Welcome to week 2 of Brian Answers, a CSR mailbag for every Panthers fan. This week we kept the momentum going in “Brian Asks” and I love the participation! To recap, we here at CSR are bringing you a weekly mailbag to ask your questions, Panthers related or not, and I’m here to answer them! Every week, I’ll put out a question piece where CSR commenters can ask mostly any question they’d like, and I will try to answer. Let’s dive in!
Im0pen: Is there anyone on the current defensive staff that could be promoted when Evero is eventually offered a HC gig?
This was a really great question that had me do a bit of a dive on the Panthers current staff on defense. The interesting part about this question is much of the current defensive staff have ties to Ejiro Evero, so they could follow him to a new team with the promotion to defensive coordinator.
- Jonathon Cooley (defensive passing game coordinator): I think he’s the most likely candidate on this current staff to follow Evero to a new team and become defensive coordinator. He spent 2020-2021 with Evero on the Rams coaching staff as the secondary/cornerbacks coach, and currently serves as his right hand man in the passing game. He’s probably out unless Evero looks elsewhere.
- Tem Lukabu (outside linebackers coach): While I would think the team would go talk to other candidates outside the organization, he was coming off a 3 year stint of being Boston College’s defensive coordinator before joining the Panthers in 2023. So he certainly has some form of a respectable pedigree for the role. But I believe Tepper and Dan Morgan would look outside of the organization before handing Lukabu the defense, just based on experience.
- Todd Wash (defensive line coach): I believe this is the most likely candidate for Carolina to plug and play at defensive coordinator should Evero leave in 2025. He has 18 years of NFL coaching experience, and spent 2016-2020 as the Jacksonville Jaguars defensive coordinator. If Carolina really wants to keep continuity going with this coaching staff should Evero leave, this is who I have my money on.
TLGPanthersFan: What is your favorite movie you love that everyone hates and hated movie that everyone loves?
Tommy Wiseau’s masterpiece “The Room” is my favorite movie to show people completely out of left field. I often pitch it as one of the best movies you’ve never seen of all time. The reactions vary from anger, disgust, and sometimes, eventually, acceptance that its a great movie in spite of itself.
Movie I hate that everyone loves? I would say the Titanic. There’s no reason Jack couldn’t fit on that board. Don’t @ me.
Highmiles: Will the new stadium include grass?
My hope? Yes! My heart? No, Tepper is a business man and the stadium is used for other things aside from football, and that’s more revenue. They could try and install the sliding grass mechanism that a few other teams use, but something tells me that’s not on the horizon unless a ton of the money allocated to the stadium upgrades goes towards that. But I’m not an architect so I couldn’t tell you what that would cost or how practical installation would be.
Marsha Jackalone: What are the offseason thoughts about going ahead and settling for a field goal at the 20 yard line?
Depends on what you think of this offense. I think settling for a 20 yard field goal is dumb if your offense is moving the ball well, however after getting shut out twice at the end of 2023, settling for field goals might be the best route to just keep up the scoring pace. That said, objectively, not the biggest fan unless its early in the game and the teams are still in the feeling out phase of the first quarter.
bolshy: Does anyone really believe Ian Thomas is going to step up this year?
I think it can happen, but it really depends on how stable the offense is and how it develops as the season goes on. I think Ian gets a bad rap after he wasn’t used well with the end of the Matt Rhule era and the short-lived Frank Reich era. He’s always been athletic and he has those very occasional big plays. I think the receiving work will be cut out for him between Tommy Tremble and Ja’Tavion Sanders, but I am happy to be proven wrong.
packpowerfan: On a scale of 1-10, 1 being not confident at all and 10 being certain, how confident are you in the off-season changes (coaching, game plan, etc.) resulting in Bryce being a functional QB this season? Not even “good” or remotely living up to draft status…just an actual, functional QB.
I would give it a 7. But my definition of “functional” is someone who isn’t the reason an offense fails. I think Dave Canales can make him that, how many games they win is another question. I feel he was at least “functional” last season when he wasn’t under duress. The problem is, that was all the time, whether it was his fault or the rest of the offense’s fault. We saw enough flashes that he can make some big time throws, we need to see it more consistently however. Moving to a more timing based offense and correcting his footwork should help in that regard, which has been a focus of the offseason.
SwampPanther: Who will be the offseason MVP that gets everyone’s hopes up but doesn’t make it through cuts?
Jordan Gross used to drive a luxury RV to camp for all the O Linemen to hang out in between sessions. I think that drove camaraderie in the group. Is anyone stepping up as leaders on this team in their individual groups?
My guess is WR Jalen Coker. Wide receivers tend to be the darlings of the offseason regardless of how much of a chance to make the team they actually get. Between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd team offenses often rotating the receivers, you hear about the big completions in the non-contact drills and the local media often hypes it up a bit more than I would.
As far as your second question, I think it’ll be more prevalent once training camp actually starts. But Adam Thielen would be my answer if you held a gun to my head, simply based on his interviews this offseason.
PanthersFanInATLExile: Who do you think will be the Panthers top WR this year between Thielen and Johnson? A case can be made for both. Thielen is older and eventually Father Time catches up to everyone (albeit we’ve been told each year since 2020 that the demise of Thielen was imminent) however, he averaged 8 targets a game last season so the chemistry with Bryce is already there, but could be due to the fact there was no other viable WR on the roster as Chark was massively inconsistent and Mingo looks like he’s a very mediocre player. Johnson thrived with a 45 year old immobile Big Ben when he was force fed targets in Pittsburgh.
While I think Thielen will either lead the team in targets or be very close, his role at this point is more the Jerricho Cotchery type player, which is get open, get a few yards, and get down. Diontae Johnson is an elite separator and I think he will be the main target on a ton of reads. I think the most value we’ll see from him is at the intermediate level around the 10-20 yard range where somebody like Thielen will be fighting it out underneath for the shorter stuff, to give Bryce a security blanket for something short. Johnson would be my pick, if the offense doesn’t fall into being dysfunctional again.
Bruce Guild: Will we have a top 10 running offense in NFL or will defense put us in come from behind too often and will be relegated to passing early in games?
The Panthers may have a top 10 rushing attack just based on how many times they will run the football, but my knee jerk reaction here, top 15 is an achievable and somewhat realistic ceiling based on the supposed volume. I don’t think passing early will be as much the problem as later on in games, where if teams have a 14 point lead against the Panthers, they may deviate from the run-centric play they claim they want to run.
Mozzie11: Did we sacrifice long term roster building for a short term fix to help BY? Would we have drafted like we did and signed the FA players we did if we were trying to help BY or not? Big difference imo on how to build a long term winner.
I don’t know if the answer is as black and white as this question posits. While yes, the Panthers definitely loaded up on offensive talent to surround Bryce Young, a selection like RB Jonathon Brooks seems a bit more forward looking than for 2024, as he may not really have a ton of impact this season. And regardless of who the QB is, the guard situation needed an overhaul. I think the pieces they went after this offseason, while obviously geared toward surrounding Bryce with more talent to help him succeed, can translate to the next QB should they choose to move on. They could have gone with more defense in the draft and they tried their best in free agency to retain players and add quality talent, but in the end I think whether you’re looking short term or long term, adding talent to help the QB succeed this season will tell us a lot once 2024 is over, and give us an idea of the direction going forward.
Skizert: Do you think the offense will majority run a two tight end set, treating Bryce as a rookie, as they did Cam with Olsen/Shockey, as well as their plan to run the ball more?
I don’t think the situations are necessarily parallel. The Panthers really only added 4th round rookie Ja’Tavion Sanders, who is more of a receiver. But I don’t expect him to be playing 90% of the snaps in his rookie season. Tommy Tremble and Ian Thomas are stronger run blockers and I believe they are trying to figure out who is worth keeping around in the future in the tight end room. If they run more two TE sets, its going to be to run the ball, unless their group there makes a massive step forward as receivers. Remember, Shockey was an accomplished receiving threat and I think everyone but the Bears knew Olsen could be scary in the right scheme as a receiver.
@mealylaffsFormerlyNunya: I’m gonna sound like a whiner so I’ll ask two questions to help the medicine go down.
1.We still have the rookie prank article on the front page and no article about the renovations and city council hearings
2. Hypothetically Bryce averages 20th in all categories with his best being 17th in say INTs and his worst being 24th in say TDs maybe 21s in YDs and 18th in completion%. We win 4-5 games and have a top 10 pick. What is the likelihood we move on?
- Walker got to that one.
- I think the Bryce Young experiment will continue unless the team craters badly and they end up with a top 5 pick, which is possible. But the team threw enough resources at him that I think he’d need to stay the same or regress for them to consider moving on at this juncture. He’s not a locker room problem by any means. Moving on and adding competition are different ideas. I think they’d bring in a veteran or draft somebody but moving on entirely doesn’t seem like something you’d do on the 3rd year after the trade they made to acquire him.
Ruffian Actual: Will the 2024 Panthers be bad or hella bad?
I think they’ll be watchable most weeks, and by watchable I mean not “I want to throw my TV out the window and never watch football again” bad like 2023. Or if it’s a repeat of 2011-2012 where the defense can’t really stop anything, at least our fantasy teams will get some garbage time reprieve.
kimbersdad: Why do the panthers suck at drafting?
While this is an almost entirely new regime, the one carry-over I’m seeing is they tend to hone in in the guys they want (Xavier Legette, Jonathon Brooks). If they nail both those draft picks we won’t really care that they had preferences, however when it comes out that you’re targeting guys instead of going best player available, especially on a bad team, you add a lot of risk that things will blow up in your face. Bottom line, the Panthers had some interesting preferences and we’ll see how it works out for them, Cotton.
DannyLimes: which is the player this year who you think will exceed expectations the most?
I think RB Miles Sanders may actually surprise a lot of people, if only because the expectations for him are so low. If the Panthers actually make running the ball behind their more run-forward line a priority, Chuba Hubbard can’t carry the ball every snap and Brooks might not be ready for a huge workload as part of a 2-back committee. Sanders always did his best behind mauling offensive lines, and at least on paper that’s what they’ve got in front of him in 2024. Him not dealing with injuries constantly throughout the preseason may help this case as well.
MtnddancerSr: What year will the Panthers once again achieve a winning record?
4 years tops in my opinion, so long as they don’t keep trading away their best players. 2028 is just around the corner!
Good_Ol_Boy: Have you ever drank moonshine? (Not the store-bought, mass manufactured stuff, but actual backwoods illegally-made liquor.) If so, what kind and where was it from.
I can’t say that I have.
schrodingersblackcat: Figuring out if Bryce can be our QB is the #1 objective on a very short list of realistic objectives for this season. What happens if we fail to accomplish it?
Obviously, I’m hoping BY proves himself to be a QB we can win with, but what happens if Bryce is just-good-enough in 2024 to keep the Panthers’ QB question open? What would those stats even look like? What kind of coaching/management missteps would have to occur in order for us to end the season without a definitive answer? And would we really be foolish enough to roll into 2025 with Bryce still as a question mark?
I think if the Panthers fail to figure the QB situation out, they’ll likely either bring in some form of competition (Trey Lance?) to pump up the stakes in 2025, or draft a guy early. I think if Bryce completes around 3k yards and 20+ TDs with less than 10 INTs though the conversation changes to continuing to build around him. If there’s no definitive answer though, all bets are off. That said, the Panthers put a ton of resources into him so I don’t think they’ll completely quit on him even if this season doesn’t give us optimism. Let’s just hope this isn’t a conversation we’re having a few weeks into 2024.
Proteus1: Which fanbase will Tepper grace with a serving of alcohol?
Saints fans. It’s always Saints fans. I don’t know if he’ll be dumb enough to do that again, but my money is always on the Saints. Their team may not be good enough, but enough “Who Dat” chants in a losing effort would make me chuck a beer or two.
Thanks for the questions this week, Panthers fans! Join us for more next week as we keep this rodeo going!
