Among other teams that have schemed around their star players is the Carolina Panthers. There is no other QB in the league like Cam Newton. Like Seattle, Carolina has designed a lot to utilize the strengths of Newton. On the season he has 54 rushes, the most of any QB. Russell Wilson is second with 52 but nobody else is close with Colin Kaepernick at 39. Like the other teams, Carolina has kept a lot of its top guys resigning players such as Newton, Greg Olsen, Charles Johnson, Luke Kuechly, Ryan Kalil, James Stewart, and Thomas Davis.
Speaking of Kaepernick, he is another guy that has been a victim of scheme and talent around him. With the loss of some of his lineman, he hasn’t had the protection he needs and his new offensive coordinator, Geep Chryst, seems to be having him make throws he does not feel comfortable with. Once again most of these teams that we expected to be better this year have had one of two things in common.
The first, is that lack of scheme fit. Although they weren’t supposed to be good, the Bears went from a 4-3 to a 3-4 and don’t have any of the pieces that fit in there. Why make the change if you don’t have the guys that fit or why not run a hybrid of the two to give yourself some benefit.
Once again you need to work with the strengths of the team and adjust accordingly because it’s much easier to adjust to the players rather than to adjust the actual players. That is why we pay coordinators and assistants good money. It is their responsibility to get the most out of their players and make the changes that will give them the best success.
The other problem is the same one that has caused the Colts, Seahawks, Chargers, 49ers, Chiefs, Vikings, and even the Browns problems. I believe the answer is obvious and its poor offensive line play.
Defenses have gotten better in the NFL at getting to the QB and it doesn’t matter how good your QB is if he can’t be protected you’re going to struggle.
I expect a lot of these teams to focus on improving their offensive line in the offseason because their QBs are good enough to make plays if they can be protected. The Browns have been terrible with their offensive line this year. They have not gotten a run push and they have allowed 26 sacks on the season, second most in the NFL. You are not going to improve that by trading away one of your best offensive lineman.
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