The Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals, two of the best teams in the NFL, are struggling to start the season, why?
The Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals were the two best teams in the NFC last season. Both were expected to cruise through the regular season on their way to another season of NFC dominance.
And yet, they’ve started a combined 2-6 on the year and neither looks like the contender that they were in 2015. Of course scapegoats have been singled out, but are they the cause for these teams’ failures?
The Cardinals are seeing grumbling about Carson Palmer and the offensive scheme. They’re running the same basic scheme that they have in the past with almost no changes.
David Johnson is now the unquestioned feature back and they have talented runners behind him. In the passing game, the Cards can still put a great receiving corps on the field that should be able to give opposing defenses fits.
In Carolina, the scapegoat are the cornerbacks. And specifically that Josh Norman, who’s been very hit and miss in Washington, walked during the offseason. He was replaced by a bevy of rookies. Some with good talent, some without.
Peanut Tilman also retired, so their #3 corner in 2015 became their #1 corner without much warning. They also refused to sign any vets to help out their young corners expecting their front 7 to make stars out of them like they did with Norman.
Both of these diagnoses are incorrect. Both teams have the same problem. Their offensive lines are rather poor. The bright side is that both teams can fix this issue in-season.
In 2015, the Cardinals gave up less than 1.7 sacks and 6.5 quarterback hits per game. The Panthers gave up 2.06 sacks and 3.8 hits per game. In 2016, the Cards are allowing 3 sacks and 5.8 hits per game. And the Panthers are averaging 3.3 sacks and 7.5 hits per game.
It doesn’t get much clearer statistically in the NFL. These numbers represent major regression from both teams’ offensive line. And the oddest part is how voluntary both teams’ failures to fix their offensive line was during the 2016 offseason.
The Panthers didn’t have a great offensive line in 2015 but Cam Newton’s skills made it almost irrelevant. They missed a chance to reinforce their line despite having enough draft picks and cap room to make some moves.
Now with Oher recovering from a concussion, they have to hope that a young player like Daryl Williams can step up. Otherwise, it will be more of the same no matter who’s at quarterback.
The Cardinals’ wounds on the line were purely self inflicted. They decided to revamp the right side of their line dealing away Jon Cooper for Chandler Jones(and giving up a 2nd round pick in the process).
And they let Bobbie Massie walk for Chicago thinking that their 2015 1st round pick DJ Humphries could replace him without a hiccup. Evan Mathis was signed to replace Cooper, but he’s struggled with injuries.
The Cardinals need to hope for Mathis to get healthy and for the light to turn on with Humphries. The Panthers have the tougher decision to admit a failure and find a couple potential starters on the waiver wire.
Khalif Barnes is still floating out there and could be at least a serviceable starter for them at tackle until Oher returns. At guard, Vladimir Ducasse or Louis Vasquez could also be warm bodies to shake things up for the rest of the season.
Without seeing improvements on both teams’ offensive lines, then both teams will be trying to run uphill and depending on their defenses to give them more opportunities. And that plan hasn’t worked well for either team so far this season.