South Florida
3 97 Sione Fua DT Stanford
4 98 Brandon Hogan CB West Virginia
5 132 Kealoha Pilares WR Hawaii
6 166 Lawrence Wilson LB Connecticut
6 203 Zack Williams C Washington State
7 244 Lee Ziemba T Auburn

This year’s draft of Kuechly, Sitatolu, Alexander, Adams, Norman, Nortman, and Campbell was added and there’s been a little time to digest things.

Hogan was just coming back from an injury when the season ended, and we didn’t draft another DT to help what we have.

Either Rivera knows the young group we have will make leaps and bounds this year, it’ll be up to Kuechly to at least slow down the run enough to not make it so easy as last year.

Other than Cam, last year’s draft doesn’t appear to be encouraging so far. It’s often hard to tell for sure in only one year as Hogan is a prime example why.

Hmm.

On a positive side, this year’s draft does look quite promising in comparison. Kuechly looks to be about as clean and safe a pick as there is at pick nine and is a tackling machine that can also pass cover. I think he’s a perfect fit as a 4-3 MLB with his resume’ and athletic ability and leadership qualities who could probably play any LB position if called upon. I think Rivera wants a guy like Mike Singletary to lead his defense. It just seems to reflect what he’s lived, and that ’86 Bears D was pretty darned good. We’ll see.

Rivera’s seen his share of rookies come and go from a player’s and coach’s perspective now. Since he took no DTs this draft, he’s either satisfied with the young talent he has or is too proud to draft the position so highly so soon. Perhaps he’s counting a lot on Kuechly being a guy like Singletary who can call the signals, make the plays, and be a natural team leader. That type of MLB is in a perfect position to lift everybody’s level of play by example.

Injuries at Linebacker can be especially bad on a defense overall. If every few weeks there is a different guy trying to learn new assignments or a different person is calling signals it makes for terrible team continuity.

It would be like going to your own job and having the same job but a different boss about every month. Your job is probably hard enough without having to break in a new boss every month.

An NFL team is no different. Part of the success of the whole is not only each of the 11 individuals knowing and carrying out their jobs. Part of it is knowing and trusting each of the “other” 10 guys that you’re on the field with do know their jobs and can act as a cohesive force.

Youth in and of itself acts against both of these things until rookies prove themselves on the field and come together as a team. Even Mario Williams has to some degree prove to his Bills teammates that he knows their system through his play. With Super Mario’s reputation, those concerns will be minimal since the systems are similar.

But Rookies don’t have any “NFL reputation” to go on! They’re rookies!

They do have “expectations” however, and Kuechly seems to be what Rivera’s looking for. AFter that…we’ll see.

Just as Cam was the best “insta-fix” for a dour offense, Kuechly (along with a hopefully healthier LB corps) is going to be asked to be that guy at least for the rush defense.

We’re still looking for that “fix” for the pass defense, and that’s going to be more complicated.

Chris Gamble is the best out of a group of otherwise average defensive backs. Hogan needs to become the Comeback Corner and Campbell needs to enter the league like a Soup Nazi for the secondary to be any better in coverage this year. Instead, Rivera opted to go with a pass-rusher they stumbled across on Oklahoma film while scouting someone else. They traded up to get the DE they liked (Alexander) because that’s the best way to do it. You stop the run, rush the passer, then if you can you fill in the #2 CB and the safety spots…unless a particularly great safety prospect falls to you, which has not happened so far under Rivera.

Cam took away any chance at catching that “steal” as he was their only pick in the top 65 last year. Luke K. at MLB 1st this year. A pass-rusher and a KR/WR weapon. Joe Adams, the WR/KR from Arkansas, could be a real key if he’s as explosive as he showed in college. Some translate and others don’t for some reason and it’s likely Adams plays a lot faster than his 4.55-40 Combine time would indicate. The Combine track seems slower than most for some reason.

Contract situations aside, if next year’s draft needs are, “WR, OT, TE, S” then that probably means things are progressing. Year 3 should increase the talent in the secondary, thereby decreasing opposing QBs margin for error. Upgrade the RT spot with someone durable and even the LT spot could be better. Maybe add in a new OLB to round out the 2013 draft and that would complete the apparent plan.

For now, we’ve but to wait for Act II to unfold.