The Carolina Panthers finished the 2023 season with a 2-15 record and missed the playoffs for the 6th straight season. They had a point difference of -180 which was the second worst in franchise history behind the 2010 season – in which they finished with the worst record in the league and eventually drafted Cam Newton. But unlike the 2011 draft – they didn’t have the number one pick this year because they traded a future first round pick – so they could go up and get quarterback Bryce Young with the number one pick in last years draft. They started the year with a 1-10 record before firing former head coach Frank Reich and pretty much anything that could have went wrong for the Panthers last year – went wrong. But the Panthers made a lot of moves this offseason and will be a better football team than they were last year. And I am firm believer that the worst day are behind the Carolina Panthers. Not just because it’s hard to imagine the situation getting worse – but you can start to see the vision with how they want to build around Bryce Young and how they’re going to build around him moving forward. With how bad the 2023 season was – this year for the Panthers in a lot of ways – will resemble how 2022 was for the Jags. Meaning – they have a number one overall pick whose rookie year was ruined – and the question entering the season is – how will they bounce back? Well we’re going to answer that in today’s video. Now let’s begin
One of the biggest things with the 2024 Panthers is every team has expectations entering the year. And you should not expect the Panthers to win the NFC South and to even win a playoff game like the Jags did back in 2022. But what you should expect to see is a more competitive team and a team that’s in a lot of games. The 2023 Panthers had 8 double digit losses and obviously the offense was bad last year – but they also finished 29th in points allowed per game too. And despite the Panthers defense not looking great on paper – they lost several players from their defense in free agency. Most notably was linebacker Frankie Luvu who signed a 3 year $31 million dollar deal with the Commanders, Yetur Gross Matos who signed a 2 year $18 million dollar deal with the 49ers, corner Shaquille Griffin who is now a member of the Vikings, and safety Jeremy Chinn who is also now a Commander. Frankie Luvu is going to be a tough player to replace and in 2023 alone – he had 125 total tackles, 11 quarterback hits, 10 TFL’s, and 5.5 sacks. That type of production isn’t something you can just say to Shaq Thompson or newly acquired linebacker Josey Jewell and say – okay go replace him. And especially not to Thompson who is now 30 years old and suffered a broken fibula in week 2 of the 2023 season. Now aside from having to replace Frankie Luvu – I was a little disappointed that they traded pass rusher Brian Burns to the Giants along with a 5th round pick and all they received in return was a 2nd round pick and a 5th round pick. So excluding the 5th round pick swap – it was essentially a second round pick for Brian Burns. Yes the Giants had to pay him upon him being traded – but that’s the end goal of a former first round pick. Have them be good enough to eventually pay them top dollar. Now Panthers fans unfortunately know this and a lot of fans do too – but there was an offer at one point in time for Brian Burns from the Rams – that was two first round picks. And there’s a reason Panthers fans hate former GM Scott Fitterer – but I was a little underwhelmed with what the Panthers received in return for Burns. And especially with who they replaced him with. They signed pass rusher DJ Wonnum in free agency to a 2 year $12.5 million dollar deal after Wonnum played 4 years in Minnesota. Now DJ is coming off an 8 sack year which is pretty good and – hell – that’s actually the same amount of sacks Brian Burns just had for the Panthers. But as somebody who has watched every snap of his career – there’s games where DJ disappears. Truly. And Panthers fans remember a play DJ made against his now current team as he had a scoop and score against them last year – but there’s games where DJ will go where you don’t hear anything from him. And there’s a reason the Panthers only guaranteed 10% of his contract.
They also signed veteran pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney – who had a career year with the Ravens last year and led the team in pressures even over defensive tackle Justin Madubuike. He tied his career in sacks with 9.5 and was a good player for Baltimore in 2023. Clowney is now 31 years old and I thought he would sign a bigger contract than a 2 year 20 million dollar deal and I liked this move for Carolina – for what it was. I don’t like the idea of solely relying on Clowney to have back to back 70 pressure seasons – and for him to have the first double digit sack season of his career in year 11. I thought the Jadeveon signing was a low risk high reward signing for Carolina – and a side note – with Clowney and Wonnum each on the Panthers – I thought it was cool they brought in two former South Carolina Gamecocks to play for the team closest to where they grew up. But are Wonnum and Clowney going to be an elite pass rushing duo? No. And that needs to be remembered for Carolina entering the 2024 season. They also brought in former first round pass rusher K’Lavon Chaisson who has played just under 400 total snaps combined in the previous two seasons. Obviously I wouldn’t expect a whole lot out of Chaisson – but he will be just 25 years old a the start of the 2024 season and that is worth noting. I have my concerns with the Panthers pass rush and secondary this year – but one part of the Panthers defense I am looking forward to is their run defense. Now when you have 8 double digit losses and you finish the year with a 2-15 record – teams are going to run the football on you really by default because of how the game is being played. More often than not when a team is up by 17 points in the 4th quarter – they’re not going to run 4 verticals and risk incomplete passes when they can run out the clock and move on to next week. Due in large part to this – Carolina finished 28th in rushing attempts against because that’s how a lot of their games were played. But the silver lining within this – is they finished 12th in yards per carry allowed. A lot of that can be attributed to one of the most underrated players in all of football in defensive tackle Derrick Brown. Derrick is a unit at 6’5 320 pounds and actually set a record last year – which was for the most total tackles by a defensive tackle in a single season. And he was also named to the pro bowl. They also signed A’Shawn Robinson to a 3 year deal this offseason who should help with the run defense too. A’Shawn is a bull on the field at 6’4 330 and having to move that much mass for opposing offensive lineman – is not a fun situation for – well anyone. And again – the Panthers run defense was pretty solid last year – it’s just they were in bad situations.
One of the reasons Carolina didn’t succeed last year – aside from the obvious – was – they only forced 11 turnovers in 17 games. Which ranked last. And when you can’t create turnovers for a team that was struggling in the worst way offensively – well you’re not going to win many games. And there was a reason Carolina’s two wins were by a combined 4 points. They couldn’t move the ball offensively and while the defense wasn’t getting as gashed as much as you may think – they weren’t creating a turnover a game to put them in plus field position or to really help the offense out. The Panthers defense actually finished 4th in yards allowed in 2023 which to be completely honest – I was surprised to find out. As much as I like Panthers defensive Ejero Evero – I have concerns with this unit in 2024 due to the personnel. I like Jaycee Horn and he is a very good player when healthy – but unfortunately Jaycee has played in just 22 of 51 possible games through the first 3 years of his career and has only played in 8 games in a season once. So at this point – while I – and I would assume everyone for that matter – wishes the best for Jaycee – he can’t be counted on as a good player that’s going to show up week in and week out. I would love for him to show the player he was in 2022 for a full 17 game season this year. But aside from Jaycee – they have corner Dane Jackson who they signed from Buffalo this past offseason. Dane is okay as a corner – but he’s really nothing to write home about. He’s a former 7th round pick still in the league and he’s had a good career for himself. But Dane doesn’t strike fear in opposing receivers. After that – it’s thin at the corner position – and fast. Dicaprio Bootle is in fact a real player on the Panthers roster and he’s played in 15 career games after being an undrafted free agent back in 2021. They also have D’Shawn Jamison who was an undrafted player from Texas last year and then they have Willie Drew – and the corner – Lamar Jackson. So if Jaycee Horn goes down – I genuinely do not know what they’re going to do at corer this year. And I worry a lot about the secondary. And with how solid I think the Panther run defense is going to be – I think there’s legimtiately going to be games where opposing teams start out with 9 of their first 10 plays being passes. Ejero Evero will certainly have his work cut out for him with the personnel on this defense which is a tremendous understatement.
