Carolina Panthers: Grading the Strength of Every Position Unit Before Camp

The Carolina Panthers finished last season at 7-8-1.  That’s an average record.  They didn’t see a vast outflow of talent—they lost Greg Hardy, but he missed most of last season due to suspension anyway. 

They also didn’t see a vast inflow of talent—Michael Oher and Ted Ginn are the biggest names that joined the team, though neither should be considered a team-altering signing.  As a result, the team’s talent level is more or less average.

That was enough for the Panthers to win the NFC South in 2014, and it’s enough to have them be competitive in the division in 2015.  It’s not at all intended to be a negative to be considered an average NFL team, especially considering that some of that grade is due to having young players who are still improving and haven’t reached their full potential yet. 

I’m comparing positional units across the NFL, so for a group full of young players—such as, for example, Josh Norman and Bene Benwikere at cornerback—to be considered league average already is a positive evaluation.

Almost every unit the Panthers have is stocked with young players.  The receiving corps has Kelvin Benjamin and Devin Funchess.  The offensive line has Trai Turner, who is already settling into a starting role.  Kawann Short, Star Lotulelei and Kony Ealy are still improving on the defensive line.  The list goes on. 

If this was a ranking of positions for future development, the Panthers would score higher than they do here.

However, this list is solely grading the units based on their 2015 potential as compared to other teams around the league.  It’s a slightly below-average unit on offense and a slightly above-average unit on defense.  The grades acknowledge that the Panthers in December were much better than the Panthers from September through November, but it tries not to assume that will be their level of performance in 2015—it’s a bit more conservative than that.

That’s a long-winded way of trying to explain why the Panthers’ individual position grades won’t be topping the scales.   There’s one A, two B's, three C's and two D's, with most of the team falling in that good-to-average range.  Only two units the Panthers have are worse than league average, and they actually top the league in one category.

Let’s look, from best to worst, at all of the Panthers' positional units as we enter the 2015 season.

Linebackers

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Not only is the Panther’s linebacking corps the best positional unit on the team, but it’s also the best 4-3 linebacking set in the entire NFL.

Take two of the best linebackers in football in Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis.  Add to them a valuable fifth-round pick in A.J. Klein from the 2013 draft, who plays, at worst, at a league-average rate. 

That’s the best set of linebackers from 2014; Davis ranked as the fifth-best 4-3 linebacker according, to Pro Football Focus with a plus-18.3 grade, Klein hung in there at a plus-0.3 grade and the 27th-best ranking, and Luke Kuechly, of course, led all inside linebackers in the league with a plus-28.4 grade, the highest of his career.

Now, add to that grouping a first-round pick in Shaq Thompson.  You can argue back and forth about whether he was actually worth a first-round pick, or if he should have gone on Day 2, but there’s no doubting his versatility or athleticism.  With a little bit of training and luck, he might turn into the next Thomas Davis. 

You’re taking the best corps in football, and adding a top talent to it.  That’s almost unfair.

Add in a fifth-round pick in David Mayo and a proven, solid backup in free-agent acquisition Jason Trusnik, and there’re no nits to be picked on this unit.  It’s far and away the best 4-3 linebacking corps in the game.  It’s hard to compare it to a 3-4 linebacking unit, which prioritizes pass rushing more than a 4-3 defense does, but it holds up well when compared to Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

I’m a tough grader.  I very rarely give out A's, much less A-pluses.  But when you take the best unit in the game and improve it, I have to signify that somehow.

Grade: A+

Tight Ends

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Greg Olsen, at age 30, is still a solid tight end.  He made his first Pro Bowl last season, topping 1,000 yards for the first time in his NFL career.  PFF had him third last season behind Rob Gronkowski and Jason Witten, and it’s the second time in the last three years he’s been in the top 10 at the position. 

2014 was arguably the greatest season of Olsen’s career, and his rapport with Cam Newton is top-notch.

If Olsen were to go down due to injury or age, however, the Panthers don’t really have a potential replacement for him.  The primary backup, Ed Dickson, was used far more often as a blocker last season and was targeted only 17 times in the passing game. 

As a reserve and a blocker, Dickson is adequate, but it would be a major blow to the passing attack if Olsen were to miss any time.  Yes, Dickson did have a 500-plus-yard receiving season in Baltimore in 2011, but he’s never come close to duplicating those numbers since.

The lack of a solid second tight end or backup for Olsen keeps the unit from hitting the A range.  Olsen by himself, however, is good enough for this to be a solid unit.

Grade: B+

Quarterbacks

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When ESPN polled a set of NFL coaches, coordinators and player evaluators, they placed Cam Newton 14th overall, at the bottom of the second tier of quarterbacks.  Tier two is defined as quarterbacks who “need help, but [are] good enough to figure prominently into a championship equation.”

That seems more or less fair.  You wouldn’t expect, say, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to become instant Super Bowl contenders with Cam Newton on the roster, but he moves the ball and figures out ways to get his team into the end zone. 

Considering the lack of talent he’s had at the receiver situation, his statistics have actually been quite good.  He needs to improve his accuracy if he wants to take the next step forward in his development, but he’s firmly somewhere between 11th and 15th among starters—a lot of teams would love to have a talented yet imperfect player like Newton leading their offense.

Because Newton is a running quarterback, his chances of getting injured are higher than pure pocket passers.  That makes the backup quarterback situation important, and Derek Anderson is a fine backup.  Marc Sessler of NFL.com ranked him as the seventh-best backup in the league, and he played well in two starts last season, albeit against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  

You wouldn’t want Anderson filling in over the long term, but for a spot start here and there, he’s certainly solid enough.

Grade: B

Defensive Line

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If we were only grading the starters, the defensive line would rank much higher.  Charles Johnson, Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short are three of Carolina’s top six players, and all of them are building blocks to build around.  All are under 30 as well, so the threesome should continue to be a solid force going forward. 

The Panthers don’t have an elite pass-rusher on the line or one of the top interior linemen in the game, but it’s a good group across the board.

However, those three players don’t play every snap on the defensive line, and we’re not just grading starters.  Johnson averaged only just more than 75 percent of Carolina’s defensive snaps per game, Short was just above 55 percent, and Lotulelei was just above 50 percent when he was healthy, according to Pro Football Focus.  While they make up the bulk of the unit, you have to consider the quality of the players who rotate in behind them.

You also have to acknowledge that the Panthers still haven’t found a replacement for Greg Hardy.  Kony Ealy began to turn the corner in December, but there’s a long way between that performance and what Hardy brought to the team. 

The Panthers lost 72 quarterback pressures between 2013 and 2014, or 4.5 per game, per PFF.  While Charles Johnson stepped up to fill in most, but not all, of Hardy’s void, no one really stepped up to replace Johnson as the second pass-rushing threat.  That’s a problematic situation. 

Perhaps Ealy has a breakout season in 2015, or Frank Alexander comes back from multiple suspensions to provide that pass rush, but it remains a major question mark.

None of the rotational defenders really excite me, either.  Dwan Edwards and Colin Cole are all right as reserves, though they’re both on the wrong side of 30 and aren’t going to get any better.  The team added no notable talent this offseason, either—Carolina is counting on finding Hardy’s replacement internally.

Even without a replacement for Hardy and the ho-hum reserves, this is an above-average unit thanks to Johnson, Lotulelei and Short.  To get into the B range, however, the Panthers will have to find a second consistent pass-rusher behind Johnson.

Grade: C+

Running Backs

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If I was 100 percent certain that Jonathan Stewart would play 16 games and match his yards-per-carry total from last season, this would be a significantly higher grade.  After the bye week, the Panthers kicked their running game up into another gear, with Stewart finishing the regular season averaging 5.34 yards per carry.

Stewart hasn’t managed to play all 16 games since 2011, however, and his 4.6 yards per carry in 2014 overall was his highest total since that year, as well.  Perhaps this is a return to the form Stewart showed as a young player, but it’s hard to be fully convinced he will be capable of handling the full load the entire season.

That’s where the loss of DeAngelo Williams, who is still a solid player when healthy, will hurt.  Jordan Todman, who came in free agency from Jacksonville, is an intriguing player, but he's more of a threat in the return game than as an actual runner.  Fozzy Whittaker looked decent in a limited number of carries last season, and Darrin Reaves was the man the team turned to when Williams missed most of last season, but neither seems like a fantastic option to count on.

That leaves rookie Cameron Artis-Payne, the fifth-round pick out of Auburn.  He’s a good style contrast to Stewart, being a thick, downhill runner who can grind out yards.  If he develops well and quickly, the Panthers won’t miss a beat.  That might be asking too much right away from a fifth-round pick, however.

At fullback, the Panthers still have Mike Tolbert, one of the best of a dying breed.

The lack of a solid backup situation and Stewart’s injury history mean I can’t justify ranking the Panthers’ running backs as better than average, but the high-level rushing attack they had at the end of last season means I can’t justify having them lower than average, either.  We’ll call it a C, as we wait to see how the backup situation develops.

Grade: C

Defensive Backs

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If we were to break this down even further, the cornerbacks would be significantly higher on this list, while the safeties would plummet.

Josh Norman had a breakout season last year, with his third season seeing him bring down a couple of interceptions in his 10 starts.  He allowed opposing quarterbacks to have a rating of just 53.2, the sixth-lowest in the league, according to Pro Football Focus.  While he was flagged for a few too many penalties, he was generally a good player when healthy last season.

Bene Benwikere was general manager Dave Gettleman’s latest Day 3 find, starting six games including every game of the Panthers’ season-ending win streak and playoff run.  He handled himself with more poise than can be expected from a fifth-round rookie.  Had the Panthers entered 2015 with Norman and Benwikere as their top two starters, they would have been fine.

They also added Charles Tillman.  The last time he was fully healthy, he was an All-Pro.  However, he’s missed all but 10 games the last two seasons with injuries. He’s a low-risk, high-impact signing, and, if he's healthy, the Panthers would have the best cornerback corps in the NFC South.

Safety, however, is a different matter.  Tre Boston, at free safety, is average at best.  He was certainly an improvement over Thomas DeCoud as a rookie, but he made some significant mistakes at times.  Unlike Benwikere, who has already proved his ability to play at a high level in the NFL, Boston has some work to do.

Then you have strong safety, where Roman Harper was clearly the weak link of the secondary by the end of last season.  The aging veteran probably could have been upgraded this season, but Kurt Coleman probably isn’t the type to do that—he’s better as a free safety than an in-the-box player.

There’s also the question of who will play the nickel corner role if Tillman isn’t fully healthy.  The only other experienced corner on the roster is Melvin White, and then that leaves the dime role open.

The lack of sure depth, coupled with the underwhelming situation at strong safety, balances out the promise of the top three corners.  It’s not a weakness of the team by any stretch of the imagination, but you’d be hard-pressed to call it a strength.

Grade: C

Wide Receivers

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Kelvin Benjamin, last year’s first-round pick, didn’t blow anyone away as a rookie but had plenty of flashes.  As he continues to develop—and hopefully gets more help from a deeper corps—he might develop into a top-flight lead receiver. 

He was the top receiver last season by default more than anything else, and considering the circumstances, he did fine.  He’ll need to take the next step forward in 2015, however.

Devin Funchess, this year’s second-round pick, is another huge body at 6'5", with the potential to play split out wide, in the slot or even flexed in as a tight end.  Between Benjamin, Funchess and Olsen, the Panthers have a massive set of receiving options for Cam Newton. 

Funchess fell to the second round based on a lack of college production and some poor combine numbers, but he has the potential to be a solid NFL receiver.

Corey Brown came on late last year as a deep threat.  The undrafted free agent out of Ohio State only had 21 receptions last season, but nine of them for 136 yards came after the bye week.  He’ll have to battle Ted Ginn to continue to get deep-threat snaps in 2015, but he has the potential to be a steal as an undrafted player.

That’s a lot of potential, but it’s yet to be fully realized.  Benjamin has a lot to work on to become a legitimate top receiver in the NFL, Funchess has zero NFL experience, and Brown, though he showed some deep-threat flashes, is kind of a straight-line player at this point rather than a fully developed receiver. 

There’s reason to be hopeful about all three, but they’re not up to snuff quite yet.

The veterans on the team are mostly underwhelming.  Jerricho Cotchery had to start last season due to a lack of other options, but he’s at best an average player at this point, and that might be a little generous.  He brings nothing special to the table.

Ted Ginn is a return man first and foremost, where he still provides value, but he’s not really a receiver.  Yes, he had good chemistry with Newton two years ago, but that still only resulted in 556 yards receiving—a number he didn’t come close to matching last year or in any of the four seasons before that.  Expecting more than a couple of hundred yards out of Ginn is probably getting one's hopes up too much.

Stephen Hill spent last year on the practice squad as the Panthers tried to refurbish the ex-Jets bust.  Jarrett Boykin came over from Green Bay, but his one good season is more likely a product of playing with Aaron Rodgers than a result of his innate skill set. 

The corps should be better than last year thanks to the additions of Funchess and Ginn.  There’s plenty of competition to be had up and down the depth chart, which tends to lead to better results.  There’s also hope for the future with Benjamin and Funchess leading the way.  It’s not the future yet, though, and this receiving corps hasn’t hit average yet.

Grade: D+

Offensive Line

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When you look at 2014 as a whole, rather than just the stretch at the end of the season, the Panthers had the worst offensive line in football.  Byron Bell, Nate Chandler, Amini Silatolu, Fernando Velasco and David Foucault ranged from below-average to bad to terrible last season, and the end result had Cam Newton running for his life in the pocket.

The good news is that the Panthers no longer have the worst offensive line as things stand entering the 2015 season.  None of the five players mentioned in the previous paragraph look to be starters, and Bell and Velasco aren’t even on the team anymore.  That’s addition through subtraction.

Still, the offensive line was bad enough last year that even a rebound season doesn’t get it up to average, especially when weighting the tackles as the most important position.

The interior of the line isn’t bad at all, actually.  Ryan Kalil might be the second-best player on the entire offense, behind Greg Olsen.  He’s solid and consistent and provides a veteran presence while handling the line calls. 

That has to help the two second-year guards who will be lining up next to him in 2015, Andrew Norwell and Trai Turner.  Both of them took over starting roles in midseason last year, and both were notable improvements over their predecessors, Silatolu and Velasco.  A full season of Norwell, Kalil and Turner in the middle of the offensive line is something to look forward to, even if Norwell and Turner are just average players at this point. 

Average is better than the team could have boasted recently.

Moving Velasco back to a reserve interior lineman also is an improvement—he’s fine to come in for a spot start or two.  He might even win a starting spot back over Norwell in training camp, though the team would be happier with him as the first guy off the bench.  That’s not a bad middle three.

It’s the tackle positions that continue to raise question marks.  The less important right tackle spot at least has a battle between Mike Remmers and fourth-round pick Daryl Williams.  The rookie is more talented, but Remmers had a great run to end the regular season, allowing zero sacks.  He got a chance to prove himself after languishing on various teams’ practice squads for years, and while he’s definitely shown he’s better than a practice-squad player, his performance might have been a product of playing against some poor defenses.  It feels like a better situation than last year with Nate Chandler as the starter, but it’s still a major question mark.

Then, you have left tackle, and that’s where everything falls apart.

The idea, presumably, behind bringing in Michael Oher and Jonathan Martin is that a new team and set of coaches can help them thrive.  It’s not a bad plan, in theory, except that’s exactly what the Tennessee Titans and San Francisco 49ers tried to do with Oher and Martin last season, and neither worked. 

Oher “illustrates the Tennessee Titans’ failures in personnel assessment," according to ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky.  Martin was a weak link on a 49ers line that gave up 52 sacks in 2014.  Neither showed anything last season to make him seem like a viable starter.

It’s possible that reuniting Oher with his first offensive line coach, John Matsko, will pay dividends.  Maybe outside of the disaster that was the 49ers’ season last year, Martin can rebound as well.  I’m just highly skeptical of that—if they couldn't succeed at right tackle last season, what are the odds they can protect Newton’s blind side in 2015?  They’re an upgrade over Byron Bell almost by default, but don’t confuse an upgrade with an actual answer at the position.

The question marks at tackle drag the grade of this group way down.  It’s no longer an F, like you’d have to consider the unit as a whole last season, but it’s got a long way to go to get to average.

Grade: D