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Well, first of all, they’re about to kickoff their second preseason game against Philadelphia (on FOX), so hopefully no one will get hurt and ruin this post for me.

It’s only a week into the preseason schedule, so I won’t anoint the Panthers as a favorite to become NFC champions yet, but they’ve got worse to first written all over them. How good are things going? Dwayne Jarrett is taking hits and catching balls over the middle.

The top news in is Jake Delhomme’s elbow injury. It occurred in October, so he’s had almost a full year to recover. Early reports are that the health of his arm isn’t even an issue this preseason. Before he got hurt last season, Delhomme really was thriving under then first year offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson’s system. Both are back this season.

The offensive line in Carolina looks great. The kicked Travelle Wharton inside to play LG, moved former 8th overall pick Jordan Gross from RT to LT. Highly regarded center Ryan Kalil will be entering his second pro season. 2008 19th overall pick, Jeff Otah, looks like he’ll be starting at RT.

Jonathan Stewart’s toe injury will likely set him back on the depth chart – maybe even behind Nick Goings to start the season, but DeAngelo Williams is motivated and set up for a great season. He had plenty of big holes to run through in game one against the Colts, but Williams has great vision and a great change of pace ability to make defenders miss in tight spaces. For a (relatively) small as he is, he’s a great inside runner.

The Steve Smith – Ken Lucas incident seems to have brought the team together. It may be one of those things that they’ll point to in November and talk about how it got the team focused from the start.

There’s plenty of depth at WR while Smith misses the first two games. The Panthers signed Mushin Muhammad DJ Hackett this offseason and have Jarrett as well.

Stong and deep at linebacker, with Thomas Davis moving back to the weakside, his more natural position. Jon Beason will be back in the middle entering his second professional season.

Julius Peppers is coming off his worst pro season. He’s been moved to the right side and was a terror against the Colts in preweek one. The Panthers have transitioned their defense away from the big, run stuffing unit they had in the past, and into a quicker, one gap penetrating type front seven. They hope this will lead to a more effective pass rush; one that features the dynamic Peppers off the right end.

Vegas has Carolina as a 5/2 underdog to win the NFC South this season.