Panthers played more zone defense than any NFL team last year

[LinvilleGorge]

Yeah, Norman long term wasn’t an option. Not at that price tag. But once we tagged him and went through free agency with that cap space occupied and no ability to potentially address CB with a free agent acquisition, we should’ve stuck to that plan. Going into the draft forced to spam picks at CB a just to field a secondary produced exactly the type of secondary one would expect to be produced by that approach. If it wasn’t for our front seven and good defensive coaching staff that secondary would’ve likely set records for futility.

[Toomers]

6 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

“A big part” doesn’t mean it was the sole factor, as I acknowledged in that post.

Everything in football is interconnected. Everyone lauded the improvement of the Cowboys’ defense in ‘16 jumping from middle of the pack to top 5, but a HUGE part of that defensive “improvement” was the arrival of Prescott and Elliott vaulting their offense from second to last in the league to a top 5 offense. They were able to put up points and control the clock on offense where previously that D was getting left out on the field and hung out to dry. It was honestly impressive that they had a middle of the road defense (I think it was #16) with the #31 offense consistently putting them in terrible situations.

  That’s what just messing with you indicated. I thought. You could have saved all that.

[Manther]

1 hour ago, Toomers said:

  And we are back to giving 5/75M to a zone CB. And letting  KK go. He could have kept him one year, which was the plan, but there was no way we were paying him that long term. 

   Only one of us is “pissing and whining” about anything. I just presented facts. Your whole argument is basically “cause I said so”. And of course the G-man fallback option. Which simply translates to “he cut my fav player and I ran out of logic and reasoning for my agenda”. Well done.

You're fun.  This post, where you just attack me and list KK  being let go as fact..is truly funny.    Gman letting KK go is not a fact..it's conjecture, literally, it is conjecture.   You believe your opinions are fact and they aren't.  Just because someone disagrees with you, doesn't mean they don't have their facts straight.  You must be hard to live with. 

Read your post.  There isn't a fact in it.  Franchise tag doesn't mean 75M or kk gone.  It might have, but might not have.

The funny thing is, I supported letting Norman go at the time, I thought the franchise was too expensive....and here we hare 7 draft picks and a bunch of FA capital later, and we still haven't replaced him. 

 Let it go, GMan....you made a mistake and clearly handled poorly.  You did a lot of good here, we forgive you.  Good luck with the Giants.

 

[MHS831]

17 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I don't blame Gettleman for not giving Norman top tier CB money. I just don't think you can afford to pay a zone CB like he's an elite man cover guy. Teams can scheme to avoid a zone guy. Remember that crazy comeback the Giants nearly pulled off against us in 2015? A big part of that was them moving OBJ into the slot to avoid Norman. Those elite man cover guys are going to follow your #1 WR everywhere he goes. That's why they get paid what they do.

I DO blame Gettleman for jerking the tag after all the decent free agent options were already off the table. That left us in a situation where we were forced to just throw draft picks at the position and hope for the best. That ended predictably. Only one of those three draft picks will be on our roster this year and quite possibly, only one will be on an NFL roster at all. Worley is on thin ice after sucking it up on the field his entire career and then having that DUI/firearm incident this off-season. 

I think Norman has had 2 really good seasons and that is it.  He was not worth $14.

[RumHam]

Norman did a lot more man while he was here. we were playing cover 2 and he played up on receivers. nobody threw to his side of the field. member?

[Snake]

On 6/24/2018 at 10:36 AM, Manther said:

I think part of game is fit.  Norman fit in well here and had learned to cover the WR in our division.

A one year franchise tag of 14mill (which he had) would have held Norman one more year.  It is very unlikely he would have done as well and his market value would have declined.  I'm not arguing for keeping Harper...I'm arguing against the decimation of the secondary in one year.

 

Norman was in the same zone system in Washington. Difference was pressure from our line. Not discounting his skills but just pointing out fit is more about complement. Norman was also looking to get paid and said he would sit out if tagged. He really didn't make the situation easy. 

[ChibCU]

3 hours ago, RumHam said:

Norman did a lot more man while he was here. we were playing cover 2 and he played up on receivers. nobody threw to his side of the field. member?

How's the offseason going, Josh?

[Bronn]

Our reasons for almost always being in zone coverage have been stated.

Personnel talent wasn't adequate enough to shift things to more man looks.

Our LBs typically cover zones very well.

We have a strong front seven and a weak back four.

It is all about keeping the play in front of you.

The times the Panthers' defense fails is when you get guys exploiting zones, the pass rush not getting to the QB in time, or when guys just simply blow their coverage.

It has been this way for a long time. Even in the Fox era some.

It is about stopping the run at the line of scrimmage and forcing the pass, but keeping the passes in front of you.

If you switch to more man coverages, you open yourself up to bigger play threats, which are momentum killers.

Some of the bigger plays the Panthers have given up in recent years have honestly been bad luck. Luke covering Julio. Smitty catching that rebound ball.

But, it is the more consistent, average plays that we give up too much. This typically happens when we play better QBs like Brees and they carve up our zones because they know what is coming, or when we face quick receivers like we like to have recently that are operating with QBs that have time afforded by good OLs.

Those are the situations where our CBs ad Safeties need to be able to hold their own in man-like coverages. It is also where we need to not be so transparent. McDermott did a decent job with this, but I think we took a step backward last year.