What will change for defense under Eric Washington?
The short answer to this question is: not much. The Panthers defense has been successful for so many years it wouldn’t make sense to completely change this defense. The saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” certainly applies here.
However, the one thing that Washington is likely to continue from Wilks’ defense, that he changed from McDermott’s defense, is the higher rate of blitzes. The Panthers finished with the second highest blitz percentage in the NFL last year under Wilks, according to Jonathan Jones of SI.com.
In Jones article, Washington said his focus is to create negative plays.
"“It starts with a desire to create negative plays. We desire to get an offense off-schedule. That really starts with how our defensive line plays,” Washington says. “Regardless of how many people we send or don’t send, those guys are going to attack and be disruptive. That’s the why. The how just comes philosophically with what we have available to us. We feel we have the best front seven in the National Football League starting with our front four. Whether we attack an offense with four guys or we send a fifth guy, we feel we have guys we can really help us and generate some of the things we need to be an efficient defense.”"
Fortunately for Washington, he has some of the best at getting after the quarterback with players like Mario Addision and Julius Peppers coming off the edge and Kawann Short collapsing the pocket from the middle.
The way Washington attacks the quarterback though could all change depending on the answer to this next question.