I think our secondary could be historically bad

[CardiacCats]

I mean I hope you guys are right and they did look okay down the stretch last year, but I'm still really concerned about them.

[CRA]

Thats an issue for every team.

What happened in games like Chicago, Tampa, Atl aren't...

Zero pressure is a problem....but if we simply allow decent passes to be thrown we got picked apart. Pass rush was freakish at times last year and that is why we survived. Asking your rush to be even better for an entire season is really playing with fire.

[therealmjl]

I knew I could count on a thread like this to piss me off this morning.

[MHS831]

This really should be good enough. But it seems some Huddlers want a perfect team, which is just not possible to put together. The secondary will be good enough.

We improved or stayed the same at every position except LT. However, you have to consider the maturity of youth as improvement, as the aging of veterans over 32 or so as declining. I doubt Dwan has the year he had in 2012, for example, becuase he is aging and 2012 was his best as a pro. However, Short should allow the position to improve because he is rotating in and will be better than Chandler.

[CRA]

We improved or stayed the same at every position except LT. However, you have to consider the maturity of youth as improvement, as the aging of veterans over 32 or so as declining. I doubt Dwan has the year he had in 2012, for example, becuase he is aging and 2012 was his best as a pro. However, Short should allow the position to improve because he is rotating in and will be better than Chandler.

But your Dwan point causes concern on O for me.....bc most likely guys like Smitty, Gross, RBs, etc will be worse. They are trending down bc of age.

I don't think we have offset by adding offensive depth

[pilot2011]

Josh Thomas is going to be a household name. Bet on it.

[Yaboychris28]

Josh Thomas is going to be a household name. Bet on it.

It feels like people tend to forget how well he played last year, Including Dockery

[TheRed]

What an in depth and completely informative analysis CardiacCats. Where did you come up with this?

[top dawg]

Our secondary actually showed promise at being---at the very least---efficient toward the end of the season. This was without Gamble. With the addition of apparently solid DBs that have experience and/or showed real upside, I don't see the need for all the pessimism. The backfield has to be given an opportunity to see what it can do.

[panthers55]

The year we went to the Superbowl our secondary was Deon Grant, Jarrod Cooper,Terry Cousins, Reggie Howard, Ricky Manning, Mike Minter, and Dante Wesley. We scored 20 points a game (15th) and allowed 19 (10th). Our expected wins were 7-8 games.

We primarily won on defense coupled with Jake coming up big in the fourth quarter. Exactly what we need this year. Defense and Cam coming up big in the fourth quarter. Our front 7 were dominant and could be again this year. Last year, for example Atlanta was an 8-8 team except for the 4th quarter heroics. It is time For Newton to step up and shine with the game on the line. It is year 3, it is his time. As he goes, so will the Panthers. He has enough weapons to win and his defense will keep them close. Remember Rivera as a D coordinator has never had a defense rated lower than 6 or 7th by his third year. This defense will be top 10. If we didn't play in the pass happy NFC South and face a number of teams with great passing games, it would be top 5 this year. But if we keep teams under 21 points we will be every game and win more than our share.

[CRA]

The year we went to the Superbowl our secondary was Deon Grant, Jarrod Cooper,Terry Cousins, Reggie Howard, Ricky Manning, Mike Minter, and Dante Wesley. We scored 20 points a game (15th) and allowed 19 (10th). Our expected wins were 7-8 games.

We primarily won on defense coupled with Jake coming up big in the fourth quarter. Exactly what we need this year. Defense and Cam coming up big in the fourth quarter. Our front 7 were dominant and could be again this year. Last year, for example Atlanta was an 8-8 team except for the 4th quarter heroics. It is time For Newton to step up and shine with the game on the line. It is year 3, it is his time. As he goes, so will the Panthers. He has enough weapons to win and his defense will keep them close. Remember Rivera as a D coordinator has never had a defense rated lower than 6 or 7th by his third year. This defense will be top 10. If we didn't play in the pass happy NFC South and face a number of teams with great passing games, it would be top 5 this year. But if we keep teams under 21 points we will be every game and win more than our share.

Need better talent now vs 2003. You could rush your front and then have your seconday mug everyone. Rules don't allow for such now.

Newton is entering year 3...and we have yet to draft one piece to go towards a Newton offense. No team does that. Yet people keep saying HE needs to do more....

[Guest HelloWorld]

This is a rebuilding team. We can't address everything at once. We have now a great front 7, our offense could play with anybody with Cam as our QB the last 2 years. The 9ers will have a rude awakening when they face us next year. I will bet we'll go 5-1 in division because we'll beat both Atl and NO twice. I see 9-10 wins for us.

Ladies and gents, we have a team to be proud of.

[panthers55]

Need better talent now vs 2003. You could rush your front and then have your seconday mug everyone. Rules don't allow for such now.

Newton is entering year 3...and we have yet to draft one piece to go towards a Newton offense. No team does that. Yet people keep saying HE needs to do more....

You need great talent or a great scheme. This year we will have both. We don't need probowlers in the secondary we need guys who can be solid in man or zone coverage and tackle well after the pass because the pass rush will force teams to throw the ball short underneath instead of over the top.

We have added many pieces to help Newton. Was Amini drafted? What about Joe Adams? We brought in a number of free agents like Tolbert and Hixon and Ginn this year. We added guys through trades like Olsen and Murphy. What about all the guys like LaFell and Gettis who were drafted in 2009 and veterans like Smith who were already here in addition to one of the best running back duos in the league.

Sometimes you make sense and other times you sound like you don't have a clue.

[Salvo]

I'm fine with the secondary. Are there a bunch of no-namers in there? Sure...but just because a S or CB is not a household name doesn't mean they can't contribute to a top rated defense.

Our DB rotation finally settled down towards the end of last season and played very well. They contained Ryan and Brees and while they put up 350+ yards on us each time, they had to throw it 45-50 times to do so.

Did the pass rush help in those games? Definitely, and it's no secret that a great pass rush will mask issues in the back four. But we did bring in some help for the secondary before the draft who will be serviceable players that will replace our troublemakers (Naka).

My only issue with this draft is that I would have at least like to see one DB drafted this year. It was such a deep draft for secondary players that it was really kind of a waste. Even then, I don't see it being a huge issue.