Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Miles Sanders was out-snapped by Chuba Hubbard for the second straight week.
If you’re looking for some signs of encouragement from the Carolina Panthers’ Week 5 loss to the Detroit Lions, you’re probably not going to find them here. But what you will find is, perhaps, some interesting insight into how the team’s new staff is looking to function through their early struggles.
So, here are the top takeaways from Sunday’s snap counts:
Through five games, Adam Thielen now has four top-two finishes in offensive PFF grading for the Panthers.
It’s difficult to highlight the positive amongst all the negative that the Carolina Panthers have experienced this season—and it definitely didn’t get much easier after Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Lions. But if you’re strictly an Adam Thielen fan, then welcome back to the party!
In what’s almost become a weekly celebration of the 33-year-old wideout, let’s take a look at the best and worst Pro Football Focus grades for the Panthers from Week 5:
Can Panthers WR Adam Thielen find the end zone against the Lions for a second time this year? He won’t have standout rookie Brian Branch there to stop him.
The Detroit Lions are a tough matchup for any team, let alone the 0-4 Carolina Panthers. Nonetheless, it’s happening for these struggling cats on Sunday—and they’ll have to figure out ways to chop this growing juggernaut down.
Here are four key matchups within the matchup that will help the Panthers do exactly that:
PFF has now graded Adam Thielen as a top-two offensive player for the Panthers in three of the team’s first four games.
How did the Carolina Panthers grade out in yesterday’s 21-13 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings?
Here are the best and worst marks from the team’s fourth straight loss:
We may have gotten a few early answers as to how the Panthers will run their show in 2023.
With an almost entirely new coach staff, the Carolina Panthers raised quite a few questions as to how they’d line up here in 2023. And on Sunday, in the team’s season-opening loss to the Atlanta Falcons, we got our first real answers.
Here are the top takeaways from the Week 1 snap counts:
NFL analyst Charles Davis envisions a Justin Simmons-type role for Panthers DB Jeremy Chinn in 2023.
One of, if not the greatest mystery of the Carolina Panthers’ summer is figuring out how safety/linebacker/nickel cornerback Jeremy Chinn will be used. (See? We still don’t even know what to classify him as.)
But, luckily, NFL analyst Charles Davis has an idea for us.
Davis recently previewed Carolina’s upcoming campaign for The 33rd Team and highlighted Chinn as part of his blurb on Ejiro Evero’s defense. He believes, following Evero’s 2022 season with the Denver Broncos, that the fourth-year Swiss Army knife may have a role similar to that of a three-time Second-team All-Pro.
Davis writes:
The second part is Jeremy Chinn, Their safety, a young man out of Southern Illinois, was all over the place as a rookie. He played back deep, near the line of scrimmage, blitzed and fell into coverage. They did it all with him.
Last year, the Panthers wanted him to be much more of a pure safety before he got hurt. But now, with Evero, I expect to see him more as a rover and a disruptor. If you want to see what I think you’ll get, go back and plug in some tape of Justin Simmons in Denver last year under Evero. Chinn will be much more like that and will have a big impact on a lot of games.
In 2022, Simmons played 435 of his snaps from the full safety spot, 231 from the box and 123 from the slot. Given Chinn’s early usage in these preseason contests, where he’s picked up nine of his 13 plays as a nickel cornerback and zero as a full safety, he probably won’t be deployed in the same area as Simmons.
What Davis may be alluding to, instead, is the type of impact Chinn will have under his new coordinator. With Evero, Simmons recorded a league-leading and new career-high six interceptions.
And Chinn, a bigger and faster athlete than Simmons, may finally have a chance to roam the field as the playmaker the Panthers always hoped he’d be.
[lawrence-related id=679453,679446,679395]
We may have gotten a hint as to how the Panthers and Ejiro Evero plan to use Jeremy Chinn this season.
According to head coach Frank Reich, the Carolina Panthers didn’t tip much of their hand during Saturday’s preseason opener against the New York Jets. But did their snap counts from the 27-0 loss tell us anything?
Let’s poke for some takeaways . . .
Two Panthers defenders were included in NFL.com’s list of the top 50 free agents for 2024.
The Carolina Panthers didn’t experience much of a hit from the open market this spring, having lost the fewest amount of snaps to free agency. But that may not be the case next year.
Around The NFL podcast co-host Gregg Rosenthal recently ranked the top 50 free agents for 2024. Included in his list are two Carolina defenders, starting with outside linebacker Brian Burns at No. 6.
While a long-term deal between the Panthers and the two-time Pro Bowler seems likely to be reached, the latest word on the street—at least according to ESPN senior NFL insider Jeremy Fowler—is that the sides are not close at the moment. The agreement is, in part, hinging on a new pact for San Francisco 49ers defensive end and reigning AP Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa—who ranks No. 1 on Rosenthal’s list.
A bit further down sits the Swiss Army knife Jeremy Chinn, who comes in at No. 31. Rosenthal writes:
The depth of quality safeties could hurt Chinn’s market value, but he’s a playmaker who can line up at safety, linebacker and nickel back.
2023 is, obviously, a big campaign for the former second-rounder. On top of it being “bag year,” Chinn has to find a groove somewhere in defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero’s new 3-4 base.
But if the Panthers can’t find a fit for Chinn or a number for Burns, there will be plenty of suitors out there that will try next spring.
[lawrence-related id=678719,678399,678807]
From their pass rushers to their “weapon,” the Panthers’ new-look defense is starting to take shape.
After a fun-filled Fan Fest at Bank of America Stadium on Wednesday night, the Carolina Panthers were back in Spartanburg for practice this morning.
Here are the top observations and takeaways from their return to Wofford College fields on Friday:
Panthers DC Ejiro Evero on Jeremy Chinn: We gotta make sure we put him in positions to affect the game.
Even though we’re well into training camp, Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero still refused to reveal exactly what he wants to do with Jeremy Chinn. He also, however, still sang his praises.
Similarly to his insight on the fourth-year defender back in May, Evero told reporters on Friday that Chinn is a different cat—one they have to figure out how to put on the prowl.
“One of the first things we said when we got here is that this guy is a weapon,” he said after today’s practice. “He’s a different type of player. With that size, that speed, his skill set, the way he can affect the game in so many different ways—it’s our job as a staff to make sure we utilize him as such. And so far, so good. He’s exactly where we want him to be.
“I don’t wanna give too much away in terms of how we wanna utilize him, but this guy’s a weapon. We gotta make sure we put him in positions to affect the game.”
Chinn—who’s listed as a safety—possesses the size, athleticism and versatility to play a bit of linebacker as well. And being that the Panthers’ starters in those particular spots seem set—with Shaq Thompson and Frankie Luvu in the middle and Vonn Bell and Xavier Woods at the top—they’ll really have to get creative with the former second-round pick.
But luckily, it seems as though their experiment is going quite well to this point.
“I think we got a good idea about where he is,” he added. “When you go through the whole offseason and you go through this first part of training camp—and Jeremy’s so good about communicating with the coaches and talking to the coaches, asking questions, gettin’ up and doing extra time. So I feel like we’ve developed a really good rapport with him and I think we got a good feeling of where he’s at.”
[lawrence-related id=678395,678386,678384]
