Left guard Todd Herremans still is recovering from surgery to repair a stress fracture in a foot and could be out until next month. New right tackle Shawn Andrews missed all of training camp and the preseason with a cranky back. His brother, Stacy, the team's new starting right guard, played in just one preseason game after having January ACL surgery. New left tackle Jason Peters missed time with a quad injury.

"I'm not going to say it's going to take a lot of time [for them to get on the same page], but it will take time," Reid said in June when discussing his new and supposedly improved o-line. "Those five guys have to be dancing the same dance."

Right now, Shawn Andrews is doing the merengue, Stacy is doing the tango, Peters is doing the fox trot, center Jamaal Jackson is doing the cha-cha and Herremans' replacement, Nick Cole, is doing the rumba.

Meanwhile, down in Charlotte, the Carolina Panthers will be trotting out a battle-tested offensive line who know each other better than an old married couple. They not only dance the same dance, they finish each other's sentences, complete each other's thoughts and, oh, yeah, play together better than the New York Philharmonic.

"Half of being a good offensive line is knowing each other and knowing how each other plays," said the Panthers' Pro Bowl left tackle, Jordan Gross. "We got that out of the way last year. There's really no excuse for us not to be a good unit, and hopefully, build off what we did last year."

What Gross and his linemates - left guard Travelle Wharton, center Ryan Kalil, right guard Keydrick Vincent and right tackle Jeff Otah - did last year was play as well as any offensive line in the NFL.

They helped Carolina, which won the NFC South with a 12-4 record, set franchise records for rushing yards (2,437) and fewest sacks allowed (20). The Panthers' pound-the-ball-down-your-throat offense - their 504 rushing attempts were the third most in the NFC behind only Atlanta (560) and Minnesota (519) - finished third in the league in rushing, seventh in scoring and 10th in total offense.

The Panthers' two running backs, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, combined for 2,351 rushing yards in '08, the most by an NFL ballcarrying tandem in nearly a quarter century. In the Panthers' final eight games, Williams and Stewart combined for eight 100-yard rushing performances.

With all five offensive line starters back to pave the way for Williams and Stewart and provide security for quarterback Jake Delhomme, the Panthers are looking for even bigger and better things from their offense this season.

"I think we're much farther along than we were a year ago," said Gross, who is playing on the same side in consecutive seasons for the first time in his career. "The key for us is getting our depth developed. We've got a lot of young [backup] players. Unproven guys that need to step up and show what they can do. But as far as our starting five, we've got the potential to be a really good unit."

The Panthers had excellent depth up front last year and it came in handy. Otah, the rookie drafted in the first round with the pick they got from the Eagles, missed four games in October and November. But ex-Eagle Jeremy Bridges stepped in and played well.

Another veteran, Frank Omiyale, filled in for Gross for a game when he got hurt. And Geoff Hangartner started two early season games for Wharton at left guard, four at center for Kalil and two more at right guard for Vincent. The unit never missed a beat.

But Bridges, Omiyale and Hangartner all signed with other teams in the offseason, leaving the Panthers with precious little experience behind their starters. On Sunday, their top three backups will be center/guard Mackenzy Bernadeau, rookie guard Duke Robinson and tackle Geoff Schwartz, none of whom have taken an NFL regular-season snap.

"I think we've got quality [backups]," Gross said. "They just don't have a lot of experience."

The Panthers have assembled a line that is suited for the smashmouth style of offense they play. The difference in philosophy between the Panthers and the pass-happy Eagles was evident in last year's draft when the Birds, who needed an offensive tackle, traded away their first-round pick to the Panthers rather than take Otah, who was considered a better run blocker than pass blocker at Pitt.

"The style of offense we run - a power running game - they picked the right pieces of the puzzle," the 6-5, 325-pound Vincent said. "We are what we are. We were built to be a power-run, smashmouth football team. That's something we take pride in and just have to go out there and do it.

"What we do on offense is what I'm built for. I'm a run blocker. I can pass block a little bit, but we're going to outphysical you. That's what I'm made for. I'm not a finesse guy."

After drafting Otah last year, the Panthers moved Gross from right tackle to left tackle and slid Wharton inside to left guard from left tackle. Wharton's move inside was one of the keys to their rushing success last season. His power and mobility helped spring Stewart and Williams on many of their cutback runs.

The Panthers averaged 31.5 rush attempts per game last year and just 25.9 pass attempts. Delhomme isn't a carry-the-load quarterback. In 32 starts over the last 3 years, he's thrown 30-plus passes in a game just 13 times. Carolina's record in those 13 games: 4-9.

"In this offense, we're able to attack all the time and not sit back and react all the time," Otah said. "You can hit somebody instead of waiting for them to hit you. I like run blocking. I like pass blocking, too. But you can be more aggressive in run blocking."

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