Panthers are looking for players who can be multiple on defense. What does that mean?
Thursday night, the Carolina Panthers’ new coaching staff got its first exposure to on-field workouts at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The players and performances they’re looking for isn’t the same as what the team prioritized last season. Instead, these players will be selected to fit coach Matt Rhule’s, defensive coordinator Phil Snow’s and offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s new schemes.
On defense, the goal won’t be to find pieces that fill a certain mold for a position. That’s not what Rhule is looking for in his defense. Speed is one of the factors that will be considered, among many. During his news conference in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Rhule explained why looking for players who are capable of filling multiple roles is desirable.
“I would just call it the position-less player. The days of saying, ‘Hey, we need a mike linebacker or we need this’ (are over). There’s certain traits you’re looking for, but you’re looking for position-less players,” Rhule said. “The offenses in the league are changing, so the defenses have to be able to do a lot of things. I think we’re just looking for traits. We’re looking for, ‘Hey, this guy can really do this or really do that.’
“I think you’re seeing a lot more of that in the Combine as college football has really spread out. We’re going to try and stay ahead of the curve on that, make sure we keep bringing guys in who can do a lot of different things for us, that give us multiplicity within the roster.”
Multiplicity will be even more useful for a defense that is deep in the process of rebuilding, especially with the retirement of linebacker Luke Kuechly.
With the team’s rebuilding process, there are plenty of holes to fill. Seven defensive starters are hitting free agency. Snow’s defense isn’t going to look like former coach Ron Rivera’s as different skills are prioritized. At Baylor, the defense was a base 4-3 but adapted often.
A player who epitomizes that as much as any is Clemson’s Isaiah Simmons. When asked what he says when asked his position, his answer was straight to the point.
“Defense,” he said.
Simmons on the next level could be a safety or a linebacker. At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, he isn’t a traditional fit at any one position. Based on the defense that the Panthers run for each play, he can be used in a variety of ways.
The most positions he has ever played in a game is five. Having that type of versatility fits what Snow said he would cater his defense to in his first news conference as the Panthers defense coordinator.
“I’ve just about run everything on defense over the years, and last year at Baylor we were a three-man front,” Snow said. “We’ve done a variety of different things, I think what’s smart to do, we’ll be multiple, but what’s smart to do is use the people that you have.
“Our team is not set up yet. There’s a lot of things that have to happen before we know what we have, so we’ll utilize the people that we have and we’re going to be multiple anyway, so you’ll see us in four-man, three-man. You’ll see us in a lot of different stuff. I think today you have to be multiple to give the offense some problems from a schematic standpoint. We’ll see what we have and then we’ll put it together.”
The key word is multiple. The Panthers are looking for players who can do more than one thing because on defense they want to be able to have creativity.
Although that will be a focus in the draft, players like Simmons, who can play anything from safety to linebacker to defensive end, it also will impact their free agency decisions. Who provides flexibility?
Throw out the typical ideas of what a linebacker looks like. That’s not what this group is searching for. The odds of the player trying to fill Kuechly’s shoes playing similarly to the future Hall of Famer are low.
Players that are fast and agile will be prioritized. Pay attention to the 40-yard dash this weekend at the Combine, even for players who typically that wouldn’t be a priority The Panthers will be looking there when building their draft.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
