Why our Defense is bad and why it (hopefully) shouldn't be a problem - A baseless theory by Rags

[Rags]

Our defense isn't trying to be a Top 5 defense. Or top 10. Maybe not even top 15.

It's just trying to be competent. Something we can field and keep opposing teams under 21. Because hopefully Cam and the loaded offense can put up 21+.

You can tell a lot by the moves we made. Drafting a PR, getting Tolbert, trading for Murphy, someone who is familiar with Cam btw, resigning Stew.

Rivera may be a defensive HC, but he's putting it all on Cam and crew for now.

Meanwhile he's going to be building the D brick by brick. Kuechly is the start of this. I think he wants to build his own, young power house D overtime. But in the meantime he wants what we have now to step up. We obviously have CJ, Beason, Anderson and Gamble, but aside from that we have a lot of medicore to bad players, or unproven yet promising players.

And that's okay for now as long as they play well. He wants what we have to step up, get stops and create turnovers. Not necessarily shut down the run game or blanket everyone. Just do enough, try to force stops and get turnovers.

Meanwhile we have Cam, Smith, Olsen Tolbert, Stew and hopefully LaFell and Murphy or Gettis to step up the passing game, and our 4 headed snake run game to sustain long drives and put points on the board.

Will this work? Who knows. This, if it is his plan and not me just trying to rationalize why we're so bad at defense, could go well. It could blow up in his face. Who knows honestly, all I know is every time the Panthers take the field I'm gonna root for them and hope for the best.

So McClain, Edwards, Hardy, Nakamura, Godfrey, whoever our #2 CB is and please god let it not be Munnerlyn (I love him but he's a much better nickel corner), you don't have to be all pros, you can make mistakes. We just want you to be decent. Which would be a huge step up from last years defense, and that might just be enough.

Feel free to point and laugh/post gifs/tl;dr now.

[Cary Kollins]

I think having Beason back in the middle barking orders will improve every position on the field.

[Rags]

Yeah apparently communication was a big issue last year. Hopefully Beason staying healthy all season will solve a lot of that.

[HeatCheck]

I agree with your take.

But...If you have that "We are just trying not to screw up for Cam" attitude as a defense it will not end well. It's nice that our defense was able to stop Houston in the red zone and like last year we were able to bend not break but we need to upgrade the defense.

Also, with opposing defenses seeing Cam and our O for a second year we might not have the same offensive output like last year. I still think we are going to get it going but at some point we can't just rely on our offense.

[Rags]

Yeah we're gonna get better on defense. Just the goals for this year, mainly. Rome wasn't built in one day.

Also, I'm honestly expecting us to try to get another 1st for this years draft. I dunno I just feel like we're really gonna do everything we can to get us a nice, young defense next year.

[Icege]

I think people are going to have to accept that they're going to see the equivalent last year's defense until the season starts... This is an evaluation and learning process. Wins are desired, but I would like to believe that the coaches are more concerned with narrowing it down to whom is best for the team in order to get those wins when they matter (regular + post season).

The defense has not been the same since 2009 when it was arguably one of the top 10 defenses in the league. With that in mind, let's take a look at the roster for the defensive side of the ball by the end of that season:

DE: Julius Peppers, Tyler Brayton, Charles Johnson, Everette Brown, Hilee Taylor

DT: Damione Lewis, Derek Landri, Hollis Thomas, Nick Hayden

LB: Jon Beason, James Anderson, Na'il Diggs, Jordan Senn, Dan Connor, Mortty Ivy, Quinton Culberson

DB: Chris Gamble, Richard Marshall, Charles Godfrey, Chris Harris, Sherrod Martin, Captain Munnerlyn, Dante Wesley, C.J. Wilson, Quinton Teal

Look at the DLine. Everette Brown, Hilee Taylor, Nick Hayden? Ewww. What was there at the DT position? Damione Lewis went to NE the next season and didn't make the team. Julius Peppers was/is a beast, and while CJ might not have the physical advantages that he has, CJ HAS been producing those #s that some posters value so much. Yet, people are beside themselves at the idea of not having a top flight DT when the team didn't have one when it was a force.

Some key variables are forgotten: the roster purge before the lockout that left the team with scraps, followed immediately by a new coaching staff/scheme with no offseason and injuries to defensive leaders. This will be the first legitimate season the defense will have under Rivera (imo at least), and the roster is being restocked with quality depth. It might take it another season to get the defense back to what it used to be, but with the talent on the current roster, I trust that at the very least the team will walk away with a winning season...

...and a Super Bowl trophy ;D

[SCP]

I think having Beason back in the middle barking orders will improve every position on the field.

Fua needs more than barking orders and encouragement.

[mountainpantherfan]

I feel that what this defense really needs is leadership. Right now the only leader I really see is Beason. Guys like CJ and Gamble are talented and probably are respected but they don't come across to me as "field generals" which is what I think we desperately need.

Rucker, Morgan and Minter were the on field "generals" back in 02-06. We have Beason but we need one on the dline and in the secondary and I don't see one ready to step up on the team.

[XClown1986]

Nakamura seems to be barking orders in the secondary and communicating well. This might be why he is on the field over Sherrod Martin.

I think calling out CJ in the media was Rivera's way of asking CJ to be a leader on defense.

Rivera knows what it will take for the defense to mesh, but we just have to wait and see if it comes together.

[bleys]

Fua needs more than barking orders and encouragement.

I will gladly ignore strength, conditioning, and technigue if you grant yourself one incredible game day experience against the Failcunts this year. I do make the best turds in the south, aside from the turd master himself....

[panther4life]

Too early to make any conclusions about this D bad or good.

We will have at least 3 new starters and quite possibly 5 if Nakumara and Norman rise to the occasion.

1.Beason

2.Kuechly

3.Anderson

4.Nakumara

5.Norman

Thats up to 5 upgrades over what we saw last year and its reasonable to think the returning starters should show some improvement in their 2nd year in the system and having a full offseason.

Causing 2 turnovers and allowing a field goal in 1 quarter of play in the first preseason game is nothing to panic over when the first team D was in.

I am cautiously optimistic and definitely expect better results than we saw last year. How much better we'll be is impossible to predict at this point.

[Snake]

We really needed a good DT but Kuechly really is a beast of a player. Let's just hope the DT position doesn't come back to bite us

I really do think this new CBA rule that makes TC a no hitting camp really has effected defenses around tne league.

[carolina-chuck]

I hope we are "TRYING" to be at least a top 10 Defense. I mean I dnt think Rivera, a NFL head coach just woke up one day and say, "oh I just want my Defense to be average and competent".

I dnt think JR is paying RR that much money to only create a competent D.

[Kuech the Sneak]

They might have realized that were not gonna completely shut teams down so we might as well play aggressive as they can and get a few turnovers and give our offense a few more possessions a game