CHARLOTTE -- In 2009, the majority of Carolina's wide receiver production came from one source: Steve Smith.
He had 982 receiving yards; the Panthers' other wideouts had 842. He scored seven touchdowns; the others had two. He had 15 catches of at least 20 yards; the others combined for 11.
But as the passing game struggled, so did Smith and his four teammates at the position. Their collective average per catch dropped from 15.93 yards in 2008 to 12.85 last year; their touchdown tally dropped from 11 to nine (although Smith's increased from six to seven). Most dramatically, their collective average yardage per game tumbled from 167.25 to 114.
Some of that was due to other issues, evidenced by the percentage of times they were targeted and caught the football. In 2008, they caught the football 58.54 percent of the time they were targeted by Panthers quarterbacks; that dropped to 53.79 percent last year.
Smith's numbers improved in his final four games before he broke his forearm against the Giants. After catching passes on 45 of the 90 times he was targeted by
Smith remains in the prime of his career; many elite receivers had splendid seasons in season 10 and beyond, including Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, Randy Moss and Terrell Owens. Four wide receivers -- Moss, Hines Ward, Donald Driver and Derrick Mason -- had 1,000-yard seasons last fall; each has played at least 10 years.
But the future of the Panthers' wide receivers around Smith bears watching.
Muhsin Muhammad's two-year contract is up, and he made clear at the end of the season that he wanted to remain with the club he's represented for 11 of his 14 seasons in the league.
"I would love to stay and play here," Muhammad said leading up to the season finale against the New Orleans Saints. "It sounds like a broken record, man. I've said this before. But I would love to stay and play. We'll see what happens."
Handling a lesser role -- perhaps as a No. 3 receiver -- doesn't necessarily concern the veteran, who says he feels fresh even as he prepares for a 15th season in the NFL. In the past five seasons, four receivers around the league -- including former Panther Ricky Proehl -- played into their 15th season and beyond.
"When I was signed back here, there was an article about whether I'd be upset if I wasn't the starter," he said. "I'm not that proud of a guy to not be able to handle a role on the football team.
"If you love to play football, then that's what you do, you just play ball. As far as letting my role determine how hard I'm going to work -- it never has, and it never will."
Muhammad was the only Carolina wide receiver aside from Smith to have more than 50 receptions; he finished with 53 for 581 yards. No other Panthers wideout had more than 17 catches.
Although Dwayne Jarrett caught the first touchdown pass of his career in the season finale against New Orleans, he was disappointed in a season in which he was unable to make the great leap forward that third-year receivers often make,
He was deactivated for two of the season's final three games, leaving him understandably frustrated.
"Of course. I'd lie if I said I wasn't," he said. "It's part of the game. Some players have to go through it, some players don't. I'm just being patient. That's all I can do."
Jarrett had seven more receptions and 77 more yards than he did in 2008. However, his percentage of catches that picked up first downs tumbled from 90 percent (nine of 10) to 58.82 percent (10 of 17), and he was inactive for consecutive games in December against the Vikings and Giants.
"It's really out of my control. All I can do is just show up," he said in December. "The opportunities I do get, I try to capitalize on them, even though they may be small, but at the same time, you just have to be there and make that play. I feel like my time is going to come, whether it's here or somewhere else, I'm not worried about that. I just have to keep working on my skills, and I'll be all right."
The only product of a Mecklenburg County high school to play for the Panthers, Butler High alumnus Kenny Moore often spoke of the pride he felt in playing for his hometown team. But his second season with the Panthers -- and first in which he saw action after being inactive for his entire rookie campaign -- was pockmarked with frustration, as he muffed a punt against Buffalo to set up a game-clinching field goal and was inactive four times in a five-week stretch of November and December.
Moore made his first career start in Week 17 after Smith's season-ending injury, but did not catch a pass and finished the season with 59 yards on six catches, only one of which went for a first down.
Charly Martin remains an intriguing prospect, even though his on-field repetitions on offense were scant. He was only targeted twice, with his solitary reception going for six yards against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a catch noted more for the hit he absorbed from Tanard Jackson than the yardage it gained.
But Martin did bounce back to his feet from the hit and didn't miss any action, playing mostly on special teams in the season's last seven games after being promoted from the practice squad. His status is defined more by what he can become than what he did as a rookie.
