The Panthers defense hasn’t been amazing, but that was to be expected going into the season.
The Carolina Panthers enter their bye week with a 3-7 record, as the offense has juggled its starting QB position and dealt with a variety of injuries and turnover as the season has progressed. Defensively, things have been much worse in that regard, as they opened the season losing DL Derrick Brown during week 1, and have had many injuries take place along their entire defense. Let’s take a high level overview of the defense overall.
Team Performance
Per TeamRankings.com; the Panthers defense currently ranks dead last in opposing points per game at 31.0, 30th in opposing yards per game at 386.9, 31st at opposing yards per play, and 32nd in third down conversion %. However, they are ranked in the top 10 in FOURTH down conversion %. That’s nice, even if they haven’t had that many total attempts at 4th down. Overall though, these rankings track with what we expected for this defense, as the Panthers weren’t able to add nearly the kind of talent they did on offense and lost a lot of good players via free agency. Still, the defense has had moments throughout the season, but is a bottom of the league unit as things stand. No matter how you feel about Ejiro Evero, he can only do so much with the pieces he was given and continues to operate with.
Front Seven
I don’t think anyone who paid attention to the Panthers off-season expected this front seven to knock their socks off. They lost LB Frankie Luvu via free agency, traded LB Brian Burns to the Giants after not finding a way to come to an extension, and really didn’t have a strong core behind them aside from Derrick Brown and possibly Shy Tuttle depending on how you feel about him. They tried to beef the unit up as best they could by signing DL A’Shawn Robinson, EDGE players Jadeveon Clowney and DJ Wonnum, and finally ILB Josey Jewell. They went through a ton of turnover as far as depth goes, and their pass rush and run defense show the results one would expect with the team they fielded. They are 31st in sacks % per game, 32nd in rush yards per game, and 23rd in rush yards per play, as teams have heavily leaned on the rush against them in order to throw the ball. Teams have only passed the ball 47.75% of the time against them, which is 2nd in the league. The pass rush and front seven isn’t going to get better overnight, though we have seen some flashes of progress. But in the end, this unit is always going to be about making the plays they can and holding on as long as possible. DJ Wonnum provided a spark for the defense last week in his first game back from injury, and A’Shawn Robinson had his best game as a Panther. We’ll see how long that lasts. One shout out though, is rookie LB Trevin Wallace, forced into starting duty following Shaq Thompson’s season ending injury and a banged up Josey Jewell. He has amassed 50 total tackles, 2 forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery. Not bad for a 3rd round rookie that wasn’t expected to be starting this early on.
Secondary
The Panthers secondary also found itself quite weak on paper to start the season, and injuries to Xavier Woods and Jordan Fuller at safety greatly didn’t help. Still, DC Ejiro Evero has gotten the most he can out of depth pieces like CB Mike Jackson and S Demani Richardson, though I don’t think any fan of a team with what we’d call a strong secondary is yearning for those pieces. The biggest story of the season has been Jaycee Horn, who has stayed healthy and played in every game this season. Horn is the number one CB and looking for an extension this off-season as (much like Brian Burns last year) he enters the final year of his contract on a 5th year option. There is a significant amount of discussion about whether to pay him or not, but I am firmly in the boat of getting him extended long term.
Carolina’s current CB group consists of mostly castaways from other teams, and they could stand to add a few CBs and a safety or two in the draft with their 11 draft picks in 2025. I think as they build reinforcements around Horn you will see more high impact plays. Currently, he occupies the role of the cornerback teams don’t really want to throw against. But, his biggest question is always going to be his health based on seasons passed, and I understand that.
Overall Review
The Panthers are playing bend but don’t break defense, and early in the season the dam broke quite a bit, as they surrendered 47 points to the Saints, 34 points to the Bengals, 36 points to the Bears, 38 points to the Falcons, and 40 points to the Commanders in 5 of their 10 contests. The defense has managed to hold up in the last two weeks and make some plays for the offense to capitalize on, however I still expect a few more of those high scoring games to come against them.
Some of it will come down to the offense still finding its footing, some will come down to the defense simply not having the personnel to keep up with the higher end offenses in the league. But, we’re getting to see valuable experience for guys like rookie LB Trevin Wallace and aforementioned Demani Richardson. This will continue to be a season about evaluation for future prospects.
What are your thoughts on the defense so far, Panthers fans?