Marty Hurney's journey into finding a compliment to Steve Smith continued earlier this week when former Seattle WR D.J. Hackett was signed to a 2 year, $3.5M deal. Hackett will likely be the number 2 WR for Carolina next year, but will battle Muhsin Muhammad and Dwayne "DWI" Jarrett in training camp. This signing is kind of a gamble. Though Hackett is young (26) and talented (he finished off 2007 on fire), he's been plagued by injuries in his short career. If he can remain healthy (and if Jake is back healthy) the Panthers will finally have an effective air attack to compliment their running game. 3 WR sets with Muhammad and Hackett on the outside, with Smith in the slot, will be highly effective, giving Smith more room to get open while teams have to worry about Hackett and Muhammad. Steve Smith can finally rejoice, he's got a complimentary guy finally who's not on the wrong side of 30.
This signing also calls into question Dwayne Jarrett's future with Carolina. Let's face it, Jarrett so far has been a huge bust. He was Carolina's 1st 2nd Round choice last year and was supposed to be the number 2 alongside Steve Smith, the big physical receiver as opposed to a smaller, quicker receiver. What did he do last year? 6 catches. No touchdowns. Got ripped by Steve Smith. Got a DWI last week. With a young Hackett in now, and likely to start at number 2, what is Jarrett's future? Only time will tell.
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