just how good is gamble? how much is he thrown at?

[CarolinaKat]

Hogan when healthy is a beast. Gamble will be put in the spotlight again in coverage and we'll see if he still has any game left.

[SevenSixes]

Getting better at the CB position is a must in our division. I'm sure that if you boil the position down to just one or two stats, Gamble could look pretty good. I was surprised that Gamble isn't getting thrown against as much as I thought he was. The last chart showed that he was thrown against 47 times and gave up 29 receptions, that's a number I can believe.

Marshall was pathetic last year and I certainly didn't shed a tear when he wasn't given tender.

I'd love it if we aggressively perused Nnamdi, but our team has had bad luck with high priced FA talent since Bill Polian left. Besides, I'd figure that JR would want a little more ka-ching from the roster again this year, so I don't expect any blockbuster moves by the front office. Having a shutdown corner, however, would be a great addition in this QB dominated Div.

[rayzor]

Also, at the very bottom a more accurate table is made, and Gamble is ranked pretty low. That being said, Gamble was injured, had no help of pass rush, and was benched some games.

it's not more accurate. they are all accurate for what they are trying to show. maybe you meant is more important. if thats the case, i disagree. it's telling, but not more important.

you take all of them together and it shows that people don't throw at gamble often, but when they do throw at him the percentage of passes caught is kind of high (much in the same way it is for asomugha, actually only worse for gamble). what that tells is that it isn't often that the WR gets room for the QB to feel comfortable throwing the ball towards gamble, but in those moments that the QB does throw the ball to that receiver, gamble doesn't put up much of a fight for it or he's gotten beat.

none of this means that gamble is a bad corner at all. he isn't elite, but he sure isn't a detriment to the team. i don't think he's worth the money that he's getting paid, but if rivera can help get gamble's head on straight gamble should be solid. we still need to address the CB on the other side....esp. someone that could cover the slot.

[jarhead]

Picking up a good cb in fa is a must for the Panthers.My only concern with Asomugha is his age related to the money it will take to get him.At 30 years old he still has some good years but it could also mean he has peaked and lost a step.

[Razeyfingers]

Gamble was initially labeled as a guy who had good street style cover skills. I s'pose, under Fox, he learned how to play the man better, but he may have felt uncomfortable not coming from the angle or position that he was used to in order to make plays. Maybe he needed to bait more in that style and he came from under more often, not sure.

I think he may have been a bit disgruntled last year as well. He's no spring chicken anymore and he, like Smitty, cant afford to be giving up some of his golden years as a player if he wants to make the most of his abilities. He's the leader of that very young secondary and he very easily could be a distraction on any other squad that tolerates bitches. Still, Gamble has remained professional and played his game.

Im curious to see how he will benefit from Rivera's defense.

[pantherclaw]

Need a better pass rush.

Our secondary isn't nearly as bad as many make it out to be..

[KSpan]

Marshall was pathetic last year and I certainly didn't shed a tear when he wasn't given tender.

I'd love it if we aggressively perused Nnamdi, but our team has had bad luck with high priced FA talent since Bill Polian left. Besides, I'd figure that JR would want a little more ka-ching from the roster again this year, so I don't expect any blockbuster moves by the front office. Having a shutdown corner, however, would be a great addition in this QB dominated Div.

Marshall was tendered, but I don't see that stopping Rivera from wanting to upgrade the corner position. Perhaps Marshall's issue was more with Fox than Carolina specifically and they're expecting him to bounce back to a decent level of play... we'll probably never know the truth on that one.

[jarhead]

To me they must upgrade the position and I dont think they can gamble on our draft pick as being the man.We will get torched this year if both our cbs and dts do not show up.If Rivera wants to use our lbs attacking the qb then alot will fall on the defensive backfield.

[jarhead]

Im curious wether teams were really hesitant to throw to Gamble because of him, or because it was so easy to throw at the 2nd and/or 3rd CB.

I think that is a valid point

[MaineManPanther]

it's not more accurate. they are all accurate for what they are trying to show. maybe you meant is more important. if thats the case, i disagree. it's telling, but not more important.

you take all of them together and it shows that people don't throw at gamble often, but when they do throw at him the percentage of passes caught is kind of high (much in the same way it is for asomugha, actually only worse for gamble). what that tells is that it isn't often that the WR gets room for the QB to feel comfortable throwing the ball towards gamble, but in those moments that the QB does throw the ball to that receiver, gamble doesn't put up much of a fight for it or he's gotten beat.

none of this means that gamble is a bad corner at all. he isn't elite, but he sure isn't a detriment to the team. i don't think he's worth the money that he's getting paid, but if rivera can help get gamble's head on straight gamble should be solid. we still need to address the CB on the other side....esp. someone that could cover the slot.

Agree with the analysis of what the table means. But if a CB has a high percentage (in the aftermentioned table), it could be reasonably assumed that the reason the CB isnt being highly targeted may not have primary to do with his talent or repect from the QB.

However, looking back on the last chart. I believe it's skewed. The top players on the list all have a very high number of cover snaps, most more then 1.5 times Gamble. For a good CB the more number of snaps would continue to lower the percentage. This also explains why Aso is ranked abnormally low ( only 441 snaps).

Had Gamble played the whole season, he wouldve been much higher up.

Agreed, Gamble is not and should not be a concern for Rivera.

[I am Hubby]

Two things I like about Gamble;

One is his athletism. His senior year he played CB, WR, and returned punts. And he did them all well enough that I didn't cringe when the Panthers drafted an OSU player.

Two is his professionalism. He is a good teammate, competes hard when healthy, (Until last year anyway.) stays out of trouble, and doesn't complain.

Now for the fun part. Things I do not like about Gamble; went to OSU, drops, although he is a fairly good tackler he seems to dislike tackling, to much finesse and not enough physicality, and drops.

Still think overall he is a fine CB, and that his play fell off last year as a result of injury and of losing. I would not let him go, even with his cap hit, because, IMO , he is still a #1 type CB.

Just my thoughts, and GOOOOO Panthers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rayzor]

Two is his professionalism. He is a good teammate, competes hard when healthy, stays out of trouble, and doesn't complain.(Until last year anyway.)

i had to move that until alst year anyway to the end. last year he didn't show professionalism and did enough complaining that he got benched.

hopefully he's past that, but he sure didn't do himself or the team any favors.

[Happy Panther]

A couple of items that may be skewing this statistic.

1) as someone mentioned maybe teams viewed our other CB/S as weak so didn't need to go to Gamble. Richard Marshall is in the bottom 6 for receptions allowed

2) Maybe teams threw more to the RB or into LB coverage against the panthers. In other words they didn't need to go deep to score on us so why bother.

3) Maybe Gamble was used in a blitz scheme more often? Doubt that one though

4) Was Gamble subbed out on key throwing plays?

5) How often was gamble double teaming someone?

Its an interesting statistic either way

[Davidson Deac II]

fwiw, teams didn't throw at any of our corners that much, and that might be skewing the stats some. No need to when you have big leads in the late stages of the game. Looking at our stats from last year, teams ran for a lot of yards against us, even though we only gave up 3.9 ypc. I know that some of the stats take that into account, but even so, we didn't really get tested much in late game situations.