Carolina Panthers: Still Talking About Yesterday
The Carolina Panthers made an unusual move to be active players in free agency. Let’s hope it plays out.
The Carolina Panthers look a bit different now than they did just forty-eight hours before. They look like a team that is taking the free agent arms race seriously in their effort to put a team on the field that can get back to the Super Bowl.
That may be intentional. The team is fairly comfortable for this one season, but then there are two rather big bombs that go off next year. Kawann Short will come off the franchise tag looking again for a bigger pay day. He will be joined by Star Lotulelei, who will off his final contract year as well. The team may be put into a situation where they cannot keep both, meaning the quality of the defensive line may degrade just a year out.
The other unanswered questions lie in the running back position where Jonathan Stewart will probably not give the team sixteen games next year. The Panthers design is not to be the Cam Newton takes on the world offense. The design is to be the dominant defense with a grueling running attack that keeps the defense fresh. That does not work without a grueling running back to do it.
More from Carolina Panthers
- Carolina Panthers: Secondary battles to watch in training camp 2020
- Carolina Panthers: 2020 training camp kicks off on Tuesday
- Carolina Panthers: Familiarity should help offense in 2020
- Carolina Panthers: Better or worse at running back in 2020?
- Carolina Panthers: Ranking the NFC South quarterback rooms
Those may be nitpicks. The Panthers did a great PR move in bringing back Peppers, who is now in his Old Man Logan story arc with his old battery mate Charles Johnson. Peppers has grown up a lot in his time in Green Bay, where he became a vocal team leader. That was something he was infamously prodded to do about the time of his exit from the team.
More from Old North Banter
- Carolina Panthers: Secondary battles to watch in training camp 2020
- Carolina Panthers: 2020 training camp kicks off on Tuesday
- NC Colleges Provide Coronavirus Results from Athletic Departments
- Court alleges Zion’s Stepfather received $400k
- UNC Football gets Commitment from Top Cornerback
Peppers, Captain Munnerlyn, and Mike Adams have to be viewed as positional upgrades on the defense. Peppers will be key to finding a post-Sean McDermott pass rush that will help the back side of the defense develop without constantly being under fire.
Although the Panthers lost Ted Ginn and A.J. Klein on the first day of free agency, McDermott remains the most important loss for the team. Everyone loves replacement Steve Wilks, but we simply won’t know until games are played what he meant. Some of that is no doubt alleviated by having a cerebral linebacker like Luke Kuechly.
For right now, as the snow falls, things seem brighter in the Queen City.