Defensive Chess. The pieces start to make more sense.

[Black&BlueBubba]

I was, like many of you, a little confused how the draft was unfolding.  

Jackson was selected over Oliver.  Gaulden was selected over Harrison. 

After more news has come out it starts to become more clear. Like any coach, Washington is putting his stamp on the defense. Being a secondary guy, he is reworking our traditional thinking. 

First up. We are gonna play a lot more man coverage than our old zone.  To do that to they selected certain Chess pieces to matchup. 

Basically almost every team has a large receiver for contested catches.  This is who Bradberry will matchup against.  I believe Jackson could very well start on the outside against the smaller speedy receivers like Desean Jackson and Ridley, or Ginn.  In the slot they can counter with Captain / Corn on a small shifty guy  or even have Gaulden/ Shaq taking care of a TE.  We could blitz from one side on 3rd down and have a guy like Haynes drop into coverage. A guy like Haynes might provide interesting options in this new Chess game in the future. 

I'm not exactly sure how this will evolve, but it will certainly be interesting. It might mean against certain teams certain DBs might play more that others. For instance, they could move Jackson in the slot one game against a speedster and start another CB like Cockrell on the outside. 

I'm really interested to see how this evolves.  And do we have he personnel to do this yet? How good will Bradberry be in man.  He got torched a little last year in man.  But that was from blitzing and leaving him on a island. He could play man I think with safety help.  

I know this.  It is frustrating every year just watching Brees just pick apart our zone coverage. Over the last several years we have a top 5 defense but can't slow Brees down a bit.   Maybe give him some different looks and make them actually beat a man might be a better direction. 

The players selected make a little more sense to me now that we have a little more understanding where we are going on D. 

 What say you???

[Snake]

TLDR

[TPanther920]

damn...hadn't thought about switching to man coverage. It couldn't hurt. Half the time it seemed as if the secondary knew where their area of responsibility was.

[UpstatePanther]

I feel like smart teams will hurry up their offense and beat our matchups with unpredictable playcalling.

I understand the picks, but I still hope the new owner replaces Hurney with someone who will draft players that are just good all around and aren't role-players.

[CarolinaSamurai]

Washington is a Dline guy not a secondary guy.

[Black&BlueBubba]

1 minute ago, CarolinaSamurai said:

Washington is a Dline guy not a secondary guy.

Lmao.  Sorry about that. 

[chknwing]

6 minutes ago, Black&BlueBubba said:

Lmao.  Sorry about that. 

 

[ColumbusCounty]

Speaking of defensive pieces... At times our 3rd round safety from Tenn probably had to practice against Alvin Kamara daily. Pretty sure that'll come in handy.

[Carolina-Chuck18]

1 hour ago, TPanther920 said:

damn...hadn't thought about switching to man coverage. It couldn't hurt. Half the time it seemed as if the secondary knew where their area of responsibility was.

Washington wants more man press coverage!!!! He ain’t a pussy like Rivera and Wilks. Always wondered why Wilks was promoted before Washington.

[Bj-Monster23]

23 minutes ago, Carolina-Chuck18 said:

Washington wants more man press coverage!!!! He ain’t a pussy like Rivera and Wilks. Always wondered why Wilks was promoted before Washington.

This is very true! Bradberry is better suited in press man coverage instead of just playing off the ball. People wonder why our CB’s didn’t have any interceptions until Week 11, it’s because Bradberry and Worley were just not instinctive enough in off coverage. This team thrives off turnovers. If we can only get back to our 2015 ways in taking away the ball. 

[ItsPantone278]

58 minutes ago, ColumbusCounty said:

Speaking of defensive pieces... At times our 3rd round safety from Tenn probably had to practice against Alvin Kamara daily. Pretty sure that'll come in handy.

I'm a big fan of the gaulden pick because dude can tackle and he is a smart well spoken guy.  When he gets his reps and builds up his confidence he'll be a younger Kurt Coleman Mike Mitchell type that we groomed from the draft.  The same vocal leader but he's more versatile than those guys to boot.  It's going to take some time but I like the idea more than most.

[micnificent28]

1 minute ago, ItsPantone278 said:

I'm a big fan of the gaulden pick because dude can tackle and he is a smart well spoken guy.  When he gets his reps and builds up his confidence he'll be a younger Kurt Coleman Mike Mitchell type that we groomed from the draft.  The same vocal leader but he's more versatile than those guys to boot.  It's going to take some time but I like the idea more than most.

See that right there is what this franchise needs to get away from. While it's something nice if a guy is a"well spoken"it should not have any bearing on your opinion on him as a football player. I think a lot of people love that whole idea about the panthers and how we only draft good ole boys. I think that way of thinking has hindered this franchise since inception. Football players are people and are flawed like the rest of us. I think looking for well spoken guys is why we passed on players like Guice and Harrison and ended up with Gaulden. 

[SmittysLawnGuy]

Well it helps to have some intelligence at the Safety position. If your just talking say a D.E. Hellz yeah bring on some Dexter Manley.

[weyco2000]

1 hour ago, micnificent28 said:

See that right there is what this franchise needs to get away from. While it's something nice if a guy is a"well spoken"it should not have any bearing on your opinion on him as a football player. I think a lot of people love that whole idea about the panthers and how we only draft good ole boys. I think that way of thinking has hindered this franchise since inception. Football players are people and are flawed like the rest of us. I think looking for well spoken guys is why we passed on players like Guice and Harrison and ended up with Gaulden. 

You should’ve highlighted “smart” in your reply, that was his point.