Panthers starting DTs Maake Kemoeatu (ankle) and Damione Lewis (shoulder) will benefit from the Panthers' first round bye and should be near full health in two weeks.

Both missed the team's regular season finale against the Saints. Kemoeatu's 6'5/350-pound frame will be crucial to the Panthers' playoff success. They'll face either the Vikings or the Eagles in the second round.

(rotoworld.com)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Damione Lewis got leg-whipped by an offensive lineman shortly after the Carolina Panthers started training camp, and he has been nursing a minor injury ever since.

But Lewis was back on the practice field yesterday afternoon. And regardless of how many reps he is getting these days, he's certain to be a key component on the Panthers' defensive line this season.

Lewis is slated to start at defensive tackle, filling the spot that came open when the Panthers traded Kris Jenkins to the New York Jets last spring. He won it with his play the past two seasons as a backup to Jenkins and Maake Kemoeatu.

"They have given me an opportunity, and I want to take advantage of it," Lewis said yesterday. "In this league, it's all about opportunity and being able to go through some growing pains and being able to do it on a consistent basis."

Lewis, a 6-2, 301-pounder in his eighth NFL season, shared the team lead with 3?sacks last season. In 15 games, including two as a starter, he had 32 tackles, seven quarterback hurries and one fumble recovery.

He was rewarded during the offseason with a three-year, $14-million contract.

It was the continuation of a career revival. He was the 12th pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, by the St. Louis Rams, but he never lived up to expectations with the Rams and started just 27 games in five seasons. The Rams chose not to re-sign him when his original contract expired.

He came to the Panthers as a backup in 2006, had a solid season with 30 tackles and 4?sacks in a backup role and proved to himself that he still belonged in the NFL.

"When I came here, I was just looking to do what they asked and show them I could play," Lewis said. "I knew I could play this game. I know what I went through in St. Louis, but I always knew that I could play this game. There's never been any doubt in my mind that I could play. It might be a shock to other people, but it's not a shock to me.

"It's been hard work, but I've stuck with it and continued to work. I've gotten better every minute I've played in the league, and I'm always striving to play better the next year."

Coach John Fox has had high praise for Lewis throughout offseason workouts and training camp.

"He was a guy we picked up in free agency that came in and did a good job," Fox said. "We were a little bit entrenched there with some guys we had, but we always rotate our D-line, and a good rotation is real important. He has played quite a bit for us, he just didn't jog out in the starting lineup the majority of the time.

"He's a guy who has been a starter in the league, is capable of starting, and we think he is good enough to start for us."

Lewis said he has felt comfortable from the moment he joined the Panthers.

"Everything just felt right about (the Panthers)," he said. "I liked the way the coaches dealt with players and the way the head coach interacts with players and the GM, Marty (Hurney), how he interacts with everybody. Mr. Richardson (owner Jerry Richardson) will come down to the locker room and pull guys to the side and talk to them one-on-one."

Now, the goal is to fit in and be part of a solid defense.

Jenkins' outspokenness led to friction with some teammates, and some Panthers have talked during training camp about "addition by subtraction" with the Jenkins trade. But everyone seems to get along with Lewis.

"It is what it is," Lewis said. "You know, I love Jenks. I think he's a great guy. I still talk to him. We're still good friends. He feels like he had the best thing happen to him going there, and now I want to take advantage of this opportunity.

"I'm really not looking at it like ‘Ooh, I'm a starter,' " Lewis said.

(journalnow.com)

SPARTANBURG There was a time when Damione Lewis was expected to dominate at defensive tackle in the NFL, so much so that St. Louis made him its No.1 draft pick (12th overall) out of Miami in 2001.

For whatever reason, it didn't happen. There was a broken foot that rookie year and gradually, he became a sometime starter and then an afterthought. In five seasons with the Rams, he started more than seven games just once. By the time Carolina signed him as a free agent in 2006, Lewis was just another guy, thought of by some as something of a bust. The Panthers brought him in to back up Kris Jenkins and Maake Kemoeatu.

“There's the old saying; if it doesn't kill you it makes you stronger,” Lewis said Tuesday outside the Wofford cafeteria. “My life's good; I've got a wife and kids; I'm happy. I love football, but I know I'm not going to be able to do it forever. People can say what they want to say; I've always enjoyed the game and I love the game, and that's the way I look at it.”

And if his St. Louis days weren't what he had hoped …

“Some people are going to be great; you have very few hall of famers compared to the numbers that play the game. I'm not going to worry about it.”

Lewis played better than many expected as a Panther, and now his role has increased. He's become an important cog in a defensive line hoping to reestablish its dominance. Jenkins has been traded. Defensive end Mike Rucker has retired.

Defensive end Julius Peppers is coming off his worst season.

Something had to change, and Lewis is a big part of that.

“He came in and did a good job… he played quite a bit for us,” said coach John Fox. “He's been a starter in the league, he's capable of starting and we think he's capable of starting for us.”

After collecting eight sacks in two years as a reserve, he'll line up next to Kemoeatu.

“I'm playing base (defense) and sub now, where last year I played mostly nickel (passing situations) and came in for Maake a little bit on run downs,” Lewis said. “So I'm doing a little bit of everything now.”

The key, though, might be that the defense is doing less. While no one is being specific, the coaches – with a number of new players to consider – have scaled back the playbook.

“You don't hear (complaints or confusion) on the field as much as we did last year, I think,” Lewis said. “You hear a lot more enthusiasm; guys are being a lot more energetic on the field, and talking to each other more. I think guys are relaxing.”

Lewis said that while things are generally the same for the front four, the defensive calls from the linebackers are coming in faster.

“I think (scaling back is) allowing us to play faster with less thinking from the front and from the linebackers.”

Lewis, who was given Tuesday's practice off after taking a hit to an ankle Monday, feels as if he has a new lease on life.

“In St. Louis, especially in my later years, there was a lot of unsound stuff that we were doing,” he said. “We got a lot criticism up front for it, but actually it wasn't always us. We took it with a smile and just kept going. But there were a lot of things that just weren't right with what we were doing on that defense.

“Here everything is well thought-out. I think coach (John) Fox and coach (Mike) Trgovac do a great job of putting our game plan together. Even in simplifying what we're doing, they're doing a great job with that.”

Lewis, a self-described country boy from Sulphur Springs, Tex., also feels that Carolina is a better fit for him, with everyone from owner Jerry Richardson on down interested in the players as individuals.

“I come from a real small town,” Lewis said. “Hunting and fishing, get out and do what I like to do outdoors. It's a lot easier to do it here than a lot of other places.

“Give me a bass boat and a couple of cold beers and I'm fine.”

(charlotteobserver.com)

SPARTANBURG, S.C.: When the Carolina Panthers opened training camp last year, rookie Jon Beason skipped workouts in a contract dispute, safety Chris Harris played for the Chicago Bears and Damione Lewis was a backup defensive tackle.

When the team took the field for Tuesday's workout, the three players were clearly the leaders at their position, barking instructions, encouraging teammates and leading drills.

After the retirement of veterans Mike Minter, Mike Rucker and Dan Morgan in the past 12 months, Beason, Harris and Lewis have become the face of Carolina's new-look, young defense.

"We're the most vocal guys, but the defense is really new," Beason said Tuesday. "There are a lot of new faces. I think we enjoy each other, we trust each other and we know we could be as good as we want to. I think everyone has taken that challenge."

The 23-year-old Beason overcame missing the first eight days of camp last year to set a team-record 160 tackles. Moving to middle linebacker after Morgan's season-ending Achilles' tendon injury, he quickly earned the respect of his teammates. His leadership role was cemented late in the season when coach John Fox asked him to give the pregame speech before a game against Dallas.

Beason responded with a stirring talk about his love for the game and the significance of facing the storied Cowboys.

"Since I have been in the league, and that's seven years, he gave a speech from a player or a coach I have never heard before," cornerback Ken Lucas said. "It's one of those Martin Luther King Jr. type of speeches when he got done. It had that feel. Everybody looked at each other like man, that was a powerful speech. He gives that type of energy. He's a natural leader."

The 30-year-old Lewis, a former first-round pick of St. Louis, became a starter when the Panthers traded three-time Pro Bowl pick Kris Jenkins in February. Lewis, whose three sacks topped the dismal 2007 team, has clearly been the most vocal on the defensive line.

"You hear a lot more enthusiasm and guys being a lot more energetic on the field," Lewis said. "Guys are talking more. I think guys are relaxing."

The transformation of the defense comes after the Panthers lost a combined 26 years of experience with the departures of Minter, Rucker and Morgan. Beason said it was clear they left a leadership void.

"This year I want to do my job, do it well and lead by example," Beason said. "Hopefully, the defense follows me."

With a much younger lineup, Fox has simplified the defense, allowing players to act more on instinct.

"You've got to have guys step in," Fox said. "That's the landscape in this league now. There is just more turnover. Back a long time ago, you had guys for their whole careers, and it's a little bit more of a junior college-college rotation now as far as people coming through with all of the changes in free agency.

"So it makes it a little bit more difficult. But you need to find those guys, identify them as part of your evaluation and develop them."

(iht.com)

On the Panthers defensive line, Damione Lewis is anything but a silent partner. The veteran defensive tackle with the high-octane motor stands out among the jovial but soft-spoken Maake Kemoeatu and a stoic pair of defensive ends, Julius Peppers and Tyler Brayton.

The former Miami Hurricane provides constant chatter during defensive line drills in his distinctive Texas drawl. On the first day of training camp, Lewis set the tone as the defensive line made a statement with aggressive play in one-on-one run and pass-rush drills.

Entering his eighth NFL season and third with the Panthers, Lewis is anxious to provide more than comic relief. One goal is to provide leadership to a group that has been challenged by the loss of two long-time starters this off-season, Mike Rucker and Kris Jenkins.

The obvious conclusion is that Lewis will fill the spot vacated by Jenkins, but defensive line coach Sal Sunseri begs to differ, citing that the two are completely different players.

"It wasn't Jenkins' system," Sunseri said. "It wasn't Rucker's system. He's filling a role in our system."

Sunseri added that Lewis has all the tools to step into his new role.

"He has the respect of his teammates. When you do the right things, making the right calls, people will follow."

(panther.com)

Kemoeatu (6-foot-5, 345 pounds) and Damione Lewis (6-foot-2, 301 pounds) are the old faces inside absorbing a tweaked defensive scheme that allows them to attack opposing quarterbacks in a more freewheeling manner than recent years.

"I kind of look forward to the challenge, to the freedom and powers they've given us up front to be a little bit more creative," Lewis said. "I like it. I'm getting into what we're doing and the defensive calls and stuff like that, trying to see how I fit in with it, move with it and just feel it out, because it's completely different."

Kemoeatu started 13 of the Panthers' 16 games at left defensive tackle last year, while Lewis managed to lead the defensive line with 3.5 sacks in spite of starting just two games in 2007.

The adjustments up front could help Lewis -- who signed a three-year contract extension this offseason -- cement his role.

"We're doing more attacking up front. More blitzes," he said. "A lot of them are going to seem the same to our opponent, but I think it will give us an advantage, because they won't be able to read what we're doing by how we're lining up. That's basically it. It's really not too much more complicated than what we were doing last year."

(Panthers.com)

Q. Who was a key mentor or motivator in your life?
High school head coach James Cameron, who passed away in the spring of my junior year in high school (in Sulphur Springs, Texas).

Q. What's your favorite hobby away from football?
Fishing and hunting. I love to do both because I love the outdoors, and it gives me time to think and clear my mind.

Q. What are you afraid of?
Nothing.

Q. What television show won't you miss or always record?
“American Idol.”

Q. What's your guilty pleasure?
Food.

Q. What's your favorite vacation spot?
Any tropical setting. I love the ocean.

Q. What other position would you love to play?
Tight end.

Q. What's your ideal post-football career?
Sports analyst, because I love talking about sports.

Q. Who was your sports hero growing up?
William Perry and Walter Payton. They were awesome.

Q. What did you buy with your first NFL paycheck?
A house for my parents.

(charlotte.com)

Darin Gantt, of The Herald, reporting for The Sporting News, reports Carolina Panthers DL Damione Lewis will be used as a one-gap rusher.




(fanhome.com)

March 30, 2008 - Damione Lewis has a philosophy about life -- "Better yourself and take someone along with you." Some young people in Hopkins County will soon get to experience that firsthand.

Local boys ages 6-14 will have a chance to meet Lewis and other NFL stars in person during the inaugural Damione Lewis Football Camp on Saturday morning, April 19, sponsored by the Hopkins County Boys and Girls Club.

At 6-feet, 2-inches and 300 pounds, Lewis is a large man. As an NFL player, he's even larger than life.

The former Sulphur Springs Wildcat gridiron standout will begin his eighth NFL season after signing a three-year contract extension in the offseason as defensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers. He was a blue chip prospect at Sulphur Springs High School in the mid 1990s and a first-round draft pick by the St. Louis Rams after starting for three years at the University of Miami.

The camp, his brainchild, is being coordinated locally by Kerry Wright.

"It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I've just been waiting for the right time," said Lewis, who was back in his home town on Friday to shore up some of the details. "I've gotten to a place in my life where I'm settled and in a comfort situation where I feel like I can give back.

"The first thing I wanted to do in that process is to get something going around here. I want to help these kids get focused on life and back on track. There's so much more in their lives to look forward to than what they're dealing with today."

The camp is free -- that's right -- free, and participants don't have to be members of the Boys and Girls Club to attend. Registration forms, which need to be turned in by April 4, are at the Boys and Girls Club and Fieldhouse Sports.

By making the camp free, it will allow more youngsters to attend and be mentored by Lewis and up to a dozen other NFL players, including another former Wildcat, Caleb Miller, as well as Santana Moss, Bubba Franks, Jon Beason, Dante Rosario and perhaps Edgerrin James, Clinton Portis and Dan Morgan.

"The idea is to get as many young people out to the camp as possible so they can see people who have been successful in their careers, and to give them some hope," Wright said.

The players will teach campers fundamental instructions, proper nutrition and weight training. But the most important part will likely be the heartfelt talk they will receive on leadership, character and how to be true student-athletes on and off the field.

"I want it to go beyond football, but that's what I know -- that's what I do" Lewis said. "So it was a lot easier for me to bring that atmosphere in first and build on that.

"They need to understand that the person they are looking to was in the same position that are in, maybe worse. So it's possible for them to do what I did or go beyond and do something different."

Lewis isn't just talking about professional sports, either.

"It could be a doctor or lawyer or just a hard-working parent who provides for their family," he explained. "Find a comfort within yourself and try to better yourself. That's really the object of life -- go out and better your life and bring somebody along with you."

The Boys and Girls Club will hopefully benefit greatly from the camp, because organizers have set a goal to raise $100,000 in donations from local businesses. In return for a $2,000 donation, business owners will receive access to a private mixer and dinner with the NFL players -- not a bad bonus for contributing to something worthwhile.

Businesses that would like to participate but have not been contacted can e-mail Wright at kwright@cpiaccess.com for details.

The Boys and Girls Club, located in the old Houston Elementary School building, has about 150 members. Approximately 60 percent are from single-parent homes.

Lewis wants the money generated from the camp to buy more computers for the facility and to start and expand a tutoring and mentoring program.

"In the future, I'd like to see retired teachers in here tutoring, volleyball and basketball, just a full-service Boys and Girls Club, where they can come over here and get on-line, do their homework and be more of an area that's a positive place for them to be," he said. "I'd like to see businessmen come in and talk to them and mentor them -- that's what I'd like to see."

(ssnewstelegram.com)