2010 Defense

[NJPanthers12]

Now that Julius is no longer here, and will not be here, it is time to move on without him. I have seen a lot of optimism from people on this board about our defense going into next year, and I just do not see it. Forget the offense, because I am very confident in our offense for next year. Without Julius, is this defense strong enough to make a Super Bowl run? Realistically were are not making any major moves, and will be looking at a defense of:

Tyler Brayton/Damione Lewis/Louis Leonard/Everette Brown

Thomas Davis/Jon Beason/Nail Diggs

Chris Gamble/Chris Harris/Charles Godfrey/Richard Marshall

Now looking at this defense I love the linebackers. We are set with Beason and Davis who will now be the new face of the defense, and we have a strong leadership presence with Diggs. I would also feel comfortable with James Anderson filling in if anyone went down.

I am also a huge Gamble and Harris fan and feel very comfortable with them. On the other hand I do not think highly of Godfrey, Marshall, and Munnerlyn. I know people on this board love Munnerlyn but I believe what you see with him is what you get. I believe he has already hit his ceiling and will not improve anymore. Marshall I love the way he tackles, but I am not sure how i feel about him as our number 2. I have just never been sold on him and would not mind bringing in another corner. I am not sure if the Patriots signed him already but I would not mind bringing in Bodden.

This now brings me to the D-line where I am at a loss. I am hoping Brown and Johnson can step up and fill Peppers shoes. I also really like Brayton as a player but he is the type of player that needs to play on the opposite side of a dominate end like Peppers. I could see his production seriously declining this year. I like Louis Leonard and think he needs a chance to start. Do you guys feel we should draft another DT or draft another DE? Also how does everyone feel about Corey Irvin, I have seen him getting a lot of attention recently on this board and I was never sold on that pick.

All in all I do not think this is a great defense like some on this board say, and truly believe with Peppers gone we will have to heavily rely on our offense, and controlling games with our running game.

[Brokenbad]

:beatdeadhorse5:

[SorthNarolina]

I agree about Marshall he's much better as a nickle back becasue we don't give up much in run support. He can be taken advantage of by the bigger recievers. Unless it's dwayne jarrett, marshals rapes him in practice.

[The Faceless]

Look out for Charles Johnson this year, if he stays healthy.

[Swarly]

I'm not worried. We have a lot of talent. A deep safety core, a GREAT linebacker core, Gamble/Marshall are both very capable CB's(and it's not completely ruled out that we won't go for Dunta Robinson in FA.). DT is definitely a big question mark, but I'm confident in E. Brown/C. Johnson and Brayton.

I can see people underestimating the hell out of Carolina's defense next year, and Brown/Johnson coming out with a giant chip on their shoulders to prove the doubters wrong.

My BIGGEST worry is if Davis can come back from injury and play at the level he was playing before it happened.

[NJPanthers12]

Thank you for the responses, ecspecially from you cardiackat, real enlightening stuff. I would be very happy if we could team Dunta up with Gamble, would give us two very talented corners, but I can definitly live with Marshall for another year. I just hope we dont go cheap this year and at the very least bring in depth at the corner position and dline.

[Swarly]

Thank you for the responses, ecspecially from you cardiackat, real enlightening stuff. I would be very happy if we could team Dunta up with Gamble, would give us two very talented corners, but I can definitly live with Marshall for another year. I just hope we dont go cheap this year and at the very least bring in depth at the corner position and dline.

I think that we will spend a bit. Fox/Hurney know they're out the door if they don't pull together a solid season + playoff run. The only way they won't spend some $$ is if Richardson refuses to let them. If that's the case then I'd be pretty mad. This year there will be tons of talent available for us to bid on(Antonio Bryant, Dunta Robinson, Aaron Kampman) and I'll be very disappointed if they don't at least TRY and sign them.

[rayzor]

yeah our secondary pretty much sucked last year. lol.

the secondary is almost as solid as the LB position. You aren't giving those boys nearly enough credit. and munnerlynn reaching his ceiling? lol it's only been one year. he did incredibly well for what he was asked to do. gamble, marshall, and munnerlynn are three very good corners. asked to go man coverage and i think you would see a big improvement but even in the zone they do well.

as far as safety is concerned...i am quite satisfied. harris and wesley are solid at SS. Harris is just solid and wesley is valuable in a lot of different packages. godfrey and martin did a lot to impress. i was hating on godfrey until he got a fire lit under his butt by martin bringing competition. with those two battling it out for the job we should continue to see improvement there.

that Dline is the only thing that concerns me but i am cautiously optimistic. DE i would love to see us bring in another vet presence but think we would be ok if we don't i'm not concnerned by not having pep. i have faith in johnson and brown's development. brayton has to return. he is a flat out workhorse and is invaluable to the team. he can play at DE and slide into NT and do just fine. i'm not saying that taylor is anything to be excited about but i would like to see what he can do givne a shot under meeks.

DT is where i have the most concern. i'm pretty sure we need to have hollis coming back. kemo look pretty unreliable at this point. i feel like hollis and leonard can handle the NT job just fine. leonard gave a lot to be excited about and hollis showed no signs of slowing down. lewis did really well and is really underrated by myself and many around here. he gave enough reason to keep him around for at least one more season. tank, corvey irvin, and now ed johnson should all find themselves on the 53 man roster and would provide us with a really nice rotation and depth.

the defense really struggled the first half of the season and there are a multitude of reasons for it...new scheme, tons of injuries, bad field position (thanks to jake) but the second half of the season things really turned around and that defense became really dominant. peppers was a pretty significant part of it, to be sure, but he wasn't what made it work. it was the effort of the whole and their catching on to meeks defense. also meeks changed things up quite a bit and went out of his comfort zone in scheming and play calling. what he did worked remarkably well and i think gave him and the players confidence in what they were doing.

i, for one, am looking forward to what these guys can do next year. i think we are going to be seeing a continuation of and building on that defense that we saw at the end of the season rather than a falling back to what we witnessed the first half of the year.

hate it if you want but this defense isn't nearly in as bad of shape as you believe it to be.

of all the things that i am unhappy with the panthers, the defense isn't one of them. weak links are still fox, special teams, and the QB situation because jake is still a threat to take the job, and the passing game because we have no real WR2 to complement smitty.

[Davidson Deac II]

I think our defense could end up being better than it was last year, if we pick up a few good free agents, and some of the others pick up the slack. I think either Johnson or Brown or both could have much better seasons next year, and we seem to have better options at defensive tackle.

Of course, all of this is irrelevant if QB play doen't improve over last year, well over the first 12 or so games of last year anyway.

[Cyberjag]

Now that Julius is no longer here, and will not be here, it is time to move on without him. I have seen a lot of optimism from people on this board about our defense going into next year, and I just do not see it. Forget the offense, because I am very confident in our offense for next year. Without Julius, is this defense strong enough to make a Super Bowl run? Realistically were are not making any major moves, and will be looking at a defense of:

Tyler Brayton/Damione Lewis/Louis Leonard/Everette Brown

Thomas Davis/Jon Beason/Nail Diggs

Chris Gamble/Chris Harris/Charles Godfrey/Richard Marshall

Now looking at this defense I love the linebackers. We are set with Beason and Davis who will now be the new face of the defense, and we have a strong leadership presence with Diggs. I would also feel comfortable with James Anderson filling in if anyone went down.

I am also a huge Gamble and Harris fan and feel very comfortable with them. On the other hand I do not think highly of Godfrey, Marshall, and Munnerlyn. I know people on this board love Munnerlyn but I believe what you see with him is what you get. I believe he has already hit his ceiling and will not improve anymore. Marshall I love the way he tackles, but I am not sure how i feel about him as our number 2. I have just never been sold on him and would not mind bringing in another corner. I am not sure if the Patriots signed him already but I would not mind bringing in Bodden.

This now brings me to the D-line where I am at a loss. I am hoping Brown and Johnson can step up and fill Peppers shoes. I also really like Brayton as a player but he is the type of player that needs to play on the opposite side of a dominate end like Peppers. I could see his production seriously declining this year. I like Louis Leonard and think he needs a chance to start. Do you guys feel we should draft another DT or draft another DE? Also how does everyone feel about Corey Irvin, I have seen him getting a lot of attention recently on this board and I was never sold on that pick.

All in all I do not think this is a great defense like some on this board say, and truly believe with Peppers gone we will have to heavily rely on our offense, and controlling games with our running game.

Be patient, and let things unfold. First of all, Peppers was 1/11th of the defense. He wasn't even the best player, and it's arguable that he wasn't the second best while Davis was healthy. He was the most athletic, and certainly had the potential to be the best, but he wasn't.

The secondary is fine. They're young, gifted, deep, and they enjoy good leadership in Chris Harris. The Linebackers are the best in the South, and we have good depth there with Connor and Anderson. The line is suddenly ordinary, but Brown will have a year in the NFL weight room behind him and Leonard should be able to collapse the pocket better than Kemo did.

You can say that the glass is half empty because Peppers is gone, but you can also believe that the glass is half full with the continued improvement of all the people behind him. We also have a stable of young DTs with potential, and a couple of DEs who can rush the passer.

He was good, but he was just one guy. And the defense that played so poorly in the first half of the season finished ninth. That's something to build on, right? Right?

[DaveThePanther2008]

Munnerlyn reaching his ceiling. What makes you say that? Seems he was improving throughout the season so I have to disagree.

LB and DB I think we are solid with starters and depth.

Unlike most I believe the D-Line will be better than last year. I think we can add a few late round DT for competition but I truly don't see any incoming rookie (that we have a shot for) surplanting any of the DT's on the roster.

Brown and Johnson are going to be our new Tandem and IMO are going to excel as full time starters.

Go Panthers

[Udogg]

I remember after watching a pittsburgh game before Polamalu got hurt and making a post about how great it would be to have a ballhawking safety. Then Godfrey got hurt and marshall starting getting picks and it was like we found a diamond in the rough. Most of us were like no way Godfrey gets his position back. Then not only does he get his position back, he starting laying hits and getting picks. If he plays at the level of his last 4 games at the start of the season, I think our secondary may end up being our strongest unit. Reason # 234321 that John Fox knows more about football than me .

[Gman was right]

Its hard to be optimistic about the defense when Damione Lewis is your best defensive lineman.

[Udogg]

Its hard to be optimistic about the defense when Damione Lewis is your best defensive lineman.

It's definitely harder for you.