Steve Smith says Panthers will show a whole new offense Sunday - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
Steve Smith spent the preseason perplexed. He liked new offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson's philosophy and ideas, but the Panthers did little more than run basic plays in exhibition games.
"We were real vanilla. We stripped it down and I was frustrated a little bit," Smith said Thursday. "I was kind of saying, 'What's going on?' They kept telling me to be patient.
"They kept their promise."
When the Pro Bowl receiver was handed the offensive game plan for Sunday's season opener at St. Louis, he was amazed at the different looks.
"I said, 'OK, that's what I'm talking about,"' Smith said. "I called my wife and told her, 'This thing is nice."'
And complicated. Smith spent Wednesday night in bed with his nose in the playbook, thinking the Panthers have a chance to break out of the offensive funk of 2006 that left them 8-8 and got old coordinator Dan Henning fired.
"It's not like you wake up, you roll out of bed and you know your plays. I have to actually study," Smith said. "It's back to football. It's drawing it up in the dirt and being able to go out there and say, 'What do we have this week?"' NFL game plans are treated as state secrets, so Smith couldn't reveal the details of Carolina's new offense. But Smith hinted he'll line up in several different spots and he promised it will look a lot different from the preseason version.
Smith excited about game plan
Smith excited about game plan
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