Tighter coverage on top receivers worth a Gamble for Panthers

[Rod Butsecks]

(By Scott Fowler, [email protected]) p/ Chris Gamble is clearly the Carolina Panthers' best cornerback. At age 26, he stands in the prime of his career. He is so athletic that he can frequently mimic the cuts of the NFL's best receivers while running backward./pp/But while the Panthers pay Gamble shutdown corner money, they have yet to truly allow him to be a shutdown corner. Most of the time Gamble simply patrols the left side of the Carolina defense, covering the nearest wide receiver in his area./pp/As the Arizona playoff game last season showed in stark detail, it's time for that to change. Gamble should track the other team's star receiver all over the field far more often this season, giving the Panthers a chance to control that key matchup rather than have it dictated to them./pp/Against Arizona, the Cardinals basically picked the cornerback they wanted Larry Fitzgerald to burn. Most of the time, it was either No.2 cornerback Ken Lucas (now departed) or No.3 corner Richard Marshall, which made all the sense in the world if you were a Cardinal./pp/Not that Gamble is foolproof. Had he guarded Fitzgerald every snap in that nasty game it's possible that Fitzgerald might still have sliced through Carolina for 166 receiving yards and a touchdown./pp/But it sure made it easier for Fitzgerald that he didn't have to deal with Gamble very often./pp/ldquo;Chris Gamble is a phenomenal talent and I'm glad he wasn't following me around,rdquo; Fitzgerald told reporters days after the game. And the Cardinals receiver said Arizona knew that day that Gamble wouldn't track Fitzgerald everywhere because the Panthers ldquo;didn't show [that] all year.rdquo;/pp/While stressing that he will do whatever the Panther coaches tell him, Gamble said this week he would like to cover the other teams' top receivers in man-on-man coverage more often in 2009. /pp/ldquo;I feel like they pay me to do that,rdquo; Gamble said, ldquo;and that's what I really want to do. I did it in college so I feel I can do it here. I'm just ready for that challenge.rdquo;/pp/Panthers coach John Fox has long preferred the simplicity of the ldquo;stick-to-your-own-siderdquo; approach. When I asked Fox whether he might use Gamble one-on-one more often this season, he said that Gamble is ldquo;good enough to do it, no question.rdquo; /pp/Then he went into Fox-speak, saying ldquo;that's always an optionrdquo; but that there are a lot of factors involved and that it's too early to know what Carolina will do with Gamble this season, etc. /pp/Now it's true that wouldn't make sense for Gamble to do this on every play by himself. Too risky. Too tiring. Dropping a safety deep to help Gamble on fly patterns would always be acceptable./pp/But cornerback is a strange position. If you stay on one side, you can't affect the game nearly as much. A quarterback or a running back can get the ball whenever the head coach chooses. /pp/But a cornerback? He's got to make something big happen or he may not touch it once the entire game. It's one reason why Deion Sanders wanted to play offense and return punts in Dallas ndash; at least you get a chance to score./pp/Gamble has an incredibly quick break on the ball. He has 20 interceptions ndash; second all-time for the Panthers behind Eric Davis's 25. And Gamble would have already surpassed Davis had he caught everything he's gotten his hands on since entering the league as Carolina's No.1 pick in 2004./pp/ldquo;I try to average about five or six [interceptions] a year,rdquo; Gamble said. He's only had a total of four in the past two seasons, however, as teams have thrown away from him more often./pp/The Panthers signed Gamble to a six-year contract extension last November that might eventually be worth more than $50 million. It was huge money, making him one of the NFL's five most well-paid cornerbacks at the time./pp/It only makes sense that if you take a Gamble like that, you put your player in a position to affect the outcome of games more often./p

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[SuperMan]

(By Scott Fowler, [email protected]) p/ Chris Gamble is clearly the Carolina Panthers' best cornerback. At age 26, he stands in the prime of his career. He is so athletic that he can frequently mimic the cuts of the NFL's best receivers while running backward./pp/But while the Panthers pay Gamble shutdown corner money, they have yet to truly allow him to be a shutdown corner. Most of the time Gamble simply patrols the left side of the Carolina defense, covering the nearest wide receiver in his area./pp/As the Arizona playoff game last season showed in stark detail, it's time for that to change. Gamble should track the other team's star receiver all over the field far more often this season, giving the Panthers a chance to control that key matchup rather than have it dictated to them./pp/Against Arizona, the Cardinals basically picked the cornerback they wanted Larry Fitzgerald to burn. Most of the time, it was either No.2 cornerback Ken Lucas (now departed) or No.3 corner Richard Marshall, which made all the sense in the world if you were a Cardinal./pp/Not that Gamble is foolproof. Had he guarded Fitzgerald every snap in that nasty game it's possible that Fitzgerald might still have sliced through Carolina for 166 receiving yards and a touchdown./pp/But it sure made it easier for Fitzgerald that he didn't have to deal with Gamble very often./pp/ldquo;Chris Gamble is a phenomenal talent and I'm glad he wasn't following me around,rdquo; Fitzgerald told reporters days after the game. And the Cardinals receiver said Arizona knew that day that Gamble wouldn't track Fitzgerald everywhere because the Panthers ldquo;didn't show [that] all year.rdquo;/pp/While stressing that he will do whatever the Panther coaches tell him, Gamble said this week he would like to cover the other teams' top receivers in man-on-man coverage more often in 2009. /pp/ldquo;I feel like they pay me to do that,rdquo; Gamble said, ldquo;and that's what I really want to do. I did it in college so I feel I can do it here. I'm just ready for that challenge.rdquo;/pp/Panthers coach John Fox has long preferred the simplicity of the ldquo;stick-to-your-own-siderdquo; approach. When I asked Fox whether he might use Gamble one-on-one more often this season, he said that Gamble is ldquo;good enough to do it, no question.rdquo; /pp/Then he went into Fox-speak, saying ldquo;that's always an optionrdquo; but that there are a lot of factors involved and that it's too early to know what Carolina will do with Gamble this season, etc. /pp/Now it's true that wouldn't make sense for Gamble to do this on every play by himself. Too risky. Too tiring. Dropping a safety deep to help Gamble on fly patterns would always be acceptable./pp/But cornerback is a strange position. If you stay on one side, you can't affect the game nearly as much. A quarterback or a running back can get the ball whenever the head coach chooses. /pp/But a cornerback? He's got to make something big happen or he may not touch it once the entire game. It's one reason why Deion Sanders wanted to play offense and return punts in Dallas ndash; at least you get a chance to score./pp/Gamble has an incredibly quick break on the ball. He has 20 interceptions ndash; second all-time for the Panthers behind Eric Davis's 25. And Gamble would have already surpassed Davis had he caught everything he's gotten his hands on since entering the league as Carolina's No.1 pick in 2004./pp/ldquo;I try to average about five or six [interceptions] a year,rdquo; Gamble said. He's only had a total of four in the past two seasons, however, as teams have thrown away from him more often./pp/The Panthers signed Gamble to a six-year contract extension last November that might eventually be worth more than $50 million. It was huge money, making him one of the NFL's five most well-paid cornerbacks at the time./pp/It only makes sense that if you take a Gamble like that, you put your player in a position to affect the outcome of games more often./p

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I've always liked gamble, for a corner he is down to earth sighns autographs before and after practice... nuce guy.. great cb if fox would let him be..