The winners and losers of the Panthers season so far, according to Pro Football Focus
After an encouraging win on German soil, the Carolina Panthers returned home for the bye week sporting a disappointing, if not unsurprising, 3-7 record with 7 games yet to play. That said, the season was never expected to be the Panthers time to make a run for the NFC South title.
After a few seasons of shelling out far too much draft capital and free agency spending for far too little return, the Panthers needed a season of rehabilitation. A season to take their medicine and reset the franchise under a new regime. This season was all about evaluation. Evaluating how the new coaching staff leads, how they develop players like the inaugural rookie class of the Dan Morgan and Brandt Tillis era, as well as the struggling Bryce Young.
Who has done the most for themselves this season, and who has fallen short of expectations? Let’s take a look at the grades given out to Panthers so far in this season to see who are the winners, the losers, and the players to watch as the season comes to it’s conclusion.
Winners:
2021 Draft Class
Jaycee Horn and Chuba Hubbard are arguably the best player on their respective sides of the ball. Of the players who have played in every game this season for the Panthers, these two have the highest PFF grades. Horn’s 70.1 grade is 31st in the NFL at his position while Hubbard’s 76.4 ranks 16th. Then there is Brady Christensen who has a 65.3 grade at center, which isn’t mind-blowing but for a player who spent half his time as a center and the other half at left tackle, putting up a league average performance is commendable.
Offensive Line
There’s been a running joke that the Panthers offensive line over the last half-decade or so has been, well, offensive. This year though, the Panthers line has been one of the most impressive in the entire NFL. The current Panthers line and their current ranks among players are:
- Left Tackle – Ikem Ekwonu (72.8 – 22nd of 81 among T)
- Left Guard – Damien Lewis (72.9 – 17th of 82 among G)
- Center – Brady Christensen (65.3 – 16th among 41 C)
- Right Guard – Robert Hunt (73.8 – 16th of 82 among G)
- Right Tackle – Taylor Moton (71.3 – 31st of among T)
In a league where defensive lines routinely anchor their pass rush against a team’s weak link, the Panthers managing to have every starter, including back-ups, rank among the top half of the league or higher is a sign of a good operation.
Losers:
Tight Ends
Of the Panthers bottom 5 offensive players with at least 95 offensive snaps, Tommy Tremble (46.2), Ian Thomas (52.8) and Ja’Tavion Sanders (54.0) have the lowest, 3rd lowest, and 5th lowest. To make matters uglier, that’s only if you are counting Jonathon Mingo, who was traded to the Dallas Cowboys, without Mingo that’s 3 of the Panthers worst 4 players on offense being the top 3 tight ends on the team. For what it is worth, over the last 5 games Sanders has a 71.3 grade which is a stark improvement over his grade over the first 5 games (49.5), so the rookie is trending upwards. Everyone else in the TE room? Not so much.
Defense
If you have watched some Panthers football this season, this one won’t surprise you. While having a couple good moments, overall the Panthers defense has been one of the worst in the NFL. Now, there’s some excuses for that given the injuries the team has suffered so far, including losing stud defensive tackle Derrick Brown for the entire season. The Panthers Defense ranks 32nd in total defensive grade, 31st in run defense, 11th in tackling, 32nd in pass rush, and 20th in pass coverage.
Players to watch:
Jalen Coker
Coker is actually the Panthers top rated player on offensive for the entire season, in just 7 games played so far. In fact, Coker’s 77.2 grade is the 26th best out of 107 receivers (min. 20 targets) in the NFL this year. The undrafted rookie has already made a name for himself, but with the return of Adam Thielen from IR, his usage and performance the rest of season will be interesting to track.
Bryce Young
In his first two starts of the season, Young’s cumulative grade was 30.1, which was about 13 points worse than the second worst graded passer in the NFL in that stretch. After coming back from his unceremonious benching to play the last three games, Young has managed a 68.7 offensive grade. Is it remarkable? No, it is actually 29th in the NFL over that time. A significant improvement that should be commended for what it is, but Young will still needs to continue trending upwards if he wants to show the team he can still be “the guy”.
DJ Wonnum
As mentioned previously, the Panthers pass rush has been downright abysmal this season – ranking dead last in the league. In his first game in action after suffering a number of setbacks and injuries this offseason, Wonnum finished with a 74.7 defensive grade including a 66.1 pass rush grade. Not a world burner by any metric, but continuing to be a productive pass rusher for a team that was utterly devoid of that for the first half of the season would be a boon to the entire defense.
Honorable mentions: Trevin Wallace and Xavier Legette
Grades-wise, both players have played about average thus far, hovering around the high 50s and low 60s every week. The two young talents have shown massive flashes coupled with some tough mistakes, but will be very interesting to watch going forward.