It’s hard to make much of preseason football for many reasons – the top half of the depth chart sees limited snaps, much of the playbooks is off-limits and oftentimes the players they are facing won’t be on the field on Sundays come the regular season. With that being said, for the rookies hoping to see the field for the Panthers in September and beyond, there isn’t much else to go on against live NFL competition. So, how did the Panthers’ rookies fare against the Billls?
DJ Moore
It’s hard to judge receivers and defensive backs without the All-22 film that is only made available for the regular season, but there were certainly things to like from Moore against the Bills. On a couple of plays, he showed the run after catch ability that was talked about so much on draft night, leading to a first down in the red zone in turn leading to a CJ Anderson touchdown. Moore also showed a nice ability to track the ball in the air and separate at the catch point on a deep ball down the sideline. It would be foolish to jump to conclusions after what is, at most, one half of football, but Moore certainly looked about as promising as could have been expected.
Donte Jackson
Without Bradberry on the field, Jackson paired with Seymour as the starting outside corner in what is likely a direct competition for the second corner spot. Of those two, Jackson emerged the clear winner, with the only reception he allowed being a sideline grab by Benjamin on a scramble drill. Jackson will, of course, need to continue to develop as the season goes on and he would do well to adjust how much he trusts his speed from defender to defender, but he is another rookie who has played well enough to merit extended playing time going into the regular season.
Rashaan Gaulden
As a safety who spent almost all of his time on the field in deep single-high coverage, it is extremely hard to make any kind of statement about Gaulden’s play based on the tape available. With that being said, he didn’t appear to make any glaring errors or spectacular plays. This is very much a case of to-be-continued.
Ian Thomas
While hardly the most nuanced evaluation, Ian Thomas has looked like he belonged in the NFL all training camp and did so once again against the Bills. He was unlucky to have one catch overturned on review and another brought back by a penalty, but he showed the kind of flashes one would be hoping to see in a developmental pick. Thomas is definitely somebody who could be contributing earlier and in a more significant way than many would have expected when he was picked.
Marquis Haynes
Haynes is a player who needs to have a role created specifically for his skill set, something the Panthers seemed to be aware of when they drafted him, given the comments made in the immediate aftermath; unfortunately, that isn’t what it looked like against the Bills. Of course, with the playbook being reduced during the preseason, the Panthers could simply be hiding their hand when it comes to their plan for Haynes, but using him as you would any other defensive end is unlikely to end well. On a more technical side, he needs to test his pure speed more as this is what sets him apart as a defender – only when he has got the tackle going backwards should be looked to work back inside; whatever he does, he needs to commit to. In the run game, Haynes looked completely out of his depth as a hand-in-the-ground defender; either the Panthers need to only have him on the field on obvious passing downs or they need to find another way to use him on these downs as he got completely overwhelmed by even the depth tackles he was going against. Haynes has looked really good in individual drills throughout training camp and there is still a lot of time before the regular season, but the Bills game was not a good one for him.
Jermaine Carter
Carter certainly made a mark against the Bills, having a sack and a couple of pressures as a blitzer while showing the athleticism that the Panthers’ depth linebackers have lacked in recent years. There were a couple of plays to cause some hesitation – most notably some issues with maintaining gap discipline when teams pulled away from his side of the field; but there was certainly a lot to like.
Kendrick Norton
Norton had a solid game against the Bills, clogging up running lanes and getting push in the passing game. He still has a tendency to get quite high, allowing blockers to negate his power; but for a seventh-round pick, this was a more than solid game. However, with Kyle Love ahead of him on the depth chart, Norton will need to be more than solid for the rest of the preseason if he wants to secure a roster spot.
Brendan Mahon
Mahon came into the preseason as an undrafted free agent with about as much chance of making the final roster as any other UDFA; a month in and he’s in the running to start at left guard, helped by a couple of injuries of course, and the Bills game was a great opportunity for him to demonstrate why he deserves that role. He didn’t disappoint. He did have a couple of slightly nervous snaps to start, but from there showed the hand usage and body control that has allowed him to grow into a dark horse starting candidate. In the run game, he showed the ability to be effective on both zone and power plays, using hand usage and body control to great effect. On this next play, the Panthers are running a simple zone read, with the jet sweep likely being a pre-snap read – Mahon doubles the tackle before kicking onto the linebacker to create an inside running lane and then, when the linebacker looks to get back to the QB run, Mahon is waiting to seal off the back side of the play (he’s wearing 63):
Whereas here he is asked to make a reach block on the one-tech, and not only does he use his agility and hand usage to get an inside arm on the tackle and his body in place to prevent penetration, but he also uses that strong arm and his superior pad level to drive his defender five yards down the field:
In pass protection, he showed his usual good hand technique, as shown on this next play where he gets inside hand position on the defender who is completely negated as a pass rusher:
The play that really stood out was the following play, where he does a similar job of getting control of his defender, only to see Clausell getting beat inside next to him. Rather than simply sticking to making his block, Mahon punches his man away from him, allowing him to disengage while giving Clausell time to recover, before shifting to block the defensive end, whom he again takes out of the play with good lateral movement, balance and his typically excellent hand usage:
This is a truly excellent play from any guard, let alone a rookie. This willingness to help off of his initial blocks is something that Trai Turner has as well, which the Panthers have used to take pressure off other offensive linemen, though I can’t remember even Turner helping across two blocks as Mahon does on the following play:
There are some things that Mahon could do slightly better, such as avoiding getting higher as passing plays go on, but if he continues to play like this, it will be very hard for the coaching staff to keep him off the field come the regular season.
Taylor Hearn
After Mahon, Hearn was the next in line to receive snaps at guard and while he did have some nice reps, he also had some real issues, especially in pass protection. He needs to avoid leaning into blocks quite so much, and could tighten up his hand usage as well – it should be noted that, as with all the players here, these assessments are made based off a very limited number of snaps.
There are, of course, other rookies currently on the Panthers’ roster, but all of the others received limited meaningful snaps, either due to their position on the depth chart or injury. As the preseason goes on, these players will likely have many more chances to impress coaches and fans alike, starting with this Friday against the Dolphins. No battles are won or lost in the first preseason game, but we’ll continue to keep our eyes on the rookies as move forward..
