Call ‘em the Cow-manders, or maybe the Com-thers, because Carolina and Dallas both brought multiple new players to DC this week – and to break down the latter, BMitch & Finlay brought in Mike Kaye from the Charlotte Observer, who agreed with JP’s synopsis that the Panthers’ defensive deficiencies had a lot to do with ‘bad situational football.’
“I think the problem was the offense couldn't put up points so they're constantly playing from behind – I think they only led for like a few minutes on the season,” Kaye said. “So when you're playing from behind the way and you can't really get a lot of pass rush because of that, and you're not really able to play a lot of prevent defense…what Evero did last year with all the injuries that they had was extremely impressive, and he deserves the flowers that he gets publicly because they literally every member of the secondary was injured for multiple games.”
One guy who was out there all year was linebacker Frankie Luvu, and Kaye gave him the same praise WFNZ’s Chris McClain gave Grant & Danny on Tuesday.
“That guy is a game-changer and a play-breaker. When you think about like Mike Zimmer's Double A-Gap blitz, he would be like the ideal guy for that,” Kaye said “He's not a natural pass rusher, but he is extremely versatile in that he can play outside or inside in a 3-4, but in a hybrid, you're looking at him kind of being that OTTO player. He can really make things happen, you can disguise coverage and blitzes, and he will just disrupt the offense more than he won't. And he's also a pretty good run defender.”
Luvu is JP’s favorite signing so far, and Kaye thinks his ceiling is pretty high.
“I think with Luvu, he has tangible versatility; if you want to line him up as a WILL linebacker, or as a middle linebacker, go for it. He’s a guy who's adapted to every role that he's been in in Carolina, even on a bad team, even when the defense is not playing well,” Kaye said. “I think Dan Quinn can use him in a lot of different ways. My guess is he probably played SAM against base personnel, and then he would probably go into either middle linebacker or WILL on obvious passing downs. But he’s just a game-wrecker.”
That will work will for a Quinn/Joe Whitt defense that ‘won’t get caught up in base packages.’
“You're gonna find different roles for him; you're not gonna be able to classify him as a SAM or an OTTO or a MIKE or a WILL. He's just gonna be a guy on the field, and you're just gonna have to dictate what everybody else's position is around him because you can't take him off the field,” Kaye said.
What’s the one area he can improve in?
“Coverage. He's not a coverage guy, that's just not how he plays; he is a guy who is a ‘seek and destroy’ player - if you give him a target, he's gonna barrel through it,” Kaye said. “I wouldn't want him in coverage – he’s going to be, just like every linebacker – but he started his career as a special teams ace, so there are limits to his coverage ability, and I think that's probably what hindered him, at least early on with the Jets. But Carolina, they knew what he was, and they just sent him to seek and destroy.”