What WFT Needs To Know About the Panthers

ASHBURN, Va. -- The Carolina Panthers stroll into FedExField Sunday with nothing to play for except to ruin their former head coach and coaching staff's post-Christmas celebration.

They're 4-10 and play almost every game tight, including a loss to the Green Bay Packers last Saturday night at Lambeau.

Matt Rhule replaced Ron Rivera as the head coach of the Panthers and that's where we started with colleague Schuyler Callihan of "All Panthers" on Fan Nation & SI.com - with seven questions and a touchdown's worth of answers.

How would you evaluate Matt Rhule?

SC: I think Matt Rhule has done a phenomenal job with this young group despite the record. The young defense has continued to improve week after week and is doing so with an injury-riddled lineup. I felt like he was the perfect man for this gig in Carolina because he has the blueprint to turning programs around. Both Temple and Baylor were in extremely bad spots and jobs that no one wanted when he took over.

It may take some time, but I believe he is off to a great start and is on the right track to building a winning culture in Carolina.

Were you surprised by how the Marty Hurney era ended?

SC: Hurney just had too many mistakes that he never learned from. He has a bad history of re-signing/extending guys at the end of their prime and it was one of the main reasons why the Panthers accumulated so much dead cap space. Team owner David Tepper wants a modern era GM that uses data and analytics alongside traditional scouting. Hurney did his best, but he just wasn't a good fit for how the team wants to evaluate moving forward.

The biggest knock on Hurney was his inability to draft productive players past the first round. He has done a really good job with those first-round selections, but he has a high rate of misses in rounds 2-7.

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Why have the Panthers been so close but come up short?

SC: Carolina has lost eight of their 10 games by one score. This group plays with a lot of effort throughout the entirety of the game, even if you think the game is out of reach. It goes back to my first point in why I believe Rhule is the right guy. He gets players to buy in and they play hard for him.

The biggest reason they haven't been able to come out on top of some of these one-score games, in my opinion, is because of the lack of pass protection from the offensive line late in games. It seems like in every Panther loss, they have the ball at the end of the game with a chance to win but the o-line breaks down, bonehead penalties back them up, or Teddy Bridgewater starts to press and makes bad decisions with the football. It's what young teams do and right now, they're just trying to learn how to win.

How's Teddy Bridgewater evolved in his first season in Carolina?

SC: Teddy has a very quick release and is accurate on his underneath/intermediate throws. He has a pretty good feel for the offense but sometimes he tries to do too much. We saw this last week when the Panthers had the ball 1st and goal at the Green Bay 1-yard line. The call was a QB sneak and he reached the ball over the top to try to get a touchdown but fumbled the ball and the Packers recovered.

That's a mistake that you can live with on 4th down trying to score, but not 1st down. I think he feels the pressure of the offensive struggles and desperately wants to put an end to it.

A triple threat at receiver?

SC: DJ Moore is really evolving into a special talent. He doesn't get the recognition he deserves because he's been on a losing team but he should be considered one of the best young receivers in the game.

Robby Anderson was always labeled as a deep-ball threat but has proven in his first 14 games with the Panthers that he is much more than that. The Panthers have opened up his game and utilize him in more ways than the Jets did over the last four seasons.

As for Curtis Samuel, well, that's a guy that will earn a major payday this offseason, The only problem is, I don't know that Carolina will be able to retain both he and right tackle Taylor Moton who is also in a contract year. Samuel has developed into a very reliable receiver, becoming Bridgewater's security blanket on 3rd down. He can also lineup in the backfield at running back and provide a spark in the running game, which only adds to his value.

The matchup fear for Carolina?

SC: The Panthers have had to play quite a few games without Russell Okung and quite frankly, are pretty used to it by this point. With that said, Washington's defensive line has a clear advantage and should have a field day on this inconsistent Carolina offensive line.

We've seen several games where Teddy Bridgewater is running for his life against much weaker defensive lines than Washington's and I wouldn't be surprised if that front seven lives in Carolina's backfield all day long.

What about special teams? Could that be a factor?

SC: I think two areas Matt Rhule would like to see cleaned up in these final two games of the regular season is all aspects of the special teams unit and fewer penalties.

Holding calls are going to happen from time to time, but pre-snap penalties have become a problem for Carolina on both sides of the ball. The coverage units have been pretty solid, but the specialists have been up and down from one game to the next.

The Panthers have brought in several kickers and punters for workouts over the last month or so to try and give Joey Slye and Joseph Charlton some competition.