Tom

I only count 52 names listed. 26 O 23 D 3 ST. Edit: 53 now. either i mscounted before or you fixed it.

The Panthers kept 10 offensive lineman last year. link

Yeah you're right. Part way through 2013 is when I noticed a shift. But NFL offenses are hard to classify these days, especially with the influence of the College game. Everybody seems to run a bit of everything.

Panthers are more Erhardt-Perkins than Air Coryell. Mike Shula is a disciple of Ray Perkins . Perkins coached Shula when he was QB @ Alabama. Later Shula worked for Perkins when Ray was head coach at Tampa Bay. TB ran Erhardt-Perkins when Shula was there under Dungy. When Shula became Head Coach of Alabama he hired coordinators that worked under Perkins. The classic Erhardt-Perkins is a very conservative offense (ex: the Giants under Parcells). Erhardt famously said "You have to throw the ball to score but you have to run the ball to win" (sound familiar?). While both offenses want to establish the run and utilize playaction, Coryell is all about attacking vertically. E-P is more about taking what the D gives you rather than having multiple receivers streaking downfield. Chud was an Air Coryell guy. Shula may have maintained some of Chud's stuff but it's a totally different philosophy.

I'd be surprised if they only kept 5 LBs to open the season. I think we went with 5 later in the season last year but that was because of injuries at LB and other positions. The last two years they have opened with 6 and they used to keep even more (8 in 2011, 7 in 2012; Hurney loved LBs). I also think 11 DBs is high. They kept 10 in 2013 but that was the most in recent memory. Last year on D we opened with 9 Dline, 6 LB, and 9 DB. That's what I would expect if we only keep 24 on D again this year. Fox used to almost always go 26O/24D but Ron kept 25/25 his first 3 years. I can't remember a team that had more than 26O or one that had more than 25D. In the two years with DG/RR we have kept 2/3QB, 10 OL, 5WR, 4 RB/FB, 4 TE, 5DE, 4DT, 6LB, 6/5 CB, and 4 S.

He has more career forced fumbles (42) than any other defensive back to ever play in the NFL (Dawkins is #2 with 36). Hopefully he can teach everyone the peanut punch.

This.

I really like this signing. As has been mentioned he had a great "13 (in the top 25 CB per PFF) and was having an ok '14 before he got hurt (had one really poorly graded game that killed his PFF numbers week 2 @ Was)

He wasn't elite but he was certainly above average. He was 9th in Yds/pr for players with at least 15 returns last year: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2013/returns.htm He had the best season average of any Panther with more than 15 returns in a season: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/play-index/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&year_min=1920&year_max=2014&season_start=1&season_end=-1&age_min=0&age_max=99&league_id=&team_id=car&is_active=&is_hof=&pos_is_qb=Y&pos_is_rb=Y&pos_is_wr=Y&pos_is_te=Y&pos_is_rec=Y&pos_is_t=Y&pos_is_g=Y&pos_is_c=Y&pos_is_ol=Y&pos_is_dt=Y&pos_is_de=Y&pos_is_dl=Y&pos_is_ilb=Y&pos_is_olb=Y&pos_is_lb=Y&pos_is_cb=Y&pos_is_s=Y&pos_is_db=Y&pos_is_k=Y&pos_is_p=Y&c1stat=punt_ret&c1comp=gt&c1val=15&c2stat=&c2comp=gt&c2val=&c3stat=&c3comp=gt&c3val=&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&order_by=punt_ret_yds_per_ret&draft=0&draft_year_min=1936&draft_year_max=2014&type=&draft_round_min=0&draft_round_max=99&draft_slot_min=1&draft_slot_max=500&draft_pick_in_round=0&draft_league_id=&draft_team_id=&college_id=all&conference=any&draft_pos_is_qb=Y&draft_pos_is_rb=Y&draft_pos_is_wr=Y&draft_pos_is_te=Y&draft_pos_is_rec=Y&draft_pos_is_t=Y&draft_pos_is_g=Y&draft_pos_is_c=Y&draft_pos_is_ol=Y&draft_pos_is_dt=Y&draft_pos_is_de=Y&draft_pos_is_dl=Y&draft_pos_is_ilb=Y&draft_pos_is_olb=Y&draft_pos_is_lb=Y&draft_pos_is_cb=Y&draft_pos_is_s=Y&draft_pos_is_db=Y&draft_pos_is_k=Y&draft_pos_is_p=Y