When the Panthers decided to open the season without a fullback on the roster, one of the reasons was the development of young tight end Chris Manhertz; between Ed Dickson and Manhertz taking such a chunk of the blocking assignments, the coaching staff felt comfortable using the two tight ends as the primary blockers in Mike Shula’s complicated offense. When Greg Olsen broke his foot during Week 2, both Dickson and Manhertz saw their roles grow; now that Olsen is back, the former basketball star from Canisius, who hadn’t played a down of football until he was signed to a futures contract by the Buffalo Bills in 2014, has returned to his blocking tight end role, but still makes the most of his opportunities when he gets them. Manhertz had his second catch of the season, which made for a career high, two weeks ago against Minnesota.
We had a chance to sit down with the young tight end for a few minutes about whether he thinks the Panthers are peaking at the right time and his thoughts on Christmas music before Ed Dickson chimed in and revealed the Panthers secret plan for the offense going forward.
The offense is really hitting it’s stride right now with thirty points per game for the last six games. What do you think is different now versus the beginning of the season?
I think collectively, as an offense, we’re gelling a lot better; things are going a lot smoother in the pass game and the run game. Cam, I think, is hitting his stride as well as us as a team, collectively, right now. I think it’s the right time for us to hit our stride.
Do you think it’s important to peak this late in the season?
Absolutely. You want to play your best ball right now when you’re hopefully going into the playoffs and carrying that momentum over; it’s great that we’re doing that right now.
It feels like this team is kind of flying under the radar on the national stage. One Pro Bowler, maybe not in the contender conversation as much, obviously in the news for other reasons, does that lack of recognition translate over to the locker room?
Honestly, you could take it however you want, but being the positive person that I am, I would just use that as motivation to show people that we are here and we have arrived and we’re here to stay.
In that tight end room, with you, Greg, and Ed, it seems like you interchange roles seemingly from play to play. How much have you learned from those two?
Definitely a lot. I’ve learned a lot, and my learning process has been sped up when Greg got hurt and I had to fill that void and fill that role. I had to force myself to grow up fast, so I know the roles are a little bit different now, but all three of us are interchangeable and we’re ready and willing to do anything we’ve got to do.
Do you think this team is good enough to win the NFC? To win the Super Bowl?
Yes. I don’t think we work this hard everyday, come in here everyday and bust our tail to have any other expectations
It seems like week-to-week, there is a new guy that steps up. Damiere Byrd has two touchdowns last week, Colin Jones has an interception, you guys have had that ‘next man up’ mentality all season.
Yeah, I think that’s the good thing about this team. It’s unpredictable in the sense that we have a lot of weapons on this team, it’s only a matter of giving them the opportunities in the game. Sometimes, injuries is what it takes for some guys to step up and fill the void, so those are great attributes to have.
Run game has been on fire the past few weeks with over 180 yards per game, it seems like Jonathan Stewart gets better as the season goes on, what do you think makes the run game more successful late in the season?
I think it’s our consistency. During this time of the season, teams have a tendency of losing their technique because everybody’s banged up and everything, but I think we’ve done a great job of sticking to our details, our fundamentals and our technique and that definitely translates to the run game.
Cam has been playing Christmas music in the locker room the last 20 minutes or so, what are you thoughts on Christmas music? Good? Bad?
I love it! It mellows the mood down a little bit, it’s only right with Christmas being three or four days away.
What do you like to listen to in the locker room before a game?
I like to listen to a lot of Jay-Z, a lot of Jadakiss, a lot of Fabolous; pretty much New York rappers, I’m from New York, so….
Specifically New York guys?
Yeah, I might be biased, but that gets me going.
One of the things about this offense is that there’s so much misdirection and motion before the snap even happens, is Mike Shula done installing this stuff or is there more to come?
**At this point, Ed Dickson chimes in**
Dickson: Hey, hey, hey, no questions about Shula! Shula is never done installing! We’ve got so many plays….look, put this on record: we’ve got so many plays that they can’t even count. We’re about to run the annexation of Puerto Rico tomorrow.
You heard it here first.
