ON PODIUM

on offseason coaching changes: “We made a couple coaching changes with the thought of putting coaches in what I thought were better positions for them. We moved Richard Rodgers over to the defensive side, which is pretty much his expertise; it’s what he does. We promoted Bruce DeHaven, long-time special teams coach, to run that for us. We promoted Steve Wilks to assistant head coach. When there’s been situations, circumstances, Steve’s been my go-to guy in terms of having him take over, run certain aspects of the team. He’s done a great job for us and I thought it was deserved. And then Curtis Fuller will work with special teams, but he’ll continue to work with our nickel backs as far as the defense is concerned, as well.”on rebuilding after January house fire: “It’s going well. We had the fire on the fifth of January. The construction companies got the demolition permits; they’re going through that. We found a house that we’re renting close by and we’ve settled in there for a while. We’ll be there for at least six months, maybe seven or eight. So hopefully that’ll be taken care of soon, but thank you for asking.”on impressions of draft class: “It’s deep in specific positions and positions we feel that we’re going to take a real good, long look at. We do like the tackles. It is very deep, as opposed to last year where we felt there were some quality first-rounders, but then we felt the quality dropped off a little bit. We thought the guard position was strong last year, and obviously, we pulled two of them. Looking at this year’s, we think the tackle position will have quality all the way through. The wide receiver position is one that does have us interested. We’re obviously curious about some of these young players. In the right situation and circumstances, I think Dave will feel strong enough to pull the trigger. We like the defensive back group. We like the linebacker group as well. We’re obviously not in the market for a quarterback, so we’re not concerned about that position.”on Cam Newton’s health: “I had an opportunity to visit with Cam last week, he was in town. He feels really good. He said for the first time in a long time he feels very, very good. His ankle, the one he had surgically repaired, he feels really good about that. The ribs don’t bother him. The back doesn’t seem to bother him. He’s gone back to school, he should graduate this semester, so we’re very excited and proud of Cam. And he’s started his off-season program, so he’s doing a great job of staying focused and preparing. I’m very happy for the young man because last year I thought he took a very big step in the second half of the season. We did some things offensively, a little bit differently than we had done earlier in the year. We felt he was healthy and strong enough to do those things, and Mike (Shula) and the offensive staff implemented those plans and I thought they showed very well. I thought he handled the situation very nicely, and he’s going to continue in his growth as we go forward.”on Panthers’ plan for Greg Hardy: “We’re going to have to see. He’s still in the Commissioners’ Exempt List, and until all that stuff is taken care of, we really have no comment as far as that’s concerned.”on if Panthers will scale back Newton’s role as a runner: “For the most part, we’re not going to encourage him to do certain things, but we most certainly know that’s part of who he is. I think the big thing we have to do is continue to develop the offense around him more so than anyone else. One of the philosophies when we got him was protect your quarterback and put playmakers around him. I think we’re starting to do that part as far as putting playmakers around him. I thought the season Kelvin Benjamin had was phenomenal. I thought the season Greg Olsen had was obviously Pro Bowl-worthy. I thought the emergence of our running game was huge for us. We’ve got some guys that fill specific roles. I thought Fozzy (Whittaker) coming off the bench did some really nice things. I thought giving Corey Brown an opportunity to start at times for us at wide receiver. I thought the play of Jerricho Cotchery was solid, for a veteran guy coming in and doing the things he needed to do to help us offensively. I loved the play of our offensive line. I thought the development of the young players was huge. The constant, steady throughout this entire thing was Ryan Kalil, and I’m not sure Ryan got enough credit for what happened to us this year, especially down the stretch when we were rushing for over 150 yards a game on the average. I thought the way the two guards came along; I thought (Andrew) Norwell and (Trai) Turner were two young guys that were exceptional and did some very good things. I thought (Mike) Remmers coming in, playing right tackle for us was huge. I thought Byron (Bell) did some solid things for us on the left side. Defensively, I like what happened. I liked the development of that group of guys, especially the secondary. It was the second year in a row we had to rebuild the entire secondary, and I thought those guys came through and did a lot of good things, especially the young guys. We counted; there was a point during the season that some point or another we started seven rookies in different positions for us, and they had a huge impact for us this year.”on trying to get over the hump to beat Seattle: “They the high-water mark for us in the NFC. They’re the guys everybody’s chasing. Some of the things that we feel we have to do is continue to run the ball, but we’ve got to make plays over the top. They’ve had plays over the top that have beat us. We haven’t had any big plays against them, and that’s one of the things that we’ve got to do. We can’t allow those plays over the top. We allowed two big ones in the playoff game that cost us, and we didn’t really account for any big plays over the top. I thought we ran the ball effectively against them, but kudos to them, they won with their formula. Their quarterback was solid; he controlled the game. We thought their defense made plays when they had to. We’ve got to be able to make plays when we need to, and we can’t give up big plays.”on importance of combine interviews: “The interviews are probably the biggest reason you come to the combine because everybody gets the tape and the film. But it’s when you get them into those rooms, and the specific questions you get to ask, the things that you do in terms of trying to draw out as far as their football acumen, and what they know. Then some of these guys, we’ll bring into our facility, and we’ll spend a full day with them. Other guys we’ll go out and see and spend a full day with them. That’s probably one of the biggest things we try to do is to try to get them a little bit more, know their football personality, then try to know their off-the-field personality. We feel the better we know them, the less likely we’re going make a mistake and hopefully we won’t make those mistakes. We were very fortunate last year. We counted 22 young guys that we had on the roster, whether it be the practice squad or on the active 53. And of those 22, we had 16 that contributed directly. So that we felt was a really good number that helped us. And the other six contributed as well because they were practice squad guys that helped us give us a good look. So we felt really comfortable and really confident in that young group of guys. It would be great for us to repeat that. Don’t know if we can, but you’d like to get that, especially from the young guys that are here. Like I said, we feel really strong and real good about this group of young men that are coming out in this draft, and we look forward to watching these guys the next few days at the combine.on Byron Bell and direction Panthers may go at left tackle: “It’s a conversation we’re having; it’s something we’re evaluating. Again, there’s a lot of things that are going to play into this as to the other guys that are out there in free agency, the guys that are in the draft, and obviously Byron himself. He did some good things for us down the stretch, and these are all things that we’re looking at and considering. I know we’ve talked about this being the evaluation situation. There’s a lot of things that are being evaluated right now, and we’ll see how those things go.”

OFF PODIUM HIGHLIGHTS

on what Panthers are looking to improve on: “One of the things we’re looking for is to be fast. We’ve got to really take a long look at that. In the middle of the season, there were some things I saw that we needed to change. We talked about what we had to do, and we made some decisions. Moving some guys around and giving some guys the opportunity would help us, and that’s what happened. I know Dave (Gettleman) and his guys will be looking for those types of players. We talked about the most-pressing qualities that we needed, and obviously athleticism and speed is right at the top.”on if he’s talked to Hardy since his domestic violence case was dismissed: “The biggest thing was just the text between the two of us about, ‘Hey, it’s over, good, congratulations, and we’ll see what happens.’ The truth of the matter is with him on the exempt list, there’s not a lot we can say or do as far as talking about it. We’ve kind of had to wait on the situation, and we’ll see what the league decides.”on if DeAngelo Williams is in the team’s future plans: “We’ll see. He sat down with Dave and I. We had a great conversation, and it was good. So we’ll see how things are unfolding.”on if Newton plans to hold offseason workouts with receivers again: “That’s something he’s talked about doing. It’s part of his plan that he’s going to implement. There are some things that he’s going to work on specifically. There are times where he’s talked about getting groups of guys together. I know he and Kelvin developed a great relationship, and I know they plan on doing some work together, as well as Corey. That group of guys have talked about it. I know Greg Olsen’s been a part of that conversation. It’s nice. We took a step last year, and I think the guys see that these are the things we need to do to take the next step. They’re taking the initiative to do these things. I think that’s one of the things that’s being a part of his growth as far as being a leader on the football field.”on if reassigning Richard Rodgers, his former college teammate, was a tough decision: “No, it wasn’t because it’s about football, and it’s the business of the game. The thing I did was to put a guy in the best position to help us win football games. Looking what happened last year, it was a move that I believe I had to make, and I made it. The nice thing is knowing that his expertise was an area that we could put a body in. It worked very well for us because we put him in a position to coach our safeties and help in the defensive secondary.”