How Brian Burns and Stanley McClover can help Yetur Gross-Matos

Gross-Matos’ rookie season with the Carolina Panthers

The Carolina Panthers felt they got lucky when Yetur Gross-Matos fell to them in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He came through the evaluation process with a high stock but teams opted to pass on a player that recently fired general manager Marty Hurney stated the team was thinking about trading back into the first in order to acquire.

Gross-Matos was used primarily as a rotational edge rusher during his rookie campaign, which is similar to how Brian Burns was deployed by Ron Rivera during his initial period of transition. Injuries and COVID-19 stopped him from having the level of impact he’d hoped. But that should not detract from how encouraging his play was when in the lineup.

Pre-draft doubts about Gross-Matos’ ability to generate consistent pressure in opposing backfields at the NFL level were quashed. The defensive end proved he had both the explosiveness and the power to make a real difference when some early momentum was generated.

The rookie ended the season playing 12 games – seven of which he started – on his way to 2.5 sacks, 24 tackles, six quarterback hits, one forced fumble, and 11 pressures. This resulted in a 54.7 grade from Pro Football Focus and plenty of hope he could fill the starting position opposite Burns for the foreseeable future.

Not bad for someone who turned out in just 34 percent of the team’s defensive snaps.

Carolina struck gold with the majority of their draft class last year. If they make the necessary improvements this offseason, then the sky is the limit for Phil Snow’s defense.