Carolina Panthers Get Defensive on '08's Problems

The future for the Carolina Panthers may look meek, but there will be nothing humble about what's about to happen in the 2009 season.

In 2008, the Panthers defense was reduce to a purr as they were statistically in the middle of the pack as far as total defense is concerned. But that will all change with the arrival of former defensive coordinator Ron Meeks.

Although Meeks's resume speaks for itself, Panthers' fans won't mind being reminded of his accomplishments including heading up a defense that led the league in fewest points allowed (2007), learning under the games best minds (Dan Reeves, Jimmy Johnson, and Tony Dungy) and, oh yeah, a Super Bowl ring.

Meeks headed up a defense that ranked six places ahead of the Carolina Panthers last year. He hopes to bring his new defensive schemes into Carolina and return them to their success of the '05 and '06 seasons where they ranked third and seventh respectively.

And if anyone can lead them back to glory, Meeks can. And a lot of their success in 2009 will be based on the 3-4 defense Meeks ran in Indianapolis.

Although Meeks hasn't declared what defense he's going to run this year, all signs point to the 3-4. The Panthers don't have the leagues's best defensive front that they had four years ago. It's time to make the switch and take advantage of their current players's speed.

More importantly, the 3-4 defense may be the eye in the huge storm that is brewing with superstar defensive end Julius Peppers. Peppers has demanded a trade, stating he wants to split time at defensive end and outside linebacker.

Peppers's demands have not changed despite Meeks being brought in, but there's a good chance that this could be resolved once his role is established.

If not, John Fox and team drafted speedy defensive end Everette Brown to complement Peppers—or replace him.

But along with freshening up the front seven, Meeks will breathe new breath into the secondary.

Before he was the defensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champs, he was the cornerbacks coach for his now rival Falcons.

This is key as Beason, the middle linebacker, led the team in picks with four. What is worse, no cornerback had more than three interceptions in a season since Gamble had seven in 2005.

A refocused and repackaged defense will be something for the rest of the NFC South to take note of. The offense was already clicking as Smith led all receivers and the one-two punch of Williams and Stewart is, well, thunder and lightning.

As Meeks comes in with a base built on Tony Dungy's discipline you can be assured you won't see the breakdown that resulted in opponents averaging 30 ppg and 400 ypg over the last five games. Which was definitely carried over into the playoffs as where they were jumped on early and eliminated by the Cardinals.

With these things corrected you can expect a lengthy run in '09 by the new Carolina Panthers.