What’s Going On At Nickel?
With Tre Boston seeing the first team snaps at free safety against the Bills, the final question mark for the Panthers’ starting defense this preseason is at nickel. Corn Elder got the nod last week against the Bills, and while he didn’t make any huge plays, he also didn’t make any horrendous errors. However, while Jermaine Carter and Andre Smith were the primary victims of the Bills attack of the slot, Elder was also caught playing quite soft in coverage on a couple of occasions and it would be hard to say based on that performance that the role is his going forward.
The other options with a realistic chance of winning the role are Javien Elliott and Cole Luke, with Rashaan Gaulden mainly seeing snaps at big nickel and Ross Cockrell and Kevon Seymour likely being used primarily as outside cornerback depth. Both Elliott and Luke got a reasonable amount of playing time against the Bills, but neither stood out massively – this is something that is comparatively hard to do as a defensive back during the preseason – but given the way the Panthers seem willing to still rotate between the three of them, it seems as though no clear favorite has emerged among the coaches either.
Defensive back isn’t a position which tends to come down to a couple of plays made during the preseason, as players need to be able to cover down-in and down-out, but if one player appears to be getting routinely thrown at successfully, that is generally not a great indication of their chances of winning the starting nickel role, and with it likely the ninth and final defensive back spot on the roster.
Who Makes The Roster As Skill Position Depth?
Chris Manhertz appears to be under limited threat of losing his spot to any of the tight ends the Panthers brought in throughout the offseason, and while Alex Armah’s spot is somewhat less secure due to the general decline of the fullback position, if the Panthers do carry a fullback – which they likely will – it will almost certainly be him. Similarly, Ian Thomas, Greg Olsen, Christian McCaffrey, Curtis Samuel, DJ Moore and Jarius Wright are all-but-assured of their roster spots, but the depth at both running back and wide receiver is far, far less certain.
At running back, there seems to be two or maybe three spots available between Artis-Payne, Bonnafon, Scarlett and Holyfield, with all four players getting a reasonable amount of exposure against the Bills. Scarlett got the most carries of the four, but also managed the fewest yards-per-carry – still a very respectable 4.4. Artis-Payne is by far the most experienced of the four, and the most known entity, but is also a poor fit with McCaffrey. If nobody else impresses, he is likely to be the default option, but he also has the least chance of changing his headline at this point.
Stylistically, Bonnafon is the most unique of the four, as he is much more of a legitimate receiving option; as evidenced by his four receptions for 32 yards against the Bills – while he hasn’t had the largest rushing workload so far this offseason, he is averaging a very healthy ypc average, even if this is somewhat inflated by being used a lot on draws when working behind the chains. If the Panthers want to have somebody who can replicate what McCaffrey can do in the passing game, or even get close to it, then Bonnafon is the obvious choice.
Conversely, Holyfield and Scarlett both offer the Panthers more of a downhill running option, with it being hard to separate the two players to this point. The Panthers only ran the ball 21 times against the Bills – by contrast, they dropped back to pass close to 50 times – it’s going to be hard to really evaluate the running back options until they give them enough of a sample size of carries to make any strong statements; if they do look to run the ball more against the Patriots, that should be a real opportunity for one or more of this group to make their mark.
At receiver, it is likely that Chris Hogan and Torrey Smith stand above the rest in the pecking order, but with the likes of Aldrick Robinson, Terry Godwin, Jaydon Mickens and Rashad Ross all vying for the final roster spot or two, a strong couple of weeks from any of these players could be enough to push them over the edge and onto the final roster. Of course, as with the running backs, each of the players can only make the best of the situations they are put in, and the poor play of the depth quarterbacks certainly hasn’t helped – but for those currently on the outside looking in, a strong pair of performances to end the preseason could go a long, long way.
