Carolina Panthers: Taking it to the NFL Street

By John Woodcock | Aug 2, 2016

Jul 28, 2016; Spartanburg, SC, USA; Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly (59) signs autographs after the training camp at Wofford College. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports /

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The Carolina Panthers may need twenty two or more players to start, but there was once a world where they would only have needed seven.

The Carolina Panthers are in camp and trying to figure out what to do if Bene Benwikere does not get back in time. Solutions include unleashing the Three Rookie Amigos which would be a huge test of the Panthers theory of defense. What if the Panthers did not need eleven guys on defense?

There is a world where that would have been possible. In the early 2000s there was a football side series created by EA Sports. It was the NFL Street series. They were three games where football players played seven on seven football essentially with flag rules except for the hitting. So you could see your favorite players play against each other and do stunts, wear jewelry, and try to get the elusive Gamebreaker (which weren’t that elusive).

The first NFL Street game was followed by NFL Street 2, but the Xbox 360 – Playstation 3 console series came on line around 2006. The Street franchise as a whole sort of disappeared about that time. The last of the Street series was actually a game called NFL Tour. That provided a season mode and limited you to the teams in the league. The crazy fields were also replaced by more realistic fields. You could actually field a separate offense and defense.

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In other words, NFL Tour sucked the life out of the NFL Street franchise. Customization was limited and you could only put one created character on an actual NFL roster. If we were going to create a NFL Tour roster, all we could do would be to put Cam Newton on the team. Where’s the fun in that?

NFL Street 2 had a team builder mode that let you build up the skills of seven players or steal players from other teams in the game. Your roster of customization could expand to eight if you played the own-the-city mode and brought that character in. Let’s forget this little fact for the moment and try to build an NFL Street 2 roster of the current Panthers team.

You get seven slots. Everyone plays both ways. There is a QB slot, but the rest is up in the air. Every formation will have a three man line on offense where the center is an optional receiver. There are usually two wings and one back to line up in the set.

On defense, the team can have either a two or three man line. Pass protection becomes important with usually a safety and two corners. This usually makes the quarterback a lineman or linebacker. Most quarterbacks do not move very well in coverage – so the line it is.

Each player had certain stat ratings. I prioritized defense so usually I had two defensive linemen on the line and just ate the blocking deficiency on offense. I also prioritized defensive backs for coverage, figuring that I could manufacture offense in other ways.

My normal roster for a NFL Street 2 team would have been a QB, RB, 2 DL, 2 DB, and a WR.

Next: Picking the Team

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