Panthers Wide Receiver Group is 'Under Construction'
A couple of years ago, former Panthers head coach Matt Rhule told reporters that the team's offensive line was "under construction" similar to I-85. And he was right. The line was in bad shape and needed a ton of work, including adding some new pieces.
On Thursday, new Panthers wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson used the same term. However, it's not because he believes this group doesn't have enough talent. It's more so about finding out how to use all the pieces to maximize the potential of the passing game.
"We are a group that's under construction right now. That means everybody. We're under construction," Jefferson said. "We're trying to get the offense implemented, so we're in the building process -- the land-clearing process phase here. Everybody right now is in learning mode and trying to get used to what we want them to do. We're finding out what guys can do. It's part of our job as coaches to put it out there and see what these guys can do, then we can start building the blocks of how we want them, plug them in where we want them to be, and where they fit best according to their talent skillset."
The one thing Jefferson is doing in this phase of the offseason is inserting guys in different spots, even some places they're not used to playing. It's how you find not only the right mix of who you want on the field but where. For example, DJ Chark has had a solid career as a X/Z receiver but he may get a couple of reps in the slot just to see what he can do. By doing this, you may discover that a player could raise his level of production simply by lining up in a different spot.
But it's not just about creating individual production. It's also to keep defenses guessing.
"We want to be different. We don't want to be just stagnant with people where people can just say, okay, they're going to play here or there. I want to move these guys around because it's an advantage to us. We're all about putting stress on the defense. If we got these guys in multiple positions, they don't know who's getting this ball. What defenses typically do is they say he's the 'X', he's the 'Z', they see these types of formations then they're doing that. But we don't want to do that. We want to be multiple. We want to cause some stress to the defense."
With Adam Thielen, DJ Chark, Terrace Marshall Jr., Jonathan Mingo, Laviska Shenault, and Damiere Byrd, there's a lot of opportunity for Jefferson to get creative and do exactly what he set out to do - confuse the defense.
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