Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Despite a few potentially devastating injuries, the Panthers came away from their preseason finale with some big positives.
Not only did the Carolina Panthers close up shop on the 2022 preseason with a victory on Friday night, but they also closed up with a number of intriguing developments to move forward on.
Here are the top takeaways from the 21-0 win over the Buffalo Bills.e
Panthers S Jeremy Chinn began the second year of his Carolina jersey watch with a very fitting choice.
Last season, Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn did a little something special for the Carolinas. And it was so special, in fact, that he’s running it back.
Before each home game during the 2021 campaign, Chinn donned a jersey of a Carolina sports legend during his walk into Bank of America Stadium. Those legends came from all different arenas—from NBA superstar Steph Curry, to Negro League legend Buck Leonard, to NASCAR icon Dale Earnhardt Jr. and, of course, franchise greats such as Julius Peppers and Steve Smith Sr..
After his reveals, Chinn then put the threads up for auction and donated the proceeds to that athlete’s cause or charity. It was, undoubtedly, a nice homage to the states’ sports history and—more importantly—a noble nod to the community.
Well, the third-year defender is at it again in 2022. He kicked off the year on Friday night with a fan favorite from one of the most memorable eras of Carolina Panthers football—former safety Kurt Coleman.
.@ChinnJeremy2 is rocking Carolina legends again this year.
First up, @k4coleman!
All jerseys will be auctioned off for charity at the end of the season 💙 pic.twitter.com/edd1dogrVF
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 26, 2022
Coleman spent three of his 10 NFL seasons in Charlotte, amassing 261 tackles, 2.0 sacks and 11 interceptions. He played a key role in helping push the 2015 team to a remarkable 15-1 record and an eventual Super Bowl berth.
So, in a fitting start to the jersey watch, it’s a playmaking safety honoring a playmaking safety.
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Which of the Panthers’ promising youngsters has the best chance at making their first Pro Bowl this season?
2021 was a particularly special season for Carolina Panthers defensive end Brian Burns—because it was the first season he was selected to play alongside the game’s very best. So, which of his teammates is next?
Around the NFL writer Nick Shook took a swing at determining that, as he picked one player from each of the league’s 32 teams that is most likely to make their first Pro Bowl. For the Panthers, he takes another young defensive stud—safety Jeremy Chinn.
“For a solid portion of last season, the Panthers had one of the stingier defenses in the NFL,” Shook notes. “Seeing as their quarterback situation still isn’t settled, I’m essentially forced to look on the defensive side of the ball, and I’m going with a player with plenty of upside. Chinn wasn’t as impressive in 2021 as he was in his 2020 rookie campaign, but that’s OK. Sophomore slumps happen, and if Chinn can reverse course, I could see him getting some Pro Bowl attention.
Chinn is certainly a worthy selection for Carolina—who does have quite a few other potential candidates on the roster. In fact, all but six guys (Burns, running back Christian McCaffrey, linebacker Cory Littleton, returner Andre Roberts, punter Johnny Hekker and long snapper JJ Jansen) have never gotten a nod.
Some notable Panthers who have yet to make a Pro Bowl include wideouts DJ Moore and Robbie Anderson, offensive tackle Taylor Moton and linebacker Shaq Thompson. And they have a few more—defensive tackle Derrick Brown, linebacker Frankie Luvu and cornerback Jaycee Horn—who could break out for one this season as well.
But, the man of this particular hour is Chinn, whose special and versatile skill set should make for an all-star mix in the near future.
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Two Panthers made the cut for the NFL’s best team that the salary cap can buy. And, surprisingly enough, one of them is a QB!
On Tuesday, NFL.com senior researcher Anthony Holzman-Escareno showed the football world his baby—the best team the league’s salary cap can buy. And wouldn’t you know it—two Carolina Panthers made the squad!
We’ll start on defense, where safety Jeremy Chinn squeezed in alongside Kevin Byard, Tyrann Mathieu and Jordan Fuller on the backend.
“Drafted as a safety, listed as a linebacker as a rookie and a safety as a sophomore, versatility is Jeremy Chinn’s game,” Holzman-Escareno writes. “He’s lined up for at least 200 snaps at each level of the defense over the last two seasons, per Next Gen Stats: line of scrimmage (232), linebacker (672), cornerback (459) and safety (532). Chinn has flashed some struggles in coverage, but his all-around skill set was too enticing to pass on. This dude also scored two defensive touchdowns on consecutive scrimmage plays as a rookie.”
Speaking of Chinn’s rookie campaign, the talented 24-year-old is still on his first NFL contract. His cap number for 2022 will amount to just $1.4 million—which, obviously, makes him quite a grab for this particular exercise.
The second Panther, and a much more surprising one, plays on the opposite side of the ball. What’s even more of a surprise is that (and we’ll need a drumroll for this . . . ) he’s a quarterback!
“Former Temple star PJ Walker is 2-0 as a starter in his career, brings an extra dimension with his legs and carries a cap hit a sliver under $900,000,” Holzman-Escareno notes. “There’s risk in not investing in another veteran option at quarterback behind [Tom] Brady. However, we know Brady isn’t coming off that field. I am also confident in this: If Matt Cassel could navigate the 2008 Patriots to an 11-5 record, [Davis] Mills or Walker can take this roster to the promised land.”
Walker sticks on as the No. 3 option on this roster, behind that Tom Brady dude and Houston Texans second-year passer Davis Mills. He’ll also likely be assuming the same role in Carolina this upcoming season, with Sam Darnold and Matt Corral battling for the reins in 2022.
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If the 2020 draft were to be rewound, at least how PFF sees it, the Panthers defense would look completely different than it does today.
If the Carolina Panthers had another shot at the 2020 NFL draft, would they select Derrick Brown again with the seventh overall pick? Frankly, probably not.
And neither would Ben Linsey of Pro Football Focus. The NFL analyst reran the event from two years back and didn’t go, despite Carolina’s original first-round choice still up on the board, with the Auburn defensive tackle.
Instead, he opted for University of Minnesota safety Antoine Winfield Jr.—whom the Panthers have seen plenty of over the past few seasons.
“This might seem early for Winfield — or any safety given the draft history at the position — but Winfield has proven himself to be a special, well-rounded player through two seasons with the Buccaneers,” Linsey writes. “He’s coming off a 2021 season with 85.0-plus PFF run-defense and coverage grades above, and he posted the second-highest overall grade (89.5) at the position — behind only Kevin Byard.”
Antoine, son of Antoine, kicked off his pro career with a bang—finishing fourth in AP Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. He’d then be selected to his first Pro Bowl in 2021 after recording 88 tackles, 2.0 sacks, two interceptions, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.
So, what happened to Brown? Well, he and another standout Panther would be scooped up a bit later in the mock.
Linsey goes on to settle Brown in with the Los Angeles Chargers at No. 23:
“Los Angeles’ interior defensive line was one of the biggest problem areas on its roster last season. Brown hasn’t yet been the dominant force that the Panthers were hoping for when they drafted him in the top 10, but he would represent an upgrade over what the Chargers have had at the position over the last several years. Brown improved his PFF run-defense grade by roughly seven points from 2020 to 2021, and his 57 quarterback pressures across those two seasons rank third among all players in the draft class.”
And then he has the Seattle Seahawks using the draft’s 27th pick on safety Jeremy Chinn, who was selected at the final slot of the second round (No. 64 overall) in the real-life version.
“Chinn has also impressed in Carolina, raising his PFF grade from 59.0 as a rookie to 71.4 in his second season last year. He profiles as one of the bigger safeties in the league and is a tremendous athlete. Perhaps most importantly, this draft pick would have likely kept Seattle from sending multiple first-round picks to New York for Jamal Adams — a trade that has looked like a mistake in hindsight.”
All in all, 2020 wasn’t actually a bad draft for the Panthers. They may not have hit a home run at No. 7, but they got themselves a pair of first-round talents who have proven to be pretty solid starters thus far.
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Any idea that might have prevented the regrettable Jamal Adams trade is probably a good thing.
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The Seattle Seahawks will be relying a lot more on Jordyn Brooks in the post-Bobby Wagner era beginning next season. Brooks has been named the team’s new defensive play-caller and will have his hands full trying to live up to the high standard that No. 54 set over the last 10 years.
A new 2020 NFL redraft from Pro Football Focus has Seattle going in a different direction though – one that has a different back-seven defender heading to the Pacific Northwest. Instead of Brooks going to the Seahawks with the No. 27 overall pick in the draft, they had Seattle selecting SIU safety Jeremy Chinn.
“Chinn has also impressed in Carolina, raising his PFF grade from 59.0 as a rookie to 71.4 in his second season last year. He profiles as one of the bigger safeties in the league and is a tremendous athlete. Perhaps most importantly, this draft pick would have likely kept Seattle from sending multiple first-round picks to New York for Jamal Adams — a trade that has looked like a mistake in hindsight.”
Any idea that might have prevented the regrettable Jamal Adams trade is probably a good thing – and even though Brooks also improved a lot in his second season we’d definitely prefer to have Chinn. His athleticism and overall playmaking ability makes us believe he’ll have a better future in the NFL than Brooks, no offense intended.
The Seahawks will get to see Chinn in action live this year. They’re scheduled to host the Carolina Panthers at Lumen Field in Week 14.
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Does Panthers S Jeremy Chinn get the love that he deserves? NFL Network analytics expert Cynthia Frelund doesn’t think so, and here’s why.
The spotlight is tough enough to command when you’re playing for the Carolina Panthers—a smaller market franchise with largely middling results. So it’s a pretty common occurrence that a standout player doesn’t exactly stand out to the rest of the sport.
Luckily, we have fine football folks such as Cynthia Frelund out here to help shine that spotlight.
In her recent list of the league’s most underappreciated players, the NFL Network analytics expert gives some props to Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn, who has been one of the most productive defensive backs in football over the past two years.
“Chinn’s positional versatility creates the type of middle-of-the-field problems that QBs — especially younger ones who didn’t face a variety of defenses in college — have a hard time solving,” Frelund writes. “Among DBs, Chinn ranked ninth in tackles (106, leading the Panthers), fourth in stops (47) and tied for seventh in QB pressures (8) in 2021.”
That positional versatility, as Frelund notes, is something defensive coordinator Phil Snow and the Panthers obviously value. But the dynamic 6-foot-3, 220-pound defender—according to the dynamic 6-foot-3, 220-pound defender—is going to keep it mainly posted in the secondary, even despite previous thoughts of a move to linebacker.
“That’s not something that we really discuss—me going back to linebacker,” Chinn said after Tuesday’s OTA session. “As soon as the season ended, I was like, ‘Alright, I’m a safety now. That’s the position I’ve been playing this past year.’ So I didn’t really think about going back to linebacker. That’s not something we spent a lot of time talking about.”
Although a switch may ultimately benefit both Chinn and the Carolina defense, which has a particular need in the middle of the unit, he’s been doing just fine right where he’s at.
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A handful of Carolina Panthers took the podium following OTAs on Tuesday. Here’s what we learned.
The Carolina Panthers sent quite the lineup to the podium on Tuesday—a group that included head coach Matt Rhule, quarterback Sam Darnold, running back Christian McCaffrey, safety Jeremy Chinn and cornerback Jaycee Horn.
So, with many questions finding their answers following the first two sessions of organized team activities, here’s what stood out most.
The Carolina Hurricanes’ big 2-0 win over the New York Rangers began with some thundering sounds courtesy of Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey.
Tonight, some of the Carolina Panthers’ biggest stars became some of Carolina’s biggest Caniacs.
Running back Christian McCaffrey, defensive end Brian Burns, linebacker Frankie Luvu and safety Jeremy Chinn were all in attendance at the PNC Arena for the Hurricanes’ raucous 2-0 victory over the visiting New York Rangers. Here are a few of the best sights from their thrilling visit to the big playoff win.
Those who’ve repped the Panthers repped the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday night, as the ladies captured their second national title in program history.
The Carolina Panthers may be one team, but they proudly represent two states. And both of those states had themselves a heck of a weekend in college basketball.
On Saturday, it was the University of North Carolina Tar Heels edging out their rival Duke Blue Devils to clinch a spot in the men’s national title game. Then Sunday was for the ladies, as the University of South Carolina Gamecocks held off the UConn Huskies to capture their second ever tourney crown.
So check out those who rep the Panthers repping out the Gamecocks in their triumphant win.
