Panthers watching a lot of 2 positions at Senior Bowl. They should like what they see
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Senior Bowl 2020
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The Panthers have holes.
They had holes before one of the best players in franchise history retired earlier this month, and they have even more glaring holes in the aftermath.
Many of those will need to be addressed through the draft and free agency, but there are still more questions to be answered along the way that will have major impacts on those choices.
Will Greg Olsen retire or be on the Panthers in 2020? How will the Cam Newton situation be resolved? How many of the seven defensive starters entering free agency will they bring back? Does James Bradberry get the franchise tag?
There’s a time to sort all that out. For now, the entire Panthers coaching staff is in Mobile, Alabama, taking part in the Senior Bowl. What are they looking for exactly?
They’re not ignoring the other positions, but they have been taking significant time to get to know linemen.
Head coach Matt Rhule spent much of Tuesday on the field watching the defensive linemen and taking in drills that saw offensive and defensive linemen facing off. After practices, multiple defensive linemen have been prioritized by Panthers scouts, who asked them questions and requested visits with them later in the evening.
The coaching staff should be liking what they see in their first full week together in Mobile, because the real stars that have stood out when through two full practices are the defensive linemen.
South Carolina’s Javon Kinlaw has looked impressive and been much of the buzz, but there have been other standouts. UNC defensive lineman Jason Strowbridge has put together some strong practices, including a couple passes defended in a team period, and Michigan State defensive end Kenny Willekes had a play in Wednesday’s practice in which he completely destroyed a run in the backfield and resulted in multiple defensive players breaking out in celebration.
Alabama defensive end Terrell Lewis stood out Wednesday, especially with multiple wins in pass rush drills. On top of that, he stripped the ball from Colorado quarterback Steven Montez. Lewis dealt with significant injury woes throughout his time with the Crimson Tide with back-to-back injuries in 2017 and 2018 (torn elbow ligament and torn ACL). But he has an upside of potentially being selected in the first round.
Let’s pretend the Panthers are giving every position the same amount of attention during the Senior Bowl and the draft process. And Rhule, having a background as both an offensive and defensive line coach, could be interested in watching those drills for that reason.
But even if that were accurate (and multiple things can be true at the same time), those positions should be prioritized by Carolina in the draft. There’s a small chance that a quarterback like Oregon’s Justin Herbert will be around when they select at seventh overall, but that seems unlikely.
And those two position groups were some of the most glaring weaknesses the Panthers had in 2019 and will be emphasized in rebuilding (a scary word, indeed). As the new coaching staff takes over, fixing the two lines will be high priorities for a team that struggled to protect the quarterback and gave up historic rushing numbers. If Newton was to come back, it couldn’t be behind an offensive line like in 2019.
Players at other positions, such as Herbert, have stood out in Mobile. But with the Panthers starting over and bringing in new pieces for coaching staff; it’s hard not to take notice of players at a position of need making such an impact.
Kinlaw himself had even pointed out that Carolina is in need of line support with its free agency situation.
Unlike Tuesday when Carolina’s coaches stayed on the field observing, much of the Panthers’ staff watched Wednesday’s practice from a high perch all the way at the top of Ladd-Peebles Stadium. They concluded the day by meeting with at least two linemen.
I walked away from the second day of practice picturing how a few of those players could be good cornerstones for building the defense to come, alongside players like Shaq Thompson and potentially Bradberry.
We’ll have to wait and see if the Panthers feel the same.
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
