Gardner to Carolina

It's really too bad that Gardner never panned out. He had a hit-or-miss sophomore season but it certainly was promising in that he broke the 1000-yard barrier. In the end, though, Rod Gardner needed to be able to get open on his own, something he never appeared capable of doing on a regular basis. He's been very pedestrian the last two years. It's such a shame that the Skins wasted a first round draft pick on him and will probably get no better than a 4th round pick in return. On the flip side, they were going to release him anyway so better something than nothing.

The irony is that the Skins could have picked Santana Moss instead of Gardner if they (gasp!) listened to Danny Boy. Marty was running the show then and wanted a big receiver. Danny liked Moss' explosiveness and big play ability. Theoretically, then, the Skins could have had both the speedy Coles and Moss as their starting receivers.

Some other notable choices the Skins passsed up in order to select Gardner: Reggie Wayne, Deuce McAllister, Todd Heap, Chad Johnson, Alge Crumpler, Kendrell Bell.