Monday slant routes
My thoughts on Blueprint, a crazy defensive statistic & some quick hitters.
We are 16 days away from the start of Carolina Panthers training camp. In today’s slant routes, I wrote about Blueprint, the Panthers lack of forced turnovers and a few other random thoughts.
Blueprint & overall messaging
Since he was officially introduced as the President of Football Operations and General Manager of the Carolina Panthers on January 22, Dan Morgan has consistently spoken about getting tough, competitive football players - aka dawgs - into the building.
The other theme of the offseason has been about alignment and a shared vision. Those themes were prevalent in both episodes of Blueprint ‘24 on panthers.com.
When you sit back and think about it - you can understand why.
Morgan rejoined the Panthers organization as the Assistant General Manager in May 2021. Outside of Steve Wilks briefly reinvigorating fans once Matt Rhule was fired in October 2022, it has been an abject disaster.
In 2021 and 2023, two stories were published by The Athletic on the dysfunction within the Panthers building.
The first story was published by Joe Person in 2021 near the end of Rhule’s second season. In that story, a Panthers source termed the team’s regression after a 3-0 start as “a clusterfuck.”
One of the topics discussed in that report revolved around “the brand,” which was something Rhule talked about within the building. “The brand” centered around being “a tough, hard-nosed, competitive team.”
A veteran scout told Person in that story: “They’re soft. They’re a really soft football team. I don’t see the defense stopping anybody where it’s a 14-13 score. That’s tough football.”
The second story came from Person and Dianna Russini after Frank Reich was fired after 12 games in 2023. The report described a “Hunger games culture” in the building.
For an organization that has gone 17-34 over the last three seasons and has had those reports published about the dysfunction from within, it’s not surprising to see this messaging from Morgan and especially the team.
Time will tell if the shared vision and personnel decisions ultimately turn the organization into winners once again.
Can the defense force turnovers?
ClevAnalytics published their free 2024 preview last week and I highly recommend it to anyone that wants a detailed analytical look at the upcoming NFL season.
There was an absurd stat in the preview about last year’s defense that I had to read multiple times. In 2023, the Panthers defense only recovered two fumbles. 1
The fumbles were recovered by Xavier Woods against Houston & Brian Burns at home against Atlanta - coincidentally the Panthers only victories from last season. Overall, the Panthers forced 11 turnovers for the entire season, which was dead last.
The last time the Panthers forced more than 20 turnovers in a single season was in 2020. They forced 22 takeaways that season.
Over the last three seasons, the Panthers have ranked near the bottom of the league in forced turnovers.
2023: 11 total takeaways - 8 interceptions, 3 fumble recoveries (32nd)
2022: 17 total takeaways - 10 interceptions, 7 fumble recoveries (28th)
2021: 16 total takeaways - 9 interceptions, 7 fumble recoveries (t-28th)
If the Panthers hope to go anywhere in 2024, they’ll have to force more turnovers than they have in recent seasons.
Quick slants
Pro Football Talk first reported on Sunday morning that Adrian Wilson was out as the Panthers’ VP of Player Personnel. There was no official announcement on the team website. If this move had taken place right after the draft in May, most would not have batted an eye. With this happening in July, it is notable. It’ll be interesting to see if any reports come out on Wilson’s departure.
Per Panthers.com, the only centers listed on the roster are Austin Corbett and undrafted rookie Andrew Raym out of Oklahoma. It’ll be interesting to see if Corbett is a full go on day one. If not, Raym is going to get thrown to the fire quickly.
Rookie kicker Harrison Mevis was one of the hot topics of OTAs. Eddy Piñeiro has been steady but wants a new deal. If Mevis makes the most of his preseason opportunities, I wonder if the Panthers front office will try to move Piñeiro.
Official statistics show three recovered fumbles on the season. The third fumble was recovered by the Panthers special teams unit against Indianapolis.