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Let's take a look at the top Saturday morning headlines from around the NFC South.

New Orleans guard Carl Nicks didn’t sound optimistic about his chances of returning to the Saints in this radio interview. He said the Saints seem to want to go in another direction. Nicks knows more about what has or hasn’t happened in talks so far. But I wouldn’t count Nicks out of New Orleans just yet. There’s still time for something to get done and sometimes things can change quickly when there is a sense of urgency.

Roddy White weighed in on the Saints’ bounty scandal. Surprisingly, the often-outspoken Atlanta receiver didn’t say anything controversial.

The Saints reportedly re-signed reserve defensive end Turk McBride.

Here’s a list of the Falcons’ top-10 salary-cap figures for 2012.

Scott Fowler has an excellent reflective piece on how the Carolina Panthers attempted to trade for Peyton Manning before he came out in the 1998 draft. The Panthers wanted to send Kerry Collins and draft picks to Indianapolis for the right to draft Manning. Obviously, no deal went down. But, imagine the possibilities? Dom Capers still might be coaching the Panthers and George Seifert’s disastrous reign never would have happened. Of course, the flip side is the Panthers probably wouldn’t have Cam Newton right now.

Here’s a look at a list of offensive linemen the Bucs could target in free agency. Ironically, I think there’s a better chance the top two guys on the list – Nicks and tackle Jared Gaither – end up with the Falcons instead of the Bucs.

Time for a look at the top headlines from around the NFC South.

Jeff Duncan has a good column about how Thursday night’s game between the Packers and Saints will be a chess match. Some of the best minds in the game will be squaring off when New Orleans coach Sean Payton and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams go up against Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dom Capers. With a bunch of cerebral players on both sides, I think this game has the potential to, at least temporarily, silence the talk about how the lockout will impact the quality of play.

We’ve heard a lot about how the Falcons plan to throw the ball downfield more this season. Quarterback Matt Ryan talks a lot about that and says he needs to be more accurate in those situations.

Anwar S. Richardson writes about how Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris is riding a wave of popularity. Kind of ironic because Morris was not a very popular choice when he was hired to replace Jon Gruden in 2009.

The Saints don’t have to issue an injury report until later Monday, but defensive tackle Aubrayo Franklin (knee) and defensive end Cameron Jordan (knee) were talking like they’ll be ready for Thursday.

Looks like the Panthers have found the veteran help they were looking for at right guard after losing Geoff Schwartz and Garry Williams to injuries. They’ve signed former Philadelphia guard Max Jean-Gilles. They released Sean Considine to clear the roster spot.

Gary Shelton writes a fine tribute on Lee Roy Selmon. In it, he has a message for Josh Freeman, Gerald McCoy and all the other young stars in pro sports in Tampa Bay. He says it would be wise for them to act like Selmon. That also would help fill the void that now exists in Tampa Bay.

It was very quiet while I was off last week, but there was one story with NFC South roots that deserves some reflection here.

Quarterback Kerry Collins retired from the Tennessee Titans. Collins played for the Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints before there even was an NFC South. Collins’ time in New Orleans was short and uneventful.

But his time in Carolina was anything but dull. Carolina’s first draft pick in its expansion season, 1995, Collins quickly became the starter and took the Panthers to the NFC Championship Game in his second season. After the Panthers returned from that trip to Green Bay, Collins stood on the steps of what is now Bank of America Stadium and talked about how Carolina would be a dynasty.

It didn’t work out anywhere close to that. Collins began having problems soon after that and was gone before the midway point of the 1998 season. Collins repeatedly has admitted he had a drinking problem in his Carolina days and that issue isolated him from some of his teammates.

Collins deserves lots of credit for straightening out his life when he joined the New York Giants and he took that franchise to a Super Bowl. He also spent time with the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans and ended his career with more than 40,000 passing yards, which ranks him No. 11 in history. The numbers could have been better if Collins didn’t spend part of his career as a backup.

You can’t call Collins’ career a flop or a disappointment, but those terms can be used to describe his stint in Carolina. Or you can just call it what it was -- a disaster that set the franchise back for years. I arrived in Charlotte and began covering the Panthers a little less than a year after Collins left. The wounds were still fresh and stories were still making the rounds about Collins’ wild nights on the town and wilder parties at his house.

Collins had to go because he had some major problems and was in denial as the Panthers tried to get him help. But you can’t help but wonder what might have happened for Collins and the Panthers if he had gotten help earlier or avoided his problems in the first place.

The guy was an amazing talent -- big and strong with one of the best throwing arms of his generation. I’ve been a life-long Penn State fan and Collins was so talented he convinced Joe Paterno to scrap his conservative offense. In 1994, Penn State had one of the nation’s best offenses with Collins, Ki-Jana Carter, Bobby Engram and Kyle Brady. The Lions went undefeated, but got robbed of a national championship.

Collins went straight to the NFL and started living like a rock star. If he hadn’t, he could have been what Atlanta’s Matt Ryan and Tampa Bay’s Josh Freeman probably will be -- a franchise quarterback who will spend his entire career with one team.

Imagine what Collins could have been if he spent his entire career in Carolina and lived his life the way he did in later years? I’m not sure the Panthers would have been the dynasty Collins talked about. That expansion team was built around veterans and it got old right after the NFC Championship Game. There still might have been some ups and downs, but Collins had stayed on the straight and narrow, the valleys the Panthers hit wouldn’t have been nearly as deep. He was young, talented, should have continued to get better and the Panthers could have had a franchise quarterback for a generation.

If Collins didn’t implode, Dom Capers wouldn’t have been fired after the 1998 season and George Seifert never would have been hired. It took years for the Panthers to recover and, for years, they stayed away from drafting quarterbacks early or signing big-name free agents at that position.

Seifert got a couple good years from Steve Beuerlein and then put him on the scrap heap for no apparent reason. Chris Weinke was next and he never really had a chance. He played on Seifert’s last team, which went 1-15.

When John Fox took over in 2002, he needed to get wins quickly and didn’t want to let Weinke develop on the field, so he went out and got Rodney Peete, who I think might have been offensive coordinator Dan Henning’s college roommate. A year later, the Panthers went out and signed career backup Jake Delhomme and made him the starter. Delhomme had a nice run and even took the Panthers to a Super Bowl. He was the best quarterback in franchise history, but wasn’t a franchise quarterback. He was a nice game manager.

The Panthers drafted Jimmy Clausen last year and Cam Newton this year and there’s hope that one of those guys can become the first true franchise quarterback in Carolina history. Collins could -- and should -- have been that guy. If Collins had done things the right way in Carolina, the dark days at the end of the Capers era and the entire Seifert era never would have happened.

If Collins had still been there when Fox arrived, he would have fit nicely in the system and the Panthers might not have been quite so conservative. Heck, if things had gone differently, Collins could have spent his entire career in Carolina and Fox still might be coaching there.

Collins could have been the most popular athlete ever in Charlotte and, had he stayed, he might still be playing. He could have even spent this year as a mentor to Newton and Clausen. Instead, they’ll be trying to become what Collins never was able to become for the Panthers.

I’m not trying to curb the enthusiasm in the Carolinas after the Panthers used the No. 1 overall pick in the draft on quarterback Cam Newton. It’s a move with huge upside and we’ll find out a few years down the road if it was indeed the right move.

However, there’s an discouraging statistic, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau, that suggests Newton and coach Ron Rivera face an uphill battle. Since 1990, seven rookie head coaches have had the No. 1 overall pick and used it on a quarterback.

None of them has won a postseason game. Think Mike Nolan and Alex Smith in San Francisco, Dom Capers and David Carr in Houston, Marvin Lewis and Carson Palmer in Cincinnati, Chris Palmer and Tim Couch in Cleveland, Lane Kiffin and JaMarcus Russell in Oakland, Jim Schwartz and Matthew Stafford in Detroit and Steve Spagnuolo and Sam Bradford in St. Louis.

There seems to be hope for Stafford and Bradford to become successful quarterbacks. Carson Palmer had some good times in Cincinnati, but wants out of there and may get his wish. Other than that, all of the guys on the above list have flopped.

If you want to find a rookie head coach who used the No. 1 overall pick on a quarterback, you have to go all the way back to Jimmy Johnson. Back in 1989, he took Troy Aikman with the first pick, a move that helped the Cowboys become a dynasty for much of the 1990s.

In the months before the 1995 draft, the throwing motion of Penn State quarterback Kerry Collins came under intense scrutiny. Supposedly, Collins had a hitch somewhere in the middle of his motion.

As it turned out, Collins never had any problems throwing. The problems were everywhere else.

When the expansion Carolina Panthers used the fifth overall pick on Collins, he started down a treacherous path in which the team’s first “franchise’’ quarterback would drink his way out of Charlotte. Collins, unavailable for comment, has talked openly many times about the Carolina days, typically emphasizing he was the root of his problems there.

It’s no wonder then that the Panthers have not used a first-round pick on a quarterback since Collins. Scarred by his demise, the franchise has for more than a decade tried to get by with veterans such as Steve Beuerlein and Jake Delhomme.

But the NFL has become more of a passing league, and coming off a 2-14 season, the Panthers realize it is time once again to target a franchise quarterback. They hold the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, and all indications are they’re ready to take the plunge on Auburn’s Cam Newton, who may or may not come with a hitch or two of his own.

Let’s be clear: Newton's issues are much, much different than Collins’, but they’re still issues when you're talking about a franchise quarterback. Newton comes with questions about background and character and whether he’ll be able to adjust to an NFL offense after running a different attack in college.

The Panthers' coaching staff has changed several times over and so has the front office since Collins was drafted in 1995. But Jerry Richardson has been the owner from the start and you can bet that the Panthers are looking back at Collins’ downfall, analyzing what went wrong and thinking about what they can do better to make life easier for Newton and enhance his chances for success if they draft him.

“We know anybody we take, franchise quarterback or another position, you have to have a support plan in place because it’s such a difficult task coming in as a rookie,’’ Carolina general manager Marty Hurney said.

Hurney admitted he has thought extensively about a support system to help Newton if the Panthers draft him at No. 1. He didn’t want to detail the plan. But the Panthers might be wise to use the Collins fiasco as a guide.

“We did our homework on Kerry as thoroughly as possible,’’ said one person who worked in Carolina’s personnel department in the early years. “...Yeah, there might have been rumblings Kerry was something like a frat boy who liked to have fun, but there were no screaming red flags.’’

In talking to numerous people who were with the Panthers at the time, there were not any major problems in Collins’ first two years. With team president Mike McCormack, general manager Bill Polian and coach Dom Capers running the show, the initial plan was to bring Collins along slowly.

The Panthers brought in veteran Frank Reich to serve as a mentor and a bridge. But the bridge collapsed. Reich bombed in three starts and a team that had the luxury of a built-in honeymoon period got impatient and threw Collins into the starting lineup.

He started 13 games, the Panthers went a somewhat-surprising 7-9 and the next season Collins and Charlotte partied. With a very good defense and Collins leading an efficient offense, the Panthers went all the way to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Packers. They came back to Charlotte after losing in Green Bay and Collins stood on the steps of Bank of America Stadium and proclaimed the Panthers would win Super Bowls and become a "dynasty."

Those were heady times in a city that was new to the NFL, and doors around town were open to Collins. It was at that time he started falling through a trap door. The future was so bright, Collins had to wear shades -- for all the wrong reasons.

Every person interviewed for this story said the signs of Collins having a problem began showing in the run to the NFC title game and expanded rapidly in the months that followed.

On the final night of 1997 training camp, reports -- which Collins never has disputed -- said the quarterback was out at a Spartanburg, S.C., bar when he hurled racial slurs at two teammates. One, offensive lineman Norberto Garrido, reportedly got into a physical altercation with Collins.

“We got back to Charlotte to check into the team hotel the night before a preseason game and Kerry was walking around inside with sunglasses,’’ said one person who was with the team at the time. “He was coming out of a meeting room later and he took them off for just a second to wipe his eye and you could see a big shiner. I was like, 'Oh no, what did he do now?’'"

That sentiment echoed throughout the building for more than a year. In a 2003 interview, I asked Capers, then the coach of the Houston Texans, if the Panthers did all they could to get Collins under control. Capers sighed and then said the Panthers did everything you’d expect and much more. He also said Collins simply refused help.

People who were with the team at that time said that’s all true. Speaking days before leading the New York Giants against the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV, Collins admitted he was in denial at the time and summed up his flawed philosophy.

“I’ll show you. I’ll hurt me,’’ Collins said.

Collins hurt more than himself. With McCormack retired, Polian gone and Capers running essentially a one-man show in 1998, things got worse. After four ugly games, Capers told the media that Collins said his heart no longer was in the game and had quit the team.

“I’m not sure the interventions you see and hear so much about today were legal or even done at that time,’’ a former team employee said. “But I can assure you that organization did at least everything else. I mean, we had Donnie Shell [the former NFL safety who was the team’s longtime director of player programs], the team chaplain, the coaches, his teammates and ownership all over Kerry to straighten up. If Mike and Bill weren’t gone, maybe things could have worked out better or been handled better, but I seriously doubt it.’’

The Panthers released Collins, who then signed with New Orleans and got arrested for drunk driving when the Saints came to Charlotte to play a game later that season. Collins went to the Giants in 1999 and stopped drinking. He revived his career and has had a productive run with the Giants, Raiders and Titans.

Collins is 38 now and started seven games for Tennessee last year. He has patched up relationships with just about everyone who was involved with the Panthers in those dreadful days.

It makes you wonder what could have been. If things had gone differently, maybe Collins still would be with the Panthers, maybe they would have won Super Bowls and become a dynasty.

Maybe they’d still be drafting Newton. But maybe it would be to replace one franchise quarterback with another. The reality is the saga caused enormous problems for the Panthers.

But, hey, maybe one old wound can help prevent a new one.

The Super Bowl, and all that goes with it, is over. But let’s take a look back at the weekend and some NFC South themes and stories that emerged.

Our Chris Mortensen reported that rock star Jon Bon Jovi has been negotiating to become a partial owner of the Atlanta Falcons. This isn’t a total surprise because Bon Jovi has previously owned an Arena League team and is a football fan. Mortensen reports Bon Jovi’s potential stake in the team would be 15 percent, which is pretty significant compared to some limited partners across the league. But a deal like this could give Falcons owner Arthur Blank a big cash infusion as he works to get a new outdoor stadium.

Joe Biddle writes that Atlanta coach Mike Smith is the perfect model for what the Titans should be looking for in their coaching search. Ironically, Tennessee has interviewed Smith’s offensive coordinator, Mike Mularkey, and a decision should be coming soon.

New Orleans owner Tom Benson was featured in a commercial on local television just before the Super Bowl in which he thanked the fans for their role in the Saints winning last year’s Super Bowl and said “together we can do it again."

Former Carolina coach Dom Capers was an unsung hero as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator Sunday night. You can throw in former Carolina defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac, who now is Green Bay’s defensive line coach, too.

Fine job by my friend Ira Kaufman in his presentation that helped launch NFL Films founder Ed Sabol into the Hall of Fame. I know this was a cause Kaufman felt strongly about for a long time. As the Tampa Bay voter on the Hall of Fame board, Kaufman theoretically would make the presentation for Mike Alstott next year. But, as popular as Alstott is in Tampa Bay, a guy who was a combination running back-fullback but wasn’t dominant at either has no shot at making the list of finalists who get presentations. Kaufman can go ahead and start working on his 2013 presentations for Warren Sapp and John Lynch because they each have a legitimate chance.

Time for a quick trip through the NFC South headlines.

Former Atlanta receiver Terance Mathis has joined the coaching staff at Savannah State.

Michael Vick will be the headliner for autographs at a sports memorabilia show in suburban Atlanta. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan also will be a guest, but Vick is getting top billing. Before his season of redemption in Philadelphia, Vick probably wouldn't have been invited, the show promoter said.

Jim Mashek writes about how Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dom Capers spent important parts of their coaching careers with the New Orleans Saints.

Carolina's new wide receivers coach, Fred Graves, has a history with top receiver Steve Smith. Graves coached Smith in college at Utah.

The NFC South doesn't have a team in the Super Bowl. But it's got almost a full team of coaches.

Take a look at Green Bay's coaching staff and take a look at Pittsburgh's coaching staff. Between the two teams, there are 37 coaches. Twenty of them have either coached or played for an NFC South team and that includes Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy and Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin.

Here's a look at each staff and its NFC South ties.

Green Bay

• McCarthy. Assistant coach with Saints, 2000-04.
• James Campen, offensive line. Played for the Saints, 1987-88.
• Dom Capers, defensive coordinator. Head coach Carolina Panthers, 1995-1998.
• Tom Clements, quarterbacks. Assistant coach for the Saints, 1997-99.
• Jerry Fontenot, assistant offensive line. Played for the Saints, 1997-2003.
• Kevin Greene, outside linebackers. Played for the Panthers, 1996, 1998-99.
• Ben McAdoo, tight ends. Assistant coach for Saints, 2004.
• Chad Morton, special teams assistant. Played for the Saints, 2000.
• Winston Moss, assistant head coach/linebackers. Played for the Buccaneers, 1987-90 and assistant coach with the Saints, 2000-05.
• Darren Perry, defensive backs. Played for the Saints, 2000.
• Jimmy Robinson, wide receivers. Assistant coach with Falcons, 1990-93 and assistant coach with Saints, 2004-2005.
• Mike Trgovac, defensive line. Assistant coach with Panthers, 2002-08.
• Joe Whitt Jr., cornerbacks. Assistant coach with Falcons, 2007.

Pittsburgh

• Tomlin, 2001-05
• Bruce Arians, offensive coordinator. Assistant with Saints, 1996.
• James Daniel, tight ends. Assistant with Falcons, 1997-2003.
• Al Everest, special teams. Assistant with Saints, 2000-05.
• Garrett Giemont, conditioning coordinator. Assistant with Buccaneers, 2003-06.
• Scotty Montgomery, wide receivers. Played for Panthers, 2000.
• Kirby Wilson, running backs. Assistant for Buccaneers, 2002-03.

The Carolina Panthers have added another name to their search for a head coach. The team reportedly has asked for permission to interview Cleveland defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

Add him to a list that includes Ron Rivera, Perry Fewell and Greg Manusky and it sure sounds like the Panthers are going with another defensive coach to follow in the footsteps of John Fox, George Seifert and Dom Capers. I still think there’s a chance the Panthers could interview an offensive-minded coach or two.

But, let’s say they do go with a defensive coordinator. Whoever that guy is will have to convince owner Jerry Richardson, general manager Marty Hurney and team president Danny Morrison that he’s open minded about offense and it probably wouldn’t hurt a candidate to say he plans to bring along a very strong offensive coordinator.

Richardson, Hurney and Morrison have realized from painful experience that the days of winning with dominant defense are over. You have to at least have a competent offense and whoever the new coach is better be prepared to deliver that.

» NFC Wrap-ups: East | West | North | South » AFC: East | West | North | South

Arrow denoting whether team is trending up or down.

Final Power Ranking: 32
Preseason Power Ranking: 23

Biggest surprise: Charles Johnson. After losing Julius Peppers in free agency, the Panthers threw a bunch of defensive ends out there and Johnson rose to the top. The fourth-year pro was one of the few bright spots for this team as he blossomed into a full-time starter. Johnson led the Panthers with a career-best 11.5 sacks. That number is even more impressive when you consider the Panthers rarely led and opposing teams weren’t forced to throw a lot against them. Johnson can become a free agent, but the Panthers are likely to try to lock him up if a new labor agreement is reached.

Biggest disappointment: Steve Smith. The most talented player on Carolina’s roster barely got used. Smith caught 46 passes for 554 yards and two touchdowns, with his last touchdown coming in Week 2. Although Smith missed training camp with a broken arm, he was healthy at the start of the season. But Carolina’s quarterbacks Matt Moore and Jimmy Clausen struggled mightily and never were able to get the ball to Smith on a consistent basis. That has led to speculation that Smith might want out of Carolina. Smith has stayed quiet on the subject so far, and that may be because he’s waiting to see what happens as the team selects a new coach. If that coach is committed to getting Smith the ball and improving the quarterback situation, that might be enough to keep one of the best players in franchise history happy.

Biggest need: Consistency at quarterback. Did anyone really think the Panthers were serious about Moore as a long-term solution at the start of the season? He did play well at the end of the 2009 season, but there were major question marks about Moore and he wasn’t able to move the offense. That cleared the way for the Panthers to turn to Clausen. Former coach John Fox didn’t seem to be fully behind the rookie and went back to Moore. Clausen was back in the lineup after Moore was hurt. There are some people in the organization who believe Clausen can develop into a full-time starter. But the Panthers can’t afford to count on that as their only plan at quarterback. At the very least, the Panthers need to find an alternative to Clausen in the draft or free agency. At best, they’ll find someone who is an instant upgrade.

Team MVP: Jonathan Stewart. When he was fully healthy, which wasn’t the case until after Thanksgiving, Stewart gave the Panthers their only real offensive weapon. His 137 yards in a victory against Arizona represented one of the few highlights of the season. With DeAngelo Williams possibly becoming a free agent, the Panthers have solid depth at running back with Stewart and Mike Goodson.

On the offensive: Fox, George Seifert and Dom Capers are the only head coaches the franchise has had, and each came with a strong defensive background. It remains to be seen whether the Panthers will break with tradition and hire an offense-minded coach. Even if they go with another defense-minded coach, they need to find one who is open-minded about offense because the fan base isn’t going to tolerate anything close to Fox’s ultra-conservative approach. If the Panthers go with a defensive head coach, he'd better go out and find a very strong offensive coordinator.

I generally do team-by-team mailbags on Thursdays and a division-wide mailbag on Saturdays. But I just looked at what came into the mailbag since I cleared it out Saturday and it’s jam packed. So I’m going to throw out a special Tuesday mailbag to try to stay ahead of the beast and that’s a reference to the volume of mail, not that little division that my buddy Matt Mosley covers for us.

John in Denver writes: At what point do you think the conversation turns from can the Falcons keep up with the Saints to can the Saints keep up with the Falcons?

Pat Yasinskas: I think we’re pretty much at that point now. The Falcons have won four in a row and I’ve said several times in the past 24 or 36 hours that I think they’re the best team in the NFC at the moment and a lot of other folks are saying that, too. Atlanta is a solid team all the way around right now. New Orleans is definitely struggling. I’m not going to write off the Super Bowl champions just yet, but Atlanta definitely has the upper hand.

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Jeff in Charleston, S.C., writes: I just want to get a shout-out for Thomas Dimitroff. Everyone around the league salivates over Bill Polian, but can anyone say that over the past 3 seasons they have drafted/built/developed a more solid overall team than Dimitroff in Atlanta? Obviously, he hasn't been perfect (Jerry, Baker), but look at the guys he has picked up and gotten incredible production for. Would you say he is line for Exec. of the Year once again?

Pat Yasinskas: There is no question Dimitroff has made himself into one of the best general managers in the game in a very short time. He’s assembled a nucleus that should keep the Falcons in good shape for a long time to come. Another thing that sometimes gets overlooked is how well he works with Mike Smith. Those are two guys who are truly on the same page. They work together and there is no clash of egos. It doesn’t happen that smoothly in many places. Also, I don’t think you can say Dimitroff whiffed on Peria Jerry and Sam Baker yet. Both have had some injury problems. Give them a little more time and we’ll see.

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Matt in Las Cruces, N.M., writes: Just wanted to congratulate you on a great article. So many Carolina fans want to crucify John Fox at this point without acknowledging that he's been told to build a house with a jeweler's screwdriver and some scotch tape. Don't get me wrong, I think it IS time to move on with a new coach, but most of the blame for this total embarrassment and waste of a season lies on the owner's shoulders.

Pat Yasinskas: Great analogy about the screwdriver and scotch tape. That’s pretty accurate. Yep, I’m with you, it’s time for a change. But Fox has been put in an impossible situation. I’m sure Jerry Richardson has set up this situation and I’m sure he believes that somehow he’s preparing his team to survive the lockout he's expecting. But I’m at a total loss to figure out what the upside of this plan is. I wish Richardson would come out and explain his thinking. I think he owes that to his fans.

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Ryan in Columbia, S.C., writes: Why isn't Richardson pulling the plug on John Fox? Wouldn't it make more sense to find the new coach for next year and bring him in so there isn't a learning curb at the beginning of next year?

Pat Yasinskas: First off, we don’t even know if there will be a next year. Second, you don’t fire a coach and bring in a new guy from the outside in the middle of a season. If anything, maybe Fox will go if the losing continues into late November or December and the Panthers finish the season with an interim coach from within Fox’s staff. Besides, you can’t even look at the full menu of coaches that might be available to you until after the season. Some of the best candidates are under contract with other teams for this season.

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Zach in Peachtree City, Ga., writes: Who do you think is the best rookie wide receiver in the NFC South at the moment?

Pat Yasinskas: Without a doubt, Mike Williams from Tampa Bay. The kid is having a spectacular rookie season and he was a fourth-round pick.

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Drew in Greensboro, N.C., writes: I was wondering what kind of coach do you think the Panthers will have next year (or this year). Would they go for someone similar to Fox, conservative, defense oriented or maybe go for a coach that is more aggressive and pass happy?

Pat Yasinskas: Again, it’s kind of early to get too far into speculation. But I’ll give you a couple of general answers. First, there’s an old adage that if you fire a skinny coach, you hire a fat one. In other words, you move in a different direction. So, if Richardson buys into that and he might after years of watching a boring offense, he’d bring in someone with an offensive background. Second, current situation aside, there’s no doubt Richardson is a smart man and he learns from his mistakes. Look at his history. He’s hired two head coaches who were “hot’’ coordinators (Fox and Dom Capers) and he hired one big-name coach who had been out of the league for a bit and paid him huge money (George Seifert). It didn’t end well for Capers and it’s not going to end well for Fox. But each of those guys had some success. Seifert was a total disaster and Richardson knows that. I’m guessing he doesn’t bring in some big-name coach who’s been out of the league for a few years and commands a high salary. I think he’s more likely to look for an energetic rising star and it will probably be someone fairly young because this team needs someone that’s willing to go through a building process that might take some time.

As we count down the hours to training camp and, hopefully, get a few more draft picks signed Tuesday afternoon, I was just thinking of some of my favorite or most memorable stories of training camps past. Apologies to Atlanta and New Orleans fans –- I’ll try to include a story or two on your teams, but most of my newspaper days were spent covering the Panthers and Buccaneers, so I might be a little heavy on them.

• Let’s start with an Atlanta tale while I’ve got one. If there was an omen for the Falcons in 2009, it might have come on one of the first days of camp as the Falcons were coming off an 11-5 season. For reasons beyond me, a bird flew into the closed glass door to the media room. It did not end well and some suggest that set the tone for an up-and-down season by the Falcons.
• Sam Wyche was probably the most colorful coach I’ve ever covered. Lots of coaches like to yell out situations -- “It’s fourth down, there are five seconds left in the game and we’ve got the ball at their 32-yard line." Generally players go out and run the play and that’s the end of it. Wyche, who coached some pretty horrible Tampa Bay teams, had a knack for yelling things like “Wait, there was a penalty. Let’s try it again." He’d do that until the play ended well and that made for some very long practices.
• I believe I witnessed Tony Dungy getting as mad as he’s ever been. It happened one day during a practice at the University of Tampa where linebacker Hardy Nickerson got into a fight with a team the Bucs were scrimmaging (I believe, but am not entirely certain, it was either the Dolphins or Redskins). Dungy, who usually looks very placid, dashed over to Nickerson and said something. He didn’t yell. But Nickerson quickly was on his way to the locker room and got the rest of the day off.
• At Panthers’ camp, if you stand on the wooded side of the field that George Seifert used to refer to as the jungle, insects can be a problem. Carolina’s public relations staff is very generous in sharing insect repellent with members of the media. But there was a morning a few years back when the repellent couldn’t be found. A wise former co-worker I’ll call “Stan’’ gave this bit of advice: “The first line of defense is to pull up your socks." Of course Stan, who I believe parked cars at Woodstock, is one of those guys who always wears his socks just below his knees.
• Fights are common in training camp, but the one I saw in Carolina two years ago was far from common. The offense and defense had just finished a session and the special teams came onto the field. Suddenly, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked and saw coach John Fox and quarterback Jake Delhomme jumping into a pile to try to pull the participants apart. If the coach and the quarterback are jumping in, you know it’s got to be bad and I knew right away Steve Smith had to be involved. He was. He had just slugged Ken Lucas.
• The most painful moment I ever witnessed in a training camp didn’t take place on the field. It took place on the way to the Carolina locker room. Former Carolina defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, who had various times weighed more than 350 pounds, somehow commandeered a golf cart and decided to back up. Carolina security director Gene Brown, a very pleasant man, happened to be standing behind the cart. Jenkins accidently ran him over. Luckily, Brown recovered and I haven’t seen a Carolina player get near a golf cart since.
• This one actually happened before my time in Carolina, but it’s the stuff of legend. The life of a sports writer isn’t as glamorous as you might think. We spend a lot of time standing around and that can get the creative juices flowing. That’s what happened in Carolina when Dom Capers, a coach who did not believe in the shotgun formation, was still there. One day, a writer I’ll call “Newt’’ missed practice because of some car trouble. The other writers got quarterback Steve Beuerlein, who is as good a guy as you’ll ever meet, to play along with a prank. When “Newt’’ arrived, the other writers happily detailed how the Panthers had spent the entire practice installing the shotgun. One of the writers then handed “Newt’’ a tape recorder that had Beuerlein talking all about how the team was looking forward to the shotgun. “Newt’’ hurriedly began listening to the tape and writing his story. Seconds before he was about to send the story, the other writers finally informed him it was all a joke.

Notable players: RB Stephen Davis, QB Jake Delhomme, WR Steve Smith, WR Muhsin Muhammad, DE Julius Peppers, DT Kris Jenkins, LB Dan Morgan.

Analysis: When owner Jerry Richardson talked about how the life had been drained from his franchise during a disastrous 1-15 season in 2001 under coach George Seifert, he couldn’t have expected how dramatic the turnaround would be. Nobody saw the Panthers going to the Super Bowl within two years, but that’s exactly what happened with first-time head coach John Fox.

In 2002, Fox’s team showed some promise, but there was no real reason to think the Panthers were ready for an incredible run. They had the makings of a very good defensive line, but nobody really knew how much Davis had left when the Panthers brought him in and nobody had a clue what Delhomme, who had spent his career on the bench in New Orleans, might bring.

Rodney Peete opened the season as the starting quarterback and that lasted all of two quarters before Delhomme came on to rally the Panthers and take over the job. With Davis carrying the offense and the defensive line dominating, Delhomme continued to show a knack for leading comebacks.

The Panthers caught lightning in a bottle and also rode the emotion of preseason news that linebackers coach and former team captain Sam Mills and starting linebacker Mark Fields each had cancer. Carolina finished the regular season 11-5 and won its first NFC South championship.

A playoff victory at home against Dallas wasn’t a big surprise, but the Panthers stunned just about everyone by going on the road and winning at St. Louis (in double overtime) and completely dominating the Eagles on a frigid night in Philadelphia.

That put the Panthers into the Super Bowl against New England. A touchdown pass to Ricky Proehl with one minute, eight seconds remaining tied the score. But Carolina’s chances of pulling the upset faded as John Kasay followed up by kicking the ball out of bounds to give New England good field position. The Patriots kicked the game-winning field goal with four seconds remaining.

Most impressive win: It’s tough to top the image of Steve Smith scoring a touchdown on the first play of the second overtime in St. Louis, but players and coaches will tell you the key moment of the season came in Week 2 at Tampa against the defending Super Bowl champions. The Bucs scored a late touchdown and needed only to kick the extra point to win the game. The Panthers blocked the kick, forced overtime and won 12-9.

Research room: This team was known as the “Cardiac Cats." The reason was simple. The Panthers won seven games in the last two minutes or in overtime.

Honorable mention

1996: In only the second year of the franchise’s existence, coach Dom Capers, quarterback Kerry Collins and a great defense took the Panthers all the way to the NFC Championship Game in Green Bay. A home playoff victory against Dallas provided a truly monumental moment for an expansion team and the city of Charlotte.

2005: Fox’s 2004 team underachieved, but the 2005 team overachieved more than any in franchise history. Give the credit to Smith for carrying the Panthers all the way to the NFC Championship Game in Seattle. Injuries to the running backs kept the Panthers from running like Fox wanted to, but Smith and Delhomme had a special chemistry that year.

2008: A 12-4 record, an NFC South crown and a first-round bye added up to absolutely nothing. In what easily is the most disappointing game in franchise history, Arizona came into Bank of America Stadium and routed the Panthers 33-13. Starting with that game, the normally reliable Delhomme began turning the ball over so frequently that he played his way out of Charlotte.

I just sent a story to our news side that made me kind of sad. Richard Williamson, the longtime wide receivers coach for the Carolina Panthers, is retiring, the team announced Monday.

This is what Williamson wanted, and he had been pondering retirement for quite a few years. But it still is sad to see one of the classiest people who ever has been part of the NFL walk away.

Williamson was very good at what he did. He joined the Panthers in 1994, a year before they started play, and he was widely considered one of the best receivers coaches around. He deserves a lot of credit for helping Steve Smith develop from a guy who was supposed to be nothing more than a kick returner into one of the league’s top receivers.

Williamson also guided Muhsin Muhammad, Patrick Jeffers, Raghib Ismail and Mark Carrier to at least one 1,000-yard receiving season each. More than that, Richardson was a rock on the coaching staffs of Dom Capers, George Seifert and John Fox.

He stepped in as offensive coordinator when Bill Musgrave abruptly walked away during the Seifert years and didn’t complain a bit when he went back to coaching receivers.

That’s mainly because coaching receivers was what Williamson did best. He had a stint as a head coach in Tampa Bay, but had no chance to succeed there at the time. Williamson truly found his niche as a receivers coach after that.

I know the general rule is that assistant coaches don’t make the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and I’m not suggesting Williamson should be an exception. But he should forever be remembered as an excellent receivers coach and a very nice man.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Pat Yasinskas

For only the third time in their history, the Carolina Panthers have started the season 0-3. The 21-7 loss to Dallas puts Carolina in jeopardy of having its season spiral out of control. The last time the Panthers started 0-3 was 1998 and coach Dom Capers was fired at the end of that season.

Here are five things I took from the Carolina game:

Panthers-Cowboys Coverage • Yasinskas: Five Observations On Panthers • Mosley: A New Romo Emerges • More: MNF HQ

The seat John Fox sat in as he got on the team plane was sizzling. Fox has done a lot for the franchise, but he’s never been able to deliver back-to-back winning seasons. Patience, from fans and ownership, is wearing thin. Fox has been able to use coordinators as scapegoats in the past and he got a freebie on the 2007 season when Jake Delhomme went down early. But, this time around, Fox has his quarterback and his kind of team. There’s no excuse now.

Delhomme is not the problem. Yes, Delhomme threw two interceptions, but he had his team in the game. This wasn’t like the opener, a game in which he had to be yanked because of turnovers. Delhomme put his team in position to win if some plays were made elsewhere. They weren’t. The Panthers weren’t able to get their running game going and Delhomme’s interceptions might have been the fault of the receivers.

Didn’t the Panthers used to be a “tough’’ team? Yes, put that’s past tense now. The Cowboys ran for more than 200 yards. You’re not supposed to be able to do that against a Fox defense, but this no longer is a Fox defense. Defensive tackle Maake Kemoeatu went down with an injury on the first day of camp and the Panthers didn’t have anyone to replace him. They still don’t.

Thomas Davis is the guy I feel sorry for. The guy made plays against the Cowboys and he made plays in the first two games. The fifth-year linebacker is having a Pro Bowl year. But he’s not going to get the kind of recognition he deserves if the Panthers keep losing.

I find it ironic that Julius Peppers’ nickname is “Pep’’. The guy wasn’t a source of energy Monday night. Instead, Peppers, who makes more than $1 million a game, produced two tackles, but not a single big play.