The Panthers' Offense of Moving Parts

[davos]

The Premise: This season is showing how incapable this offense is with moving parts.  Top down, everyone is to blame.  

Sure, you can say this about any team, but when we get players BACK, we don't seem to smoothly reincorporate them in the game plan well at all (Looking at you Michael Shoe-La).  It appears Shula had to make major adjustments without Greg, and shipping KB and the team as a whole can't readjust this damn offense.  Then, when Cam has one of his off games, we turn to complete sh*t.  Cam is great, I don't hate him, he carries the team on his back @expected Cam defender crowd.

 

A quick timeline:

-Olsen gets hurt to start the year, Dickson replaces him but the TE1 role is minimized

-Our All-Pro Center is dealing with neck issues throughout the season

-We trade KB, offense adjusts to have Funchess as our primary, Samuel, Shepard, CMC, Dickson are the rest 

-Olsen comes back to a different offense without KB or Samuel

-Trai Turner is injured (Him out is big, especially given Amini is in his place)

-Byrd slides into Samuels role, decent transition but is quickly hurt

-Bersin reemerges from the mist, is solid for some things but not a speed threat

 

So we've got an offense with all of that happening with pretty much Cam, The lesser Kalil, Norwell, Daryl, Funchess, and CMC as the only consistencies this season.  Even with Olsen and Kalil back, we're not seeming to retool this unit properly.  We're missing a critical personnel piece at WR (2 & 3).  This Shepard guy that everyone touted is nonexistent and his expected role as our #3 WR is a quiet but impactful flop. Now, Clay and Bersin give it their all, but aren't what we need.  

Atlanta wasn't even that good yesterday.  Our defense held them to 7 in the first half and we couldn't figure it out.  The problem is that the roles we had in mind for Curtis Samuel and Shepard never actualized this season and the closest we got was from Byrd who is now gone.  Factor in shipping KB (which I'm cool with but timing/injuries f*cked us this year) and Olsen out and then back, and this offense is moving around more than Howl's Castle and Shula can't compute.  

The running game needs to get it going and lead TD drives or they'll be watching the majority of this postseason from Charlotte.  This whole "answer is on the roster" mentality needs to end when it's so damn obvious what's missing.  

The team that showed up these past 2 weeks is one and done.  If the one that beat Minny comes back, we can make a run.