DJ Moore and Calvin Ridley were destined to draw comparisons
from the moment they were selected with back-to-back first round picks by the
division rival Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons. Moore has had a noticeably
slow start
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league on fire. The easy observation is that the Panthers missed out on a
franchise player and are stuck seeing what they can get out of Moore. I wouldn¡¯t
be so quick to make that judgment.The Panthers have, for what feels like the
first time, a deep, veteran group of receivers. Moore has only been on the field
for a third of the offense¡¯s snaps and even that percentage is probably
artificially inflated from the Panthers¡¯ original plans due to the lengthy
injuries to Damiere Byrd and Curtis Samuel. He trails Christian McCaffrey, Devin
Funchess
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Chris Manhertz in snaps on an offense that doesn¡¯t prioritize throwing to wide
receivers. Former Panthers receiver Muhsin Muhammad pointed out as much
yesterday.Meanwhile, Ridley has barely trailed the Falcons top running back in
snaps. His opportunities have been more frequent. They also have not been equal.
Moore doesn¡¯t line up across the field from Julio Jones. The Panthers don¡¯t have
any threat against an opponent¡¯s secondary that is going to make his transition
easier, let alone a top three receiver. I¡¯d be willing to bet that Moore could
have matched Ridley¡¯s 264 yards and six touchdowns through his first four games
if he were on the Falcons.Head coach Ron Rivera has also long made a lot of
noise about the Panthers offense not being a quick study for rookie wide
receivers. This was his chorus during the developments of Kelvin
Benjamin
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thing is irrelevant to the argument that Moore is a disappointment. He hasn¡¯t
had the chance to be. Right now he is exactly where we thought he would be this
season. Every week a Panthers coach is talking about finding ways to get him on
the field more instead of making excuses for his health or development. This
isn¡¯t the team that drafted Benjamin and Moore hasn¡¯t had the opportunity to
make us suspicious of his talent. There is a reason why Ridley has four times
the target volume that Moore has. His opportunities have come while his 1-3 team
has been chasing points all season. That Ridley has taken advantage of them
speaks well for him. It doesn¡¯t say anything about Moore. The hits keep coming
for the Panthers offense as they finally gave us an update on the status of Greg
Olsen, who left the Dallas game with an injury. The star tight end has refracted
his right foot and will be re-evaluated ¡°monthly.¡±This is the same injury that
took him out for most of the 2017 season. However, Olsen is attempting to treat
this injury with rehab instead of surgery so we cannot predict how much time he
might miss based on his recovery last season. At this time it is unclear if the
Panthers intend to keep him on the roster or place him on injured reserve (IR).
An IR designation would sideline him for at least 8 weeks before he would be
eligible to return.The Panthers used the same announcement to share that Daryl
Williams will be undergoing surgery to repair an injury to his right
knee.Fortunately, the Panthers have a number of young players waiting in the
wings to step into Olsen¡¯s role in the offense. Chris Manhertz, Ian
Thomas
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talent. It will likely take a combination of all of them to replace the
production expected of Olsen, but they will be the names to look for if the
Panthers don¡¯t look outside of their roster for more established talent.