DJ Johnson, the end of the line

[frankw]

This guy is the Dwayne Jarrett of Panthers pass rushers.

Thanks Evero.

[ProcessBlue2]

Johnson probably done. I figure they will keep 5 edge rushers maybe 6. 
 

Wonnum, Jones, Princely, Scourton, Incoom, and if one more it’ll be Weaver or Basham for special teams.

[Dave Gettleman's Shorts]

4 hours ago, Camp Fodder said:

Traded up to get him

*with picks from the CMC trade

[PleaseCutStewart]

2 hours ago, frankw said:

This guy is the Dwayne Jarrett of Panthers pass rushers.

Thanks Evero.

At least he wasn't a 2nd round pick...

And if we are going to go with useless pass rushers, how is FSUs own Everette Brown not up there

[PleaseCutStewart]

1 hour ago, ProcessBlue2 said:

Johnson probably done. I figure they will keep 5 edge rushers maybe 6. 
 

Wonnum, Jones, Princely, Scourton, Incoom, and if one more it’ll be Weaver or Basham for special teams.

Definitely curious how our final 53 will look. While I want us to keep 7 receivers, but we definitely need depth on all of our D units

Edited August 17, 2025 by PleaseCutStewart

[frankw]

6 minutes ago, PleaseCutStewart said:

At least he wasn't a 2nd round pick...

And if we are going to go with useless pass rushers, how is FSUs own Everette Brown not up there

Of course he's up there but in fairness even colossal bust Everette Brown at 22 years old had 6 sacks in his first two seasons. DJ Johnson at 26 years old has one half sack in two seasons.

Edited August 17, 2025 by frankw

[AceMan]

He has the same agent as Ian Thomas, he will stick this season

[PNW_PantherMan]

4 hours ago, frankw said:

This guy is the Dwayne Jarrett of Panthers pass rushers.

Thanks Evero.

Dwayne Jarrett was good in college.  DJ Johnson wasn’t.

[MHS831]

5 hours ago, OldhamA said:

We had absolutely no talent on D last year. 

That is what makes it hard to evaluate him-and that is why this season, there are no excuses.  Not only did he lose Burns, Chinn (some blame him for that), Brown, Luvu, etc., they did not draft for D (Wallace?  A third rounder?)  Tough sledding.  My point was this--is he a one-trick pony or did he do anything to adjust--try a new look, etc.  In this league, if you are young and successful, they will figure you out--but yeah--we had a bad roster.

[frankw]

38 minutes ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

Dwayne Jarrett was good in college.  DJ Johnson wasn’t.

Johnson was a TE for two of his 4 years in college. As a DE/OLB he had 8 sacks in the other 2 years.

But for this I'm speaking strictly in terms of the jump to the NFL. Jarrett never even cracked 200 receiving yards in a single season. Only scored one touchdown in his career. DJ Johnson has one half sack in two seasons. They both have had horribad NFL careers despite their physical talent. That's all I'm saying.

[Icege]

10 hours ago, BrianS said:

I'm super curious about where you get the idea that he'll match scheme to talent.  He's NEVER done that in his career.  Look at Jeremy Chinn.  Evero inherited him and Chinn hardly played.  Chinn leaves us, goes to Washington and matches a career high in tackles for a playoff team.  Yes, I get the limitations with Chinn but I also understand the potential there.  A creative and talented DC should be able to tailor a role for that dude.

In fact, in his career as a DC, Evero has *never* improved a defense.  NEVER.  At every stop as DC, he's taken over a defense that regressed under his leadership.  In 2021, the Broncos are the #3 scoring defense.  In 2022, Evero takes over . . . and they fall to 14th.  So OBVIOUSLY we hire him!  He takes over our 19th ranked scoring defense and we turn into the 29th ranked scoring defense and then the 32nd ranked scoring defense in consecutive years.

Frankly, anything short of a top 15 defense should be the end of Evero here.  He's had three years now to bed in his system.  I acknowledge the injuries, but it's time we also acknowledge that the guy seems utterly incapable of fitting a system to his players or even putting together an average defense.  I hope he proves me wrong.  But it needs to be more than "Oh, we went from 32nd to 25th - WE IMPROVED!"

He did it last season beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The team went from running a lot of cover-4, 6, and 9 to running quarters less than any defense in the league and cover-3 zone more than any other defense. They lost their best pass rusher in Brian Burns going into last season and as a result needed to blitz more than they had the previous year to generate pressure. When doing this in 2023, he leaned a lot on Shaq to blitz and help provide additional pressure. In 2024, he lost Shaq after just four games and had to turn to a rookie Trevin Wallace. This wasn't long after the defense had already lost Derrick Brown, and now Evero has a gaping hole in the middle of his defense for teams to run the ball through. That's where the cover-3 reliance comes in, because it gets an extra man into the box while also still protecting over the top.

This is a big reason why we saw Jaycee "regress" last season. He was quite literally shutting down a third of the field and occasionally coming in on DB blitzes. This wasn't what he had done in 2023 when he was asked to match and follow WR1s.

One of the things that has remained consistent is Evero's preference to rotate safeties post-snap. The team statistically started in two high shells and rotated to single high more than anyone else during the 2024 season. However, there's a downside to this... while it can create confusion and cause hesitation for opposing QBs, it also has the safeties coming downhill and having to take angles while in motion. This is one of the reason we've seen so many missed tackles and why the team prioritized Moehrig over a FS in free agency.

The best way to see how different the defensive schemes were from 2023 to 2024 is to watch Jaycee's snaps from both seasons and see what he's asked to do. Once the team couldn't stop the run and leave him on an island, he needed to be made available to help in the run game while still taking away a part of the field from opposing offenses.

I'm a big fan of The Chinn as well and hated seeing him go to Washington (I have a deep disdain for that team), but his overall PFF grade in 2023 was 57.7 (126th out of 174) and 69.0 in 2024 (50th out of 171). Adjusting scheme to talent also doesn't just mean highlighting different weapons on the defense either. It also means recognizing when a defense doesn't have the talent to run the scheme, which was exactly what took place last season.

Edited August 18, 2025 by Icege

[kungfoodude]

37 minutes ago, Icege said:

He did it last season beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The team went from running a lot of cover-4, 6, and 9 to running quarters less than any defense in the league and cover-3 zone more than any other defense. They lost their best pass rusher in Brian Burns going into last season and as a result needed to blitz more than they had the previous year to generate pressure. When doing this in 2023, he leaned a lot on Shaq to blitz and help provide additional pressure. In 2024, he lost Shaq after just four games and had to turn to a rookie Trevin Wallace. This wasn't long after the defense had already lost Derrick Brown, and now Evero has a gaping hole in the middle of his defense for teams to run the ball through. That's where the cover-3 reliance comes in, because it gets an extra man into the box while also still protecting over the top.

This is a big reason why we saw Jaycee "regress" last season. He was quite literally shutting down a third of the field and occasionally coming in on DB blitzes. This wasn't what he had done in 2023 when he was asked to match and follow WR1s.

One of the things that has remained consistent is Evero's preference to rotate safeties post-snap. The team statistically started in two high shells and rotated to single high more than anyone else during the 2024 season. However, there's a downside to this... while it can create confusion and cause hesitation for opposing QBs, it also has the safeties coming downhill and having to take angles while in motion. This is one of the reason we've seen so many missed tackles and why the team prioritized Moehrig over a FS in free agency.

The best way to see how different the defensive schemes were from 2023 to 2024 is to watch Jaycee's snaps from both seasons and see what he's asked to do. Once the team couldn't stop the run and leave him on an island, he needed to be made available to help in the run game while still taking away a part of the field from opposing offenses.

I'm a big fan of The Chinn as well and hated seeing him go to Washington (I have a deep disdain for that team), but his overall PFF grade in 2023 was 57.7 (126th out of 174) and 69.0 in 2024 (50th out of 171). Adjusting scheme to talent also doesn't just mean highlighting different weapons on the defense either. It also means recognizing when a defense doesn't have the talent to run the scheme, which was exactly what took place last season.

Chinn is another in a long line of guys Panthers fans overly valued but the league responded by showing they don't consider his value to be nearly as high.

I liked the guy a lot but he did never reach his full potential.

[Stumpy]

13 hours ago, Panthercougar68 said:

My brother in Christ you might want to go check Wikipedia on those two players.

I just did. Care to elaborate on what conclusions I'm supposed to draw?

[Beast_3000]

18 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I think the Mannings would basically maneuver away from us in some way, shape or form. 

Fine with me there are other QB’s with just as much talent