Jadeveon Clowney graded out as the Panthers top defensive player while Jaycee Horn’s grade was comically low.
The good people at Pro Football Focus spend enormous amounts of time breaking down every player’s performance on every individual play throughout the season. In the end, players can then be given a final rating somewhere between zero (poor) and 100 (elite). Panthers players who did not receive a position rating in 2024 by PFF will show as “NA” in the table below.
If you want to learn more about PFF’s methodology, you can read their Player Grade overview.
Most of us as fans view PFF ratings this way: “If the grade fits my opinion of a player then it’s credible, but if the grade conflicts with my conclusions then PFF is stupid garbage and should never be trusted.” I’m not advocating for PFF, rather I’m just providing one set of data that’s at least interesting. Here’s how PFF graded and ranked the Panthers primary offensive players.
Before proceeding any further…the average PFF grade for the 16 Panthers defensive players who played at least 300 snaps is a paltry 54.9. That’s pretty brutal. Only four players had grades above 60, and only one graded out above 70 (Jadeveon Clowney at 70.8). There’s a reason the 2024 Carolina Panthers had “the worst defense of all time.”
Interior defensive line
A’Shawn Robinson’s 54.6 grade and ranking of No. 79 of 132 players at his position seems low. While traditional metrics aren’t always accurate in telling the full story of the production of interior defensive linemen, in 16 games he had 80 tackles, 5.5 sacks, eight tackles for loss, and nine pressures. From my view that’s a better than average season for the position.
PFF ranked DeShawn Williams, Shy Tuttle, and LaBryan Ray each below No. 100 of 132 interior defensive linemen. The return of Pro Bowler Derrick Brown can’t come fast enough.
Edge rushers and linebackers
Panthers fans were generally happy when Carolina signed veteran Jadeveon Clowney as a free agent before the 2024 season. Sure, the 2014 No. 1 overall pick’s best days were behind him, but he’s a local guy and was coming off a 9.5 sack season in 2023. In 14 games with the Panthers he registered 46 tackles, 5.5 sacks, nine tackles for loss, and 22 pressures in finishing the season with the top PFF grade among all Panthers defenders at 70.8.
The Panthers two D.J.’s – Wonnum and Johnson – were both ranked below No. 100 among edge rushers. Wonnum’s grade seems a little harsh as he did some good things this year with 37 tackles, four sacks, and 12 pressures in 454 defensive snaps.
Linebackers Josey Jewel and Trevin Wallace graded out about the same and were ranked No. 68 and No. 70, respectively, among 83 linebackers. Jewell’s grade seems low coming off a 12-game season with 97 tackles, 3.5 sacks, and seven tackles for loss. That seems like an above average season for a linebacker, but PFF wasn’t impressed.
Shaq Thompson, please come back next year and be healthy.
Cornerbacks
Michael Jackson was perhaps the most pleasant surprise on the Panthers defense this year. He played over 1,200 defensive snaps and PFF ranked him as No. 45 of 116 corners. The sixth-year journeyman has hopefully found a home in Carolina.
Um, Pro Bowler Jaycee Horn is the 57th best cornerback in the NFL. Okay, PFF!
Safeties
Undrafted rookie Demani Richardson had a solid rookie season 51 tackles, two passes defended, and an interception in 14 games. His PFF grade of 60.1 led the Panthers safeties, though it ranked just 67th of 98 at the position.
Xavier Woods’s 57.0 grade and rank of No. 77 of 98 seems off. In 17 games he had 119 tackles, three interceptions, and six passes defended. That doesn’t seem like bottom quartile production to me.