SI

47. Kawann Short, DT, Panthers

Kawann Short is an example of how one guy can wreck an entire passing offense with his mere presence. 
Doug Farrar|
47. Kawann Short, DT, Panthers
47. Kawann Short, DT, Panthers

Short was weighed down by questions about his motor coming out of college, and he proved that those concerns were completely off-base. Short played most of the defensive snaps at Purdue, which will wear a lot of young tackles down, but he shined once he got into Ron Rivera’s defense in Carolina. He broke out in 2015, amassing 13 sacks and 81 total pressures through the Panthers’ dominant run to the Super Bowl. As with all interior defenders, Short is about far more than his sacks. Just watch the first half of this year’s divisional round win over the Seahawks, and you’ll see how one guy can wreck an entire passing offense with his mere presence. Short will occasionally lose leverage when he’s too high in his stance, but he’s amazing in pursuit for his size, and he gets a surprising number of his sacks with open-field speed and second-level determination.

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.

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