After three months of tinkering, wheeling, dealing and shuffling, John Fox may have just completed the greatest restoration project in the NFC this offseason.

Working in tandem with GM Marty Hurney, the Panthers' head coach has flown through the NFL's shopping season in furious fashion, like a grocery store customer in the express lane. He has rebuilt his team, piece by painstaking piece, and turned it into the NFC's most improved club heading into the 2008 campaign.

However, this isn't the first time Fox's Panthers have appeared poised to move back toward the top of the deck in their conference. Despite a talented roster that would suggest otherwise, the Panthers have missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Fox will walk the thin line between success and failure one more time in ’08, but if he's bumped off the path, this could be his final year with the club.

He has the parts to work with and is still regarded as one of the better head coaches around. But patience is running thin in Carolina.

The Panthers' moves didn't produce the splash of the Vikings' trade for DE Jared Allen or the Saints' swap for MLB Jonathan Vilma, but they made a series of quiet, well-calculated additions, most notably signing WR D.J. Hackett, and made their biggest grabs in the draft, taking RB Jonathan Stewart with the 13th overall choice and trading back into the first round to select ORT Jeff Otah six picks later.

Stewart was graded even higher than Darren McFadden in PFW's draft rankings, and there is good reason to believe he's the kind of workhorse back who will give Fox the power running game he's been missing since the Panthers' breakout ’03 run to the Super Bowl when Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster (released in February) spearheaded the backfield. Stewart, combined with speedy RB DeAngelo Williams, forms a bona fide 1-2 punch. Williams will serve as the change-of-pace back and grew into his role late last season, averaging over six yards per carry in the final two contests.

Carolina struggled to get much of a push off the O-line as the team wilted to a 7-9 finish last year. There was a mammoth-sized concern about who would be blocking for Carolina's backs in ’08 as both OLT Travelle Wharton and ORT Jordan Gross were headed for free agency. Hurney acted quickly, re-signing Wharton to a long-term deal, and then slapped the franchise tag on Gross. After he drafted Otah, a road-grading mauler, to play on the right side, Wharton bumped inside to left guard, and Gross shifted to left tackle, where he played two seasons ago. The squad cut veterans OG Mike Wahle and C Justin Hartwig and replaced them with ’07 draft pick C Ryan Kalil and a bevy of wide-framed potential starters at right guard, inking Keydrick Vincent, Milford Brown and the most rotund of the group, Toniu Fonoti, to deals. This year's O-line should be bigger and tougher, fitting with the goal of re-establishing a power ground game.

The additions of Hackett and veteran WR Muhsin Muhammad, who spent the first nine years of his career with the Panthers before a stint with the Bears, added depth to a receiving corps that craved it last season while All-Pro caliber WR Steve Smith was the lone playmaker of the group. Carolina also took care of some holes on the defensive line, filling out the interior by signing veteran DTs Darwin Walker and Ian Scott, who will be backups, and tabbed Tyler Brayton to compete for the opening at defensive end left by the retired Mike Rucker. Versatile rookie Charles Godfrey, a third-round pick out of Iowa, has the tools to become an instant difference maker and is slated as the team's starting free safety, though he can help out at corner, as well.

John Fox

Fox is signed through 2010, but there was much speculation that he was on the way out before owner Jerry Richardson stepped in and said differently this winter. If Fox fails to get this new crew into the postseason and perhaps win a playoff game, Richardson may enter the Bill Cowher sweepstakes, which are set to resume next January. Richardson is believed to have great admiration for the former Steelers head coach and often goes out of his way to compliment the Pittsburgh organization.

Fox now has the necessary parts to work with, and some of the old excuses for why things haven't gone to plan just won't do this time around. We all know QB Jake Delhomme is one awkward landing or helmet-to-the-elbow hit away from the injured-reserve list. DE Julius Peppers, despite his freakish stock of talent, too often does a disappearing act that would make a magician blush.

Those are givens that Fox has to be prepared for, should they bubble to the surface yet again. His challenge this offseason was to add enough talent around those two players in order to become less reliant on them playing to their full potential.

The way things look today, I'd say the mission has been accomplished.