The Panthers ended Saturday’s flurry of roster moves with a flourish, trading wide receiver and punt returner Kaelin Clay and a 2019 seventh round pick to the Buffalo Bills for second year cornerback Kevon Seymour. The Panthers were in need of cornerback depth after losing both Teddy Williams and Zack Sanchez to injury in the fourth preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers; after starters James Bradberry and Daryl Worley, Captain Munnerlyn and Cole Luke were the only healthy corners on the roster before this trade. While Seymour will not be expected to compete with Bradberry or Worley for the starting role, he has the tools necessary to make some plays for Steve Wilks and his defense.
Seymour, who grew up in the poverty-stricken “Snake Pits” of Los Angeles before going to USC, was drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 draft by the Bills and played in just over a quarter of the defensive snaps in his rookie season. He was expected to compete for the inside cornerback position this year, but ultimately lost out to former Panther Leonard Johnson; he was hampered by a foot injury and many think that he was not able to excel in new coach Sean McDermott’s zone-based Cover 3 scheme.
“In those zone-based defenses — especially Cover 3 schemes like McDermott’s — height and length are prioritized for cornerbacks.
Why’s that?
In Cover 3, the two outside cornerbacks are responsible for the two outside deep 1/3s of the field. The idea is that if those cornerbacks are tall / have long arms, they’ll have a much easier time playing “ball-hawk” in the deep third to get their hands on passes. In zone, they’re watching the quarterback much more than their back is turned to him, so ball skills and “catch radius” are more important than ability to stick in the pocket of a receiver across the field.”
-Chris Trapasso, Buffalo Rumblings
With Seymour only six feet tall and 185 pounds, he may be better suited for the inside cornerback role than on the outside, but Bills coach Sean McDermott did say earlier in the offseason that Seymour could play both positions, even calling him “one of the best cornerbacks I’ve seen, especially as a rookie, coming in basically already developed.” Seymour had issues in college with his eyesight, not finding out that he actually had 20/60 vision until just before the NFL combine. “My first time catching the ball and doing drills with corrective lenses was the NFL combine,” he said. “It was a whole different world. Everything was sharp and I was still getting used to it.”
Seymour has good speed and burst in addition to having a keen ability to seek out tackles on special teams. He can make an immediate impact in Carolina and should slot (no pun intended) into the first backup cornerback role on both the inside and the outside. While Seymour still has room to improve, he had success in his rookie year in Buffalo, only allowing only one reception for every fifteen snaps he was in coverage, which ranked him among the better rookie cornerbacks in the league.
