The game of football, moreso than almost any other professional sport, revolves around communication and chemistry. Chemistry and communication with your teammates, chemistry and communication with your coaches, chemistry and communication on the field and off of it – and no matter how much you work at it or how many team-building outings you go on, there’s truly only two things that helps that chemistry and makes that communication easier.
Time – and reps.
So while the Panthers’ starting offensive line didn’t have a great outing on Thursday night in New England, allowing three sacks along with multiple pressures while the offense only produced 29 net yards in the first half, those reps can help build that chemistry and can help to fix the issues that plagued the line before the games start to count in a couple of weeks.
“Probably the biggest disappointment was what happened up front,” Ron Rivera said after the game Thursday. “I thought those guys played well, then all of a sudden we made too many mistakes to give ourselves a chance. And that’s probably the biggest disappointment.”
“It’s most certainly correctable – things that these guys have got to work together on,” he said after practice over the weekend. “They’ve got to work more and more as a unit so that they can continue to communicate; we had some spurts in the last couple of weeks where we didn’t have everybody on the practice field. Now is an opportunity and we’ve got to take advantage of it; we’ve got two weeks to go before our opener and we’ve got to focus in on the units that are going to be playing together.”
“They’ve got to get the right kind of reps, the right kinds of installs and the right kinds of walkthroughs.”
“It just all comes with practice – a wise man once said it’s about the journey, it’s not about the end,” added right tackle Taylor Moton. “So it’s all about trusting the process; ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.”
“We’ve all got to have chemistry – everyone in the room.”
That means welcoming in new additions like center Matt Paradis and moving Daryl Williams, who spent last year on injured reserve and the seasons before that on the right side of the line, to left tackle. And when the five linemen, from Moton and stalwart Trai Turner on the right side to Williams and Greg Van Roten on the left with Paradis in the middle, can practice together, they can start to put enough reps together to start to form that innate communication that can only come with time.
Sometimes it’s a matter of trust – when new center Paradis makes an adjustment to the blocking, the rest of the line has to trust that he’s seeing the rush correctly and moving them in the correct direction. And sometimes it’s something more innate, knowing where the lineman next to you is going to be when a rusher tries a spin move or leaks back to the inside or is leaning a certain way – the little differences in physicality that you learn over time when you’re playing next to each other.
There’s a certain amount of time it takes to build that chemistry – perhaps even a specific amount of time.
“Now it’s about how many reps they get. If you get 5,000 reps, it became second nature – you build that over time,” said Ron Rivera. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
“Matt’s still learning to work with Greg Van Roten. As these guys learn to do the unsaid communications, those things will come naturally – there will be things that we don’t miss. Things that we don’t undercommunicate, we communicate better.”
But the communication is coming along nicely – with both Paradis and Williams missing most of spring workouts, they got a bit of a later start, but Paradis feels as if the camaraderie is starting to build and he likes the way the line is playing together as they hurtle towards the season opener against Aaron Donald and the Rams. Whether or not Cam Newton is ready for Week 1 after suffering a mid-foot sprain in New England and not practicing over the weekend, the line will have to give time to whichever quarterback is back there, whether it’s Newton or Kyle Allen.
“I think it’s going good, it’s something that we have to build – especially not getting to do all the stuff in spring,” said Paradis. “We’ve just got to work on that communication, everyone starts to get on the same page and then you start to trust each other more and work together.”
“That’s kind of a constant learning process, there’s always going to be some adjustments here and there between every player and how they want to block a certain look. I think that’s something that you get better at it, obviously, but there’s always some learning to do there.”
It’s a work in progress that’s not just the responsibility of the guys on the offensive line like Trai Turner, who inherited the leadership mantel – and the locker in the corner of the room – from Ryan Kalil after the man who occupied the center of the line for a dozen years has strapped on a different helmet.
It’s also about the coaching staff – and the players they’re going against in practice everyday.
“Matsko got them boys working,” said defensive tackle Kawann Short, who is doing the same thing on the defensive line as he and new addition Gerald McCoy get used to playing on the same line together. “Trai [Turner] is the leader in that room now and just to see his vocalization and [the] example that he puts on the field and on tape, those boys are starting to gel together.”
“It’s trickling down the line from Taylor to all the way to the other side. We’re helping those guys as much as they’re helping us.”
Ultimately, a learning experience in New England is just that – a learning experience in the preseason that the line can use to get better going forward – 17 reps among the 5,000 necessary to be ready for Week 1.
Now the line – and the rest of the Panthers – will get back on the practice fields to get more reps under their belt.
“The more we can practice,” repeated Rivera. “The more we can get those reps to those guys between now and [Week 1], the better off we’re going to be.”
