A look at the new and improved run defense

[Basbear]

6 minutes ago, PootieNunu said:

OL always going to win in a best out of 10 type thing, but it only takes one big Defensive play (sack,tfl) to put the offense behind the sticks and end up forcing a punt. 

So you are calling it 10-0 for the offense?

I put dbrown there...

 

I was thinking 6-4 Offense due to the inexperienced edges. I think its close tho..

[MHS831]

Moehrig is a huge upgrade, and I would say that getting DBrown back is a huge upgrade--throw in Brown III over what Tuttle did last year, Wharton over what Robinson could not do last year--and I only see one way this thing could go.  Edge is obviously our biggest need, followed by S , DE, and maybe LB and CB.

What are opinions on Crumedy? 

 

[TheSpecialJuan]

excellent analysis

[Jon Snow]

8 minutes ago, MHS831 said:

Moehrig is a huge upgrade, and I would say that getting DBrown back is a huge upgrade--throw in Brown III over what Tuttle did last year, Wharton over what Robinson could not do last year--and I only see one way this thing could go.  Edge is obviously our biggest need, followed by S , DE, and maybe LB and CB.

What are opinions on Crumedy? 

 

Who? Seriously, I forgot he was on the roster.

[MHS831]

8 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

Who? Seriously, I forgot he was on the roster.

He played some at the end of the season.  I doubt he sticks.

[Jon Snow]

Just now, MHS831 said:

He played some at the end of the season.  I doubt he sticks.

I doubt anyone beyond the penciled in starters are safe.

[Aussie Tank]

Wait till we add Mason Graham and Donovan Exeiruaku 

[Jon Snow]

1 minute ago, Aussie Tank said:

Wait till we add Mason Graham and Donovan Exeiruaku 

That is not that far fetched of a possibility. This draft is setting up to be bazaar in so many ways. 

[Icege]

12 hours ago, Aussie Tank said:

Wait till we add Mason Graham and Donovan Exeiruaku 

I would do obscene things for this. 

Edited April 2, 2025 by Icege

[hepcat]

There seems to be a focus on improving the talent on defense this offseason and Evero will have more tools in his toolbox in 2025. It's hard to judge Evero's performance because he has not been given many resources to succeed. The highest defensive player they've selected during his time with the Panthers is Trevin Wallace at 72 overall. They've filled the defense with free agents the past few years and the results have largely been bad.

At times in 2023, I thought Evero was making salad out of sh*t with the defense performing well despite the offense being complete and total garbage. The script seemed to flip in 2024 when an insurmountable amount of injuries torpedoed the defensive performance. Even an improvement to an average defense could mean a few more wins. 

[TheSpecialJuan]

Defense
LDE	95	Brown, Derrick 20/1	93	Ray, LaBryan SF23	74	Roberts, Sam SF24
NT	97	Brown III, Bobby U/LAR	99	Tuttle, Shy U/NO	78	Aumavae, Popo CF24		Clark, Jerrod SF25
RDE	92	Wharton, Tershawn U/KC	94	ROBINSON, A'SHAWN U/NYG	96	Crumedy, Jaden 24/6

Brown, Brown, Wharton, and Robinson are solid the backups are simply placeholders at this point all are upgradeable 

 

[ECHornet]

Thanks for this excellent post OP. We definitely upgraded our DL this year like we did our IOL last year. Hopefully we’ll see similar results. 

[Gapanthersfan]

My concern is not talent, but as has been said, it’s coaching. Successful teams that run this scheme all seem to have superior defensive coaching staffs. If guys aren’t good enough or miss assignments, the plays end up going for big gains. The margin for error is much smaller than a traditional 4-3 scheme. 

[Navy_football]

3 hours ago, Gapanthersfan said:

My concern is not talent, but as has been said, it’s coaching. Successful teams that run this scheme all seem to have superior defensive coaching staffs. If guys aren’t good enough or miss assignments, the plays end up going for big gains. The margin for error is much smaller than a traditional 4-3 scheme. 

Normally I'd agree with this, but the talent gap was on all levels. Dline was decimated when D.Brown went down. He's the core to that unit. I think the new additons take a lot of pressure off of him going forward. Hopefully his snap count decreases like 25%. Crumedy was a 6th round rookie and should have only been getting spot play at best. Like 5-7 snaps a game. Started a rookie at ILB that was a project and never expected to be a starter last season. And the safeties were just horrible in coverage. Woods was a decent tackler, but Fuller and Scott were bad. Real bad. I'm 50 and need a left knee replacement, and could probably still shake them in the open field.