According to PFF we have the worst collection of corners in the NFL.

[Camp Fodder]

1 hour ago, pantherclaw said:

You're so blind yourself that you can't make an abservation without me taking the time away from my work day, to point a few out? 

 

I'll take any group of ball hawks behind our front 7, every day, especially on Sundays. 

Will they make some rookie mistakes? I see mistakes made by the best vets all the time. I'm alright with that. 

Well continue to be a good defense, that gets turnovers. This year, by rookies. You should get use to the idea.

Sorry and yes I am bitter about letting josh go. He pretty much eliminated the other teams number 1. I really didn't miss Julio going for 200 yards.  I just think we are relying too much on a still somewhat (unproven) DE in Ealy, a recently often hurt C Johnson and our best DT that appears he may be holding out.  Yes I am very concerned considering we are 4 months removed from a SuperBowl appearance and the rest of the league got better

[aussiePanther]

I agree with this article.

I also agree with the article that said our secondary is on the right track, and will probably be really good for us this year.

I don't see why everything has to turn into poo flinging and arguments...

It's JUNE people! Of course rookies are untested and of course you can't rate rookies higher than guys who have even semi-decent NFL experience, and can we really rely on our DEs getting consistent pass rush like we need from them after they didn't last year?

At the same time, it's JUNE people! The younger DEs and Bene have already shown there's no reason to think they won't be fine, there's plenty of time to get other players up to speed with the system, and find out if they'll work for this year and if the questions aren't satisfactorily answered for the coaches and front office we won't be entering the regular season looking like this.

For me at worst we'll have a season of bad but not dire coverage before things get a hell of a lot better than that (think reliving the coverage strength of the 2013 & 2014 seasons again) at best we'll get right back to being top 5 Defence.

[Snake]

4 hours ago, Zaximus said:

When that player was probably the best cornerback in the league the year before, it does.  He shut down his side of the field, basically, shut down the team's best receiver for the most part.  It's huge.  YUGGGGGE.   Norman's play allowed more help the other cornerback on the other side, hiding their weaknesses.  

We have plugged in CBS for years with positive results. People act as if Norman had been locking down players for 5 years. He'll he didn't even shadow a teams best WR. 

[Mr. Scot]

2 hours ago, The NFL Shield At Midfield said:

is 8 or 9 wins your 2016 prediction cpantherking

if so, noted

He predicted the same thing last year.

The fun thing now is he's no longer even responding to the people calling him an idiot.

(probably because there's so many it'd take him all day)

[pantherclaw]

4 hours ago, Camp Fodder said:

Sorry and yes I am bitter about letting josh go. He pretty much eliminated the other teams number 1. I really didn't miss Julio going for 200 yards.  I just think we are relying too much on a still somewhat (unproven) DE in Ealy, a recently often hurt C Johnson and our best DT that appears he may be holding out.  Yes I am very concerned considering we are 4 months removed from a SuperBowl appearance and the rest of the league got better

Norman was nothing but a typical zone corner,  who finally developed from his free lancing ways, to have 1 good season.

I've also never seen anyone try to talk down our defensive line as much as you just did, to try to support your opinion. 

I get it, your worried.

My age and experience means i know it's the front half of the defenses that make the secondary, not the other way around.

Our pass rush wasn't as bad last season as you make it out to be. 

We didn't get better, but the rest of the league did?  That kind of bullshit isn't even worth responding to.

You're going to continue harping your very negative out look until the play on the field tells you otherwise. Your choice. Nothing i could say will change that.

 

I, on the other hand, will enjoy watching these young CB's that are perfect for zone defense, and don't fight the coaches. 

 

[KSpan]

4 hours ago, Camp Fodder said:

Sorry and yes I am bitter about letting josh go. He pretty much eliminated the other teams number 1. I really didn't miss Julio going for 200 yards.  I just think we are relying too much on a still somewhat (unproven) DE in Ealy, a recently often hurt C Johnson and our best DT that appears he may be holding out.  Yes I am very concerned considering we are 4 months removed from a SuperBowl appearance and the rest of the league got better

The only time Julio ever "went for 200 yards" was when he racked up 178 and a TD vs. Josh and the Panthers in Week 16 of last year. Prior to that he'd hit 104 yards once (his rookie year in 2011, also scored 2 TDs) and only 30, 66, 59, 58, and 88 yards and 1 TD in all games against Carolina until that Week 16 game.

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/J/JoneJu02/gamelog/?opp_id=car

I'm not saying that Josh isn't better than some unproven rookies, but your assertion was so far off base that it required correction.

[iBBB]

"We ain't got no wide outs" 

"We ain't got no corners"

[KillerKat]

Can't say I disagree. You can't compare the "We got no WRs" of last year to the "We got no CBs" of this year. CB is one of the hardest, if not the hardest positions to learn in the NFL besides QB. According to history, it takes years for them to be where they need to. We didn't have any tackles a few years ago too, which is also one of the top 3 hardest positions to play, and that turned out to be a disaster...This is why I still believe we are relying too much on our rookies to step up and should be looking outside for other options. 

[panthers55]

1 hour ago, KillerKat said:

Can't say I disagree. You can't compare the "We got no WRs" of last year to the "We got no CBs" of this year. CB is one of the hardest, if not the hardest positions to learn in the NFL besides QB. According to history, it takes years for them to be where they need to. We didn't have any tackles a few years ago too, which is also one of the top 3 hardest positions to play, and that turned out to be a disaster...This is why I still believe we are relying too much on our rookies to step up and should be looking outside for other options. 

Bene is his rookie year was a 5th round pick and by the end of the year was rated by PFF as the 11th best corner that year. While I also want a veteran pickup for experience and stability I am willing to defer to Gettleman and Rivera who knows defenses. I can imagine that we could find a starting corner out of a 2nd, 3rd and 5th rounder. Plus McClain did start in the Superbowl and did fairly well after being here for only a few games. Wilkes is a very good secondary coach and he appears to be accelerating his training of these rookie. Clearly he thinks he is going to have to live and die with these guys

[KB_fan]

A few months ago I came across a really interesting analysis of the relative difficulty for players at various positions to transition to the NFL.  No time to really discuss it or pull out all the relevant excerpts tonight, but it's an interesting read.  It tends to support the "Cornerbacks tend not to excel in their rookie years" theory.... but of course, there are exceptions.   It will add to the Gettleman / Panthers coaching legend if we can get an excellent season from one or two of our rookie cahners.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2027100-which-position-presents-the-biggest-leap-for-nfl-draft-prospects

Here's one section on Cornerbacks:

Quote

 

Cornerback might be the position teams most excitedly overdraft on raw ability—and boy, does it show. They have a one-and-done rate of 16.7 percent, third-highest overall. 

Despite this, cornerbacks have an advantage nearly every other position group doesn't: a natural way to ease players into the position, with a myriad of defined roles and substitution packages. Their slow-developer group is by far the biggest at 21.2 percent.

 

 

Ty Schalter/Bleacher Report

 

A whopping 37.9 percent of cornerbacks taken in the first two rounds over this period didn't play well in their first season—but turned it on in year two, year three or both. Perhaps the willingness of NFL teams to draft cornerbacks on athletic ability and let them develop results in the lowest washout rate of any position group, just 12.1 percent.

 

 

[aussiePanther]

2 hours ago, KillerKat said:

Can't say I disagree. You can't compare the "We got no WRs" of last year to the "We got no CBs" of this year. CB is one of the hardest, if not the hardest positions to learn in the NFL besides QB.

 

Wouldn't this also be largely impacted by what type of role you want your CB to take on the field? Shutdown man coverage with no support is vastly different to cover 2/3/4 zone. Also outside to Nickel.

2 hours ago, KillerKat said:

We didn't have any tackles a few years ago too, which is also one of the top 3 hardest positions to play, and that turned out to be a disaster...This is why I still believe we are relying too much on our rookies to step up and should be looking outside for other options. 

Defensive Tackles? That actually goes AGAINST your point, because we drafter 2 DTs in the first two rounds and they made immediate impacts in their first year and helped turn a weakness into a strength.

 

Why don't we just wait til training camp has finished before we try to judge whether the rookies might be able to help?

[KSpan]

22 minutes ago, aussiePanther said:

Wouldn't this also be largely impacted by what type of role you want your CB to take on the field? Shutdown man coverage with no support is vastly different to cover 2/3/4 zone. Also outside to Nickel.

Defensive Tackles? That actually goes AGAINST your point, because we drafter 2 DTs in the first two rounds and they made immediate impacts in their first year and helped turn a weakness into a strength.

 

Why don't we just wait til training camp has finished before we try to judge whether the rookies might be able to help?

Star and KK are incredibly talented but I'm sure it didn't hurt having pre-leg whip CJ and focused Hardy at DE. That said, agreed that it's all speculation until they actually hit the field.

[aussiePanther]

4 minutes ago, KSpan said:

Star and KK are incredibly talented but I'm sure it didn't hurt having pre-leg whip CJ and focused Hardy at DE. That said, agreed that it's all speculation until they actually hit the field.

Hey DT was a weakness, and then it wasn't. Almost entirely because of two rookies "at one of the top 3 hardest to learn positions"

Nothing about DE in that, we had the same DEs (a year less developed I'll grant you) the year before.

[GoobyPls]

9 hours ago, usmcpanthers said:

Last year they said we had the worst wr's in the league.........ended up #1 offense. Every year they say we are the worst at something. More bulletin material for our guys.!

Considering we had the league MVP you can argue we did have the worst receivers in the league.

 

We were top 3 in drops, number 1 in dropped TD, number 1 in yards lost to drops,  bottom 3 in YAC.