Panthers’ wideout Steve Smith broke his arm while playing in a flag football game at his annual youth camp over the weekend. It was the same arm that he broke last season against the Giants.

According to the Charlotte Observer, Smith has already undergone surgery and will likely miss all of training camp, although he’s expected to be healthy by Week 1 of the regular season.

“Steve has talked to me and feels terrible about it,” says Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney. “Now his focus is on the rehabilitating process and getting back as quickly as he can.”

While the situation is certainly unfortunate, it’s hard to fault an athlete for injuring himself while doing something good for the community. It was a freak accident.

Someone that could benefit from Smith not being able to practice is promising rookie Armanti Edwards, who was taken in the third round of April’s draft. The former Appalachian State quarterback has impressed Carolina’s coaching staff in OTAs this offseason and could earn more playing time in the Panthers’ offense if he continues to turn heads in training camp and during the preseason.

Update: Check that, the Charlotte Observer is now reporting that Smith was actually playing flag football in an adult league – not at a youth camp. Rut-oh.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

After the Panthers selected Jimmy Clausen in the second round of the NFL draft on Friday, many pundits started to wonder whether or not the team had confidence in Matt Moore as a starter. Then when GM Marty Hurney selected Tony Pike in the sixth round, some experts’ heads were ready to explode as they feverishly talked about how Moore may not be wanted in Carolina.

But let’s take a step back for a moment and look at the situation as a whole. Entering the draft, the Panthers had Moore and Hunter Cantwell on the depth chart at quarterback. Even if the team has confidence in Moore (which it still sounds like they do), they had to take a quarterback as insurance in case he turned out to be a disaster or suffered an injury. Say again, they had to draft a quarterback.

Reports have surfaced that Hurney was attempting to trade up in the second round to take Clausen, which does indicate that the team isn’t completely sold on Moore as their franchise quarterback. But considering Clausen was a top 15 pick who fell into the second round, Hurney would have probably kicked himself if he didn’t at least try to trade up for him. He knew he needed a quarterback and considering Clausen represented so much value in the second round, it made sense for him to try and trade up to get him. Then when Clausen fell to him anyway, it was a perfect situation.

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Biggest Head-Scratcher: Armanti Edwards, WR, Panthers
I’m fully convinced that Carolina GM Marty Hurney wants to get fired. There’s just know other logical explanation as to why he would trade a first rounder last year for Everette Brown and a second rounder in 2011 for Armanti Edwards. I could only imagine how that phone call went between Hurney and Bill Belichick: “Oh hey, Bill? Yeah, this is Marty Hurney from the Panthers. Hey listen Bill, I’m dying to get out of this place and I’m looking to make a really bad decision in hopes of getting canned. I traded our first round pick this year for Everette Brown last year…yeah, Everette Brown…I know, right? Hahaha. Anyway, it didn’t work and now I have to try something drastic again. What do you think about giving us your third for our second in 2011? Awesome. Hey, you watching your TV? Watch this, I’m about to take Armanti Edwards with your pick. Yeah, seriously…I know, right? Haha…” Look, I watched from the stands as Armanti Edwards almost single-handedly burned down the Michigan football program a couple years ago. I know what kind of player he is and thought he would have been a good pick in the later rounds. But Carolina is set to make him a receiver when he’s never played the position before and they gave up a second round pick in the process. It was a major reach and a major risk seeing as how quarterbacks tend to struggle making the transition to receiver. What another lousy draft day decision by Hurney.

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