The Carolina Panthers were the worst performing team last season and will have to make serious adjustments to at least have a chance at a winning campaign.
Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero managed to keep a hold of his job amid the coaching fallouts.
Evero is using new personnel to switch up their defensive approach and likes what he sees.
“The one thing I will say is that I’m really, really, really excited about the group of guys that we have right now,” Evero told team’s official site.
“These first four days have just been really exciting, and we know that we’ve got a lot of good football players, talented football players, but also just the football dialogue.”
Carolina have brought in linebacker Josey Jewell, from the DC’s Denver days, while a couple of experienced former Rams players in defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson and safety Jordan Fuller.
In addition, the Panthers can call on the services of Jadeveon Clowney, Dane Jackson and D.J. Wonnum.
“I wouldn’t say better equipped, but I feel so much better about our starting point compared to last year,” Evero said. “Just with the experience and knowledge and foundation of the system. Every player that we have has been in, most of the players that we’ve had have been in some version of our system with the same dialogue and language and communication skills.
“When you think about A’Shawn and Derrick (Brown, who signed a lucrative extension after a breakout 2023) and Shy (Tuttle), it doesn’t get any bigger than that,” Evero commented.
“In terms of having a big front, guys that are physical, could play the run games, guys that are very, very intelligent, and understand angles and blocking schemes and things of that nature,” he added.
The Panthers defense should at least give their offense something to work with and that could help the team transition to a better space and into a possible playoff spot.
