Denzel Perryman. Haason Reddick. Morgan Fox. Quite the first three hours of Scott Fitterer’s first full league year as general manager of the Carolina Panthers. All three great or up and coming players, but maybe not the absolute most premium names out there (Reddick probably being the exception) and each inked to short term or prove it deals that won’t hamstring the team long term. These deals of course follow Monday’s deals to sure up the offensive line when the team agreed to terms with free agent offensive linemen Pat Elflein and Cam Erving, which the fan base is a little more mixed about, but I feel were both sensible upside signings as well.
If this is the beginning of a new era in Panthers history under Scott Fitterer, I am here for it. All three deals make sense to me, all fill areas of great need. None of them feel like an overpay given the current way the free agent market works, though some of course carry more risk than others, but ultimately none of the deals are long term bookings that provide the team little flexibility. I also don’t think the team is done yet, and as guys sit out there longer, even better contracts can be had.
But back to the front seven, suddenly a very exciting unit that elevates it’s status from a few key players with no help, to a potentially really good unit with a strong rotation and a true enforcer at middle linebacker. The signings started with Denzel Perryman, a player on my radar as one of those sensible but unheralded signings that the team could make.
✔️Denzel Perryman
✔️ILB - Carolina Panthers
✔️5’11”, 240Rankings among NFL LB in 2020:
Total Defense: 2nd
Run Defense: 2nd
Run stop rate: 2nd
Tackling efficiency: 9th
Total Run Defense: 3rdViolent run defender. Fits and gets home in a bad mood. pic.twitter.com/zBFUnVW7Ep
— John Ellis (@OnePantherPlace) March 17, 2021
What stands out most about him is his decisiveness and ability to hit you going hard downhill in the run game, something that we sorely lacked at inside linebacker last season and had a clear need for. I expect to see Perryman on the field for 4-3 and 3-3-5 packages almost exclusively as he is definitely a standout filling gaps and causing run havoc than he is in coverage.
Moving onto the big signing of the day, Haason Reddick (learn to spell that name) is now with the Panthers after a monster 12.5 sack season with the Arizona Cardinals last year, including five sacks on the apple of Dave Gettleman’s eye, Daniel Jones with the New York Giants. The connection to Matt Rhule here is obvious, as Rhule lead him from middling recruit at Temple to NFL first round pick. Mutual benefit has brought these two together again for at least one year, as Reddick hopes he can prove his big year was not just a flash in the pan, and the Panthers get a premier player that running alongside Brian Burns is going to be, well, just great. Maybe a little unfair.
Finally, you’ve got the last signing of the day, admittedly someone I had to do a little reading about, Morgan Fox. No relation to Megan Fox. Once I did some snooping around, I am a big fan of this signing, and now it makes sense why the Panthers were willing to take the small cap savings on Zach Kerr. Fox is an inside/outside player on the defensive line that you can move around depending on your alignment. Enough size and strength to play a 3 (under tackle) or 5-tech (traditional DE) with ability to get to the quarterback. Fox had six sacks last season on what we know to be an outstanding Los Angeles Rams defensive front. He joins a similar situation in Carolina, where you have a near mandatory double team on Derrick Brown, which will often leave him heads up with a guard or tackle.
What we are seeing here is the evolution of what the Panthers would really like to do on defense, but just didn’t have the personnel for last year after Kawann Short went down. You’ve got your uber-strong 1 tech NT in Derrick Brown who has also shown he can get after the quarterback already at the pro level. Now you’ve got four starting quality guys that you can move around him depending on how you’d like to align in Brian Burns, Yetur Gross-Matos, Haason Reddick, and Morgan Fox. Behind them you have a reliable enforcer in Denzel Perryman, and two other linebackers that have lots of versatility in how you deploy them in Shaq Thompson and Jermaine Carter, plus you can insert Reddick in that capacity as well. My head is racing with all the ways you can use this group of talent, and I’m sure Phil Snow could barely sleep last night as well.
"front" - Google News
March 18, 2021 at 10:08PM
https://ift.tt/3bYJbSj
Panthers front seven goes from Oh No to Hey Whoa in about three hours - Cat Scratch Reader
"front" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aZh1mr
https://ift.tt/3b2xvu5
No comments:
Post a Comment