Linebacker Thomas Davis hasn't exactly been a reliable figure for the Carolina Panthers in recent years.
The team's 2005 first-round pick has started just nine games over the past three seasons while tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee three times in a 23-month span. His future is uncertain, but Davis isn't short on predictions of glory for the Panthers.
"I see us finishing our season in New Orleans and I don't mean playing the New Orleans Saints," Davis told the Athens Banner-Herald, via ESPN.com. "I'm looking forward to getting a healthy team back together and everyone gelling. I think that we can make a strong push to the playoffs and possibly to the Super Bowl."
Panthers trainer Ryan Vermillion told the Charlotte Observer in February that no player in NFL history has come back from three ACL surgeries on the same knee, but Davis told the Herald-Banner: "I am looking forward to playing the full 19 game season and winning the Super Bowl."
The first order of business in Carolina is improving a defense that found a way to allow more points per game (26.8) than Cam Newton's electrifying offense put up (25.4). A healthy Davis, along with the return of All-Pro linebacker Jon Beason -- who tore his Achilles' tendon in the season opener -- would go a long way toward lending credibility to some of these rather wild springtime predictions.
