SI: How will the Panther Defense's personality change with Norman gone?

[Khaki Lackey]

Josh was kind of a lone wolf and was never a leader on the D. Great player, sure. Leaders don't need other leaders to calm them the hell down all the time. Josh could be a borderline distraction at times for the other players on D. His play and fire will be missed, our secondary is a concern, no doubt, but Josh did not personify the identity of our D. Not by a long shot.

[MechaZain]

Goes to show how little the rest of nation actually knows us. I can't think of a team with as many characters. 

 

 

[outlaw4]

Personality, not that large of a concern. Performance should be. There will be struggles but the positive is that we have plenty of leadership on the defense to mitigate that.

[MrBubba]

I care less about replacing Josh's personality and swagger, and more about replacing his coverage on Julio Jones. 

[Hoenheim]

Whos going to be our starting cbs for the season opener? Bene and McClain? Or is it just an ongoing competition until gameday to see who the starting cbs are? I know Rivera likes starting veterans so i doubt the new guys will start but maybe they get some decent playing time I'm not sure. Or maybe not if Bene and McClain are good enough to just stay on the field most of the time

Its going to be really intersting to see how all the cbs perform against some of the top tier WRs this year. Least were not playing the giants this year unless we play them in the playoffs.

Julio Jones might be looking at the panther cb situation now and salivating

[KB_fan]

2 hours ago, outlaw4 said:

Personality, not that large of a concern. Performance should be. There will be struggles but the positive is that we have plenty of leadership on the defense to mitigate that.

 

2 hours ago, MrBubba said:

I care less about replacing Josh's personality and swagger, and more about replacing his coverage on Julio Jones. 

These are two of the best responses on the thread. 

Agree totally.  The media that covers Carolina is going to miss Josh and his always entertaining quotes.... but the Panthers' focus has got to be replacing his production on the field and trust the team's leaders to lead and let this team develop it's own chemistry, rather than trying to duplicate last year.

[KB_fan]

1 hour ago, Hoenheim said:

Whos going to be our starting cbs for the season opener? Bene and McClain? Or is it just an ongoing competition until gameday to see who the starting cbs are? I know Rivera likes starting veterans so i doubt the new guys will start but maybe they get some decent playing time I'm not sure. Or maybe not if Bene and McClain are good enough to just stay on the field most of the time

Its going to be really intersting to see how all the cbs perform against some of the top tier WRs this year. Least were not playing the giants this year unless we play them in the playoffs.

I'm gonna go out on a limb now and predict that Bene is going to end up back in the Nickel role rather than playing outside.  Or that if he starts outside, he'll slide in to nickel often, opening up playing time for another rookie.    I'd rather have Bene outside, but I don't think we've got another really solid nickel at the moment.  So I'll predict some kind of rotation of Bene, McClain & Bradberry.   I'm pretty sure at least one of the rookies will get significant playing time from week 1. 

[Bj-Monster23]

2 hours ago, Hoenheim said:

Whos going to be our starting cbs for the season opener? Bene and McClain? Or is it just an ongoing competition until gameday to see who the starting cbs are? I know Rivera likes starting veterans so i doubt the new guys will start but maybe they get some decent playing time I'm not sure. Or maybe not if Bene and McClain are good enough to just stay on the field most of the time

Its going to be really intersting to see how all the cbs perform against some of the top tier WRs this year. Least were not playing the giants this year unless we play them in the playoffs.

Julio Jones might be looking at the panther cb situation now and salivating

My thoughts Bradberry and Worley. Bene ends back up in the slot I think.

[j2sgam]

Not to take anything away from JNo, was highly entertaining to watch him grow into what he became.... But, I think his 4 INTs with 2 returned in the 1st 2 games made QBs not throw at him. When they did, he was good in his coverage so the stat that they had a better QB rating throwing into the ground than at Josh showed up around mid season...

 

Wasnt it the front 7s effort that made it easy for Teh back 4? Because they puckered lookin at 24, isn't that how Thieves Ave was born? He came on late but Coleman had 7 to Norman's 4.. Do the rookies know what role they need to play? Do the vets know they need to expand their responsibilities? This is now, not then, paraphrasing Cam, "the suberpowl is 2017. That was Feb.'16, now it's June'16.."

 

Upgraded D-line, more experienced LBs & the young vets in Kurt, Bene & Tre will make up for any rookie deficiencies.. Don't think the swag needs to be replaced.... It grows & adapts.......

[Jangler]

15 hours ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Josh was Josh on the defense. His personality didn't dictate the overall personality of the squad, in my opinion at least.

Everyone else had a lunch pail mentality that I would say comes from TD. TD is the Defensive tone setter.

Yeah, Starts with TD on down, not sure but JN was at least 3rd in real impact last season. Not taking anything away from what he did. But I guess will see how good he and we are without each other...

 

[MountainHeel66]

4 hours ago, Jangler said:

Yeah, Starts with TD on down, not sure but JN was at least 3rd in real impact last season. Not taking anything away from what he did. But I guess will see how good he and we are without each other...

 

Neither will be as good without the other as they were TOGETHER. However, as I said from the very beginning, Josh needed Carolina more than Carolina would ever need Josh. He figured that out FAR FAR too late and by the time he did his bags were already packed.

[RoaringRiot]

20 hours ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Josh was Josh on the defense. His personality didn't dictate the overall personality of the squad, in my opinion at least.

Everyone else had a lunch pail mentality that I would say comes from TD. TD is the Defensive tone setter.

This

[LinvilleGorge]

Coleman will be the leader in the secondary. 

[Mojo]

Besides the obvious, I think Coleman deserves more credit.  He's a stable presence back there and he played with half of his nose hanging off his face all last year.  I think he's a great personality on our D.  Also Shaq has a chance to step in and fly around laying wood.