What kind of team are we trying to be?

[Mesmer]

The title of this thread is a question that I don't think is asked or answered very often around here. The obvious answer is that the Carolina Panthers want to be a team that can stop the run on defense, and run the football on offense.. but is that really what we have here?

The salary cap can be a bitch. True, but without it, small market teams like the Panthers probably wouldn't have a chance at success. Under John Fox and Marty Hurney, the trend has been to spend more of the money defensively. While this has resulted in varying degrees of success, other teams have employed exactly the opposite strategy with similar, varying results.

This past season, our defense appeared to slip off a little bit, and our offense became the best it's been in a long time. Not only did the running game click very well, but the passing game was fairly good too.

My question is, where do we go from here?

Julius Peppers is almost sure to play somewhere else. Although we certainly have some great talent on defense with players like Jon Beason, Thomas Davis, Chris Harris, and Chris Gamble.. this upcoming offseason should answer a lot of questions.

There should be room to spend on both sides of the ball, and Jordan Gross' contract situation should begin to answer the question. If he's re-signed, the team shows a strong commitment to keeping a very good offensive line together, to support a great running attack, and a big play passing attack. If he's let go, I can imagine that some of the money will be used to aquire a stop gap for one of the tackle positions. The rest of it will likely be spent on defense.

So what do you think? What kind of team are we? What kind of team should we be, moving forward, considering the talent we have right now?

Nobody won a Super Bowl being average at everything.

[panthers55]

What kind of team do I want us to be. A winning one. Don't really care how they do it.

[mantal]

The old adage that offense wins games, but defense wins championships was once again played out this year. Look at the Panthers, a great running game with arguably one of the best receivers in the game and a defense that was mediocre at best and we're one and done in the playoffs. We got there but couldn't go on.

The Colts have had great offenses for years, but only one championship to show for it and in that year the defense came alive during the playoffs. Pittsburgh won this year with the number one defense in the NFL. Arizona had a great offense this year and a defense that came alive for a few games in the playoffs only to let down in the Super Bowl.

Offense will get you there, but defense will win it all...

[Fan4life]

I thought we were a D- first team. Above average D. The last few years we have gotten away from that. This past season we ran a different. Off. than I thought we hired Davidson for. Our D looked below average even with Peppers. To tell you the truth I don't know what direction this team is headed.

[Fan4life]

Maybe a 4-12 season

[KARASMATIC444]

i feel like we are moving toward an offensive team very slowly. i know fox doesnt want it and i dont either totally but after years of only haveing a good defense we have started to build a decent offense. i know it is madden and it never means anything but it is odd i think, that if you remove pep from our team and look at the numbers we have more offensive players above 90 than defence and although that doesnt mean jack poo and i know it, it makes me go hmmm just a bit.

[scpanther22]

we want to be like pitt...

[Cat'sGrowl]

we want to be like pitt...

Hah, when i read the title, i thought to myself:

"The Pittsburgh Steelers"

Haha.

[SorthNarolina]

As the talent from the D-line dropped, so did our defensive success

We need to be stacked at the defensive line for john fox to fully utlize his strategies, otherwise we are handicapping ourselves because god knows fox won't change his philosophy

we just need some blue chip players on the defensive line again, if fox and hurney can overhaul the defensive line like they overhauled the run game last season we will do just fine

[Urrymonster]

I think our problem is somewhat in our drafting philosophy and then somewhat in our free agent pickups.

We have a philosophy. Great defense who can't be run on with a fierce running game to keep our defense fresh.

So we effectively need a game manager at QB, a mauling offensive line, a lead blocker at FB and a between tackle runner. Whilst we have a mauling offensive line, we have more home run hitters at HB. That means we have more 3 and outs and more long TDs than or philosophy dictates and thus inevitably gets the offense off the field much quicker than our philosophy wants. Despite this we seem to be slowly moving back to what Fox wants and are only a couple of upgrades away from being the textbook offensive roster for our philosophy.

Defensively we are a little off. We KEEP picking up 3-4 line backers in the draft. We pick up a NT to play in a 4-3. We pick up bump and run coverage corners to play zone. We pick up a hard hitting SS and use him in coverage a ton. I love Harris, Gamble, Ma'ake, Davis. But somewhere we seem to have gotten away from picking the BPA for our scheme and are just focusing on the BPA. We have the perfect MLB and a pretty good WLB for our scheme, the rest is a bit iffy. The major thing thought to me is that we are just far far to nice and do not appear hungry at times. Harris, Beason and Davis aside I rarely see any defensive players showing that 'mean' streak.

Summing up, I feel we have missed a touch in picking up the personel in fitting them to our scheme and thus we have a hybrid personality at the moment. Hopefully with our most recent drafts I feel we are on the way back to what we have always preached.

[Brooklyn Bully]

I want us to be a D first team. But as it is RIGHT NOW, we don't have a stellar D. We do, however, have a stellar O. They may need to accept this fact and run with it for at least 1-2 more seasons while rebuilding the D. You can't force this team to be a hard nosed D that lives off the run and keeps the score low. We're not that.

[Mr. Scot]

There are two different approaches you can take to team building.

1) Acquire talented players and adjust the system to suit them.

This approach requires coaches that are smart enough to adapt the system and players that are smart enough to learn on the fly.

2) Build a winning system and acquire players that suit that system

In this approach, you could argue that scouting and personnel evaluation are even more important than coaching. As Herb Brooks once said, it isn't about finding the 'best' players. It's about finding the 'right' players.

The premise of this thread assumes the Panthers are using option two. Is that the approach you see? Is it the approach you prefer? And perhaps most important, does this organization have the people in place to successfully use this method?

[Doc Holiday]

There are two different approaches you can take to team building.

1) Acquire talented players and adjust the system to suit them.

This approach requires coaches that are smart enough to adapt the system and players that are smart enough to learn on the fly.

2) Build a winning system and acquire players that suit that system

In this approach, you could argue that scouting and personnel evaluation are even more important than coaching. As Herb Brooks once said, it isn't about finding the 'best' players. It's about finding the 'right' players.

The premise of this thread assumes the Panthers are using option two. Is that the approach you see? Is it the approach you prefer? And perhaps most important, does this organization have the people in place to successfully use this method?

Depends, we have seen them do both, in 2006 we drafted the Player for the talent not the Player for our system on the flip side though Williams has worked out pretty damn well so far.

Now this past offseason has been what I would call the first year that we went 110% for the system instead of the talent, it produced 3 quality starters and one of the best back up RB's Stewart in the NFL that helped produce the 2nd ranked rushing offense in the NFL.

so you could say I see both, but right now it looks like #2, and yes it is the approach I prefer. and for the last question, if anyone has an answer to that they are kidding themselves because that can only truly be answered with time atm to see how things run they're course.

[Mesmer]

My primary concern is that we really won't have enough money to really improve the defense immediately with how well we're invested offensively. They've got a big potential signing coming up with Gross, and after that, there's not a whole lot of wiggle room.

The only position on defense that I'd say we're really solid at, would have to be linebacker. No, Diggs isn't fantastic, but he's good enough. He's probably going to have to do with the holes we have along the defensive line, and in the defensive backfield.

We weren't really able to generate a good pass rush last season off the front line, and I think it's safe to say that Peppers will not be playing here next season. Every other player is a situational player. The best pass rusher left on the line is probably Lewis. While he's not bad, we're going to need more than that. I predict most of the defensive line additions will be done through the draft, but then you've still got a hole at cornerback.

It's unlikely that Ken Lucas will be here next season. That leaves a hole at the other starting CB position that I'm not sure I want Richard Marshall filling.

The defensive line has always been our strength in the Fox era, but now it's basically in shambles. I fear we may not have the means to make it formidable for next year. Does that factor into the decision making process this offseason? Do you think about just loading up offensively, and then just hoping the defense can play good enough to win? Or do you try to reverse the trend, and restore the defense as the dominant unit?