Did the Panthers secondary exceed expectations in 2020?
By Dean Jones
What PFF had to say about the Carolina Panthers secondary
The secondary was a bunch of short-term solutions who were tasked with being a band-aid while the Carolina Panthers went through some salary-cap difficulties. They were shelling out an extortionate amount of dead cap and outside of Donte Jackson and Tre Boston, there wasn’t much in the way of confidence regarding the group.
Couple this with the disastrous free-agent signing of Eli Apple – together with the rookie duo of Troy Pride Jr. and Stantley Thomas-Oliver clearly needing further time to develop – things looked bleak. So for Pro Football Focus to put them at No. 17 could be seen as a triumph when everything is put into context.
PFF writer Anthony Treash highlighted the team’s slot coverage as one of the primary reasons behind their placing, with the strides made by Jackson down the stretch another encouraging factor that could serve them in good stead moving forward.
"The Panthers rank a lot higher here than expected, largely because of their slot coverage. Carolina’s secondary ranks fourth in the NFL in slot coverage grade, and the team’s defensive backs racked up the second-most passing stops in the slot (26). Donte Jackson also took a step forward manning the outside. He went from giving up 641 yards on 60 targets in 2019 to 366 yards on 57 targets in 2020."
Corn Elder deserves all the credit in the world for Carolina being so good in slot coverage. The player made the most out of some prolonged reps for the first time in his career and the Panthers would be wise to keep him around in 2021.