Carolina Panthers legend Steve Smith Sr. joined The Kyle Bailey Show on Monday to be the voice of reason. As he would say—hot diggity dog!
Heading in to what would eventually be a 37-27 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks in Week 3, the Panthers faced quite a bit of criticism for the performance of their wideouts. They were just one of two offenses to go through their first two games without a passing play of at least 25 yards, an ugly stat that was being attributed to their lack of separation on receiving routes.
Well, Smith Sr. was asked about that very topic by WFNZ host Kyle Bailey. And the franchise’s all-time leading pass catcher—who, mind you, claims to have a doctorate in route running—initially (and simply) replied with this:
“That is true in what I’ve seen in some of the routes that they’ve gotten an opportunity to run.”
After a few seconds of some awkward silence, Bailey then had Smith Sr. expand on his thoughts.
“In some of the routes, they’re not gettin’ separation because the route may be shallow where it’s not about separation, it’s about gettin’ to a spot,” he added. “Then there’s other routes like DJ [Chark] goes down the field and gets holdin’. Okay, they ran an up-and-out against the Atlanta Falcons and there was a little bit of miscommunication. TMJ [Terrace Marshall Jr.] slowed down a little bit and kept goin’. But that was after how many attempts, or lack of attempts of goin’ down the field?
“There are reasons why some things happen that statistics can’t tell you.”
That statistics showed us, at least before Sunday, that the Panthers couldn’t find space. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, their receivers recorded some of the lowest averages for yards of separation—with Adam Thielen at 2.9 yards, Marshall Jr. at 2.3 and Jonathan Mingo at 1.8.
Then, the more conventional stats told a bit of a brighter story. Chark seemed plenty open on his 47-yard touchdown in Seattle, which headlined a 361-yard performance from backup quarterback Andy Dalton.
Either way, the answers aren’t always so cut and dry or black and white. Just ask the voice of reason himself.
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