Q&A: Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott has high expectations

With the Carolina Panthers’ success in 2015, Ron Rivera kept his staff nearly entirely intact.

The returning coaches – assistant special teams coach Russ Purnell was the only one who was not retained – include offensive coordinator Mike Shula and Sean McDermott, who has been with Rivera since he was hired before the 2011 season.

McDermott, 42, is the only coordinator to oversee a top-10 defense the past four seasons.

During a recent, 20-minute interview with the Observer, McDermott discussed a variety of topics, including Josh Norman’s departure, the development of the three rookie cornerbacks and Luke Kuechly’s recovery from offseason shoulder surgery.

Q: It has been three months since the Josh Norman situation played out. Is it weird to see him in a Washington uniform?

A: We all understand it’s part of the business. It’s been really fun to watch Josh grow over the years and develop. Certainly he was a big part of our success last season and the season before that. You develop a relationship with the players, so that’s really been a neat part of watching Josh develop and grow the last several years here.

The hard part of the business is watching these guys when they decide to go to other teams. And I respect that. They have to make decisions on their behalf. But that’s part of the business that’s hard.

It is a little surreal to watch him in a different uniform and I’m sure it will be this year. He’s a good player and we wish him the best. I hope he has a tremendous season, except for obviously when he plays us.

Q: You guys moved quickly in the wake of his departure to draft those three corners. What were your early impressions of them during the spring?

A: They had a nice spring. I thought all three of them did a nice job. And you really don’t know what you’ve got until the season rolls around in year three, as Dave (Gettleman) always refers to.

Having said that, each day that we’re together we learn a little bit more about one another and that’s important. What we came away with in the spring was they’re all different in terms of what they bring to the table, which is good. All three of them seem to be wired like Panthers. They’ve got the Panther DNA. They’re serious about football. They’re good people in terms of high-character individuals. So I think that’s the start. That’s the foundation.

And now, as a lot of our older players have alluded to, it’s about taking their game to another level, and the next opportunity to do that will be training camp.

Q: What specifically will you be looking for from them when the pads are put on?

A: It’ll start with, are they in shape? Did they handle the time away from a structured schedule the right way? Which I believe they have from what I can tell. And then it goes to what is their recall from a scheme standpoint from what we did in the spring? And then a big part of is how physical they’re willing to be.

Those are the three boxes we’ll be looking to check fairly early in the process when we get down to Wofford.

Q: James Bradberry certainly looks the physical part. But what makes that FCS transition more difficult than what these other two corners face?

A: Probably years ago there was probably more of a jump than there is now. I played I-AA (at William & Mary). We could hang for the I-A (teams) for a half or three quarters and then they just wore us down. Now I think the gap has narrowed between the quality of the I-AAs and some of the I-As. I think that’s evident with more and more I-AA players matriculating to the NFL.

In this case with James, or any I-AA player, the difference is every week in the SEC you’re facing a top-notch crop of talent. Unfortunately, you probably don’t see that every week at the I-AA level, where you’re not playing against the Julio Jones every week across from you like you’re going to have to do this year.

That takes you back to the skill set. Does he have the talent? And is he wired the right way in terms of does he like the confrontation and does he like going up against Julio Jones and those caliber of athletes week in and week out like he’ll see in the NFL?

Q: Luke Kuechly was limited in the spring (following offseason labrum surgery). Have you seen anything – bumping into him in the weight room or on the side of the practice field – that suggested Luke is close to fully recovered?

A: Our contact during this period has to be pretty limited. From all indications I’ve gotten he’ll be ready to go. I could sense in the spring a little bit of just itching to go. … I’m sure he’ll be ready to go.

The good part about it is it’s not like it’s Luke’s second season and he has a lot to do at training camp and he needs 1,000 reps in training camp. Now he needs reps, but it’s more X amount of reps than 1,000 reps.

He knows and we know what he needs to be ready to go for opening night and that’ll be the goal.

Q: Ron (Rivera) and Dave had some interesting comments about Kony Ealy during the offseason, with Ron comparing him to Norman in terms of having a stubborn streak. Do you think the Super Bowl will be a revelation for him in terms of putting it all together and being better about taking coaching?

A: You hope the Super Bowl was an opportunity for the light to continue to come on for Kony. And yet at the same time you have to understand it was one game and the process continues, as we saw with Josh. Every person’s different and that’s what makes the teaching challenge interesting.

With respect to Kony, you hope that that was a chance for him to make a jump. Yet this year will be a new year.

This will be a big year for Kony and we’ll see exactly how he handled this offseason, just like the rest of the players. I do believe we saw him around the building and putting forth the effort in the training room and the weight room this offseason, in terms of getting himself to the point where he’s potentially ready to go and in the best shape of his life, we hope, for training camp.

Q: You’ve been around the game a while. Was Kawann Short’s season last year as disruptive as you’ve seen from an interior lineman?

A: Obviously, KK brings a lot to the table for us. At the same time, we preach team defense. And that goes for all of us, myself included. We’re only as good as the guy next to us.

He brings a lot to the table for us in terms of what he can do inside. Love the person in terms of how he approaches the game, how he prepares and how hard he works at practice. We’re going to need him to continue to do what he’s doing.

With Star (Lotulelei) having the great offseason that he had and the other guys we added this offseason, including Kyle Love coming back, you feel pretty good about what we have inside.

Q: You never know with injuries, but it feels like there could be a pretty good defensive tackle who might not make the team, right?

A: Absolutely, I agree. If you’re looking at our tackles, you’re saying, ‘OK, this guy’s played at the line of scrimmage before in a varsity game.’ And the list goes on.

Barring injuries – and that’s a position with a lot of banging in training camp, so God willing we can keep those guys healthy and feel good about where we are coming out of training camp.

Q: One of those guys is Vernon Butler. He was really disruptive at Louisiana Tech, but didn’t always finish with the sacks. What will be the key for him to turn some of those pressures into sacks?

A: If you watch the tape – and what we talk about all the time was evident on the film – in terms of the ability to affect the quarterback. So much anymore these quarterbacks are getting the ball off so fast.

The college game’s a little bit different than our game. But what we look for is the ability to simply affect the quarterback, and that’s the big thing. Whether the ball’s coming out or he’s freeing somebody else up, that’s all part of it.

You mentioned KK. There’s a lot of teamwork that goes into affecting the quarterback and getting sacks. If I’m getting double-teamed, somebody else is free. So it kind of works hand in hand.

If we can keep throwing multiple fastballs at the quarterback from different areas of our defensive line – and you mix those with our pressure package – you feel pretty good about it.

Q: Ron and Dave this offseason talked a lot about your young defensive ends – Arthur Miley, Rakim Cox and Ryan Delaire. Do you see any of them as being close to being an every-down type of end or is that not their roles?

A: We’ll see. I don’t ever put guys in a bottle at this point. They’re young players that have flashed some ability for us and this will be a big training camp for them. The opportunity will be there.

The opportunity was there in the spring for them to get more reps and we had a chance to evaluate them. And the opportunity will continue in training camp. We’ll see what those guys do. We hope – and I’m sure they hope – they can develop into those three-down defensive ends.

Q: Will you try to limit Charles Johnson’s reps this season to try to increase his effectiveness?

A: With all of our players our strength coaches do a great job with monitoring the GPS system we use (tracking player activity during practices) and use effectively. With our older players, Charles being one of our more veteran players, we do look at reps and trying to make sure we can get these guys to the gate and then through a season healthy. That’s always a challenge.

Charles has gotten some nicks the last couple of seasons, particularly last season. So that will be something we focus on in training camp to where we can get him to that first game healthy and continue to build momentum from there.

Q: I know there was a ring ceremony in the spring. Is that NFC championship ring one you’ll wear or does that stay in a box?

A: That’s a ring that will stay in the box for me most of the time. It’ll stay in the box but at the same time close to my heart because I know the amount of work that went into that and what a special achievement that was. It’ll be a ring I pull out from time to time on special occasions.

Q: Very clearly last year was an offensive hiring cycle for head coaches. I know that’s something you see down the road for yourself. Do you think that cycle swings to the defensive side this year?

A: It seems to me that some of the defensive head coaches have had some success of late, so that’s good to see. But you never know. It’s all about fit.

I’m extremely happy with the job I have and love working with the players and the people I work with here. Really that’s my focus. We want to be the best we can be as a football team and then do our part as a defense to help this football team and this organization win games this year.

This story was originally published July 16, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Q&A: Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott has high expectations."