Fox Q&A

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/football/nfl/carolina_panthers/14219241.htm

 

in other words, Davis is now a LB (now good to know, should be interesting to see if we target another 220 lb SS), but not necessarily a WLB.



Certainly sounds like they plan to have Seward outside, and it makes sense to have Seward at SLB, Davis at WLB if we stay where we are, but the chances are seeminlgly as good that we look for a WLB as a SLB.
He pretty much outlines the OL the way you'd expect him to, as well.

 

I am glad to see Davis moving up, for obvious reasons. Though Fox says that the safeties are interchangable, does this change where Minter starts the season?

 

they're interchangeable. Doesn't mean they're doing the exact same thing every play, that's responsibility not interchangeability; but that's beside the point. I'd rather have Minter in there at FS, because he's a bad matchup v/s the TE; Branch and Williams in at SS, even though Branch can't tackle well, is a better matchup, Williams especially. I'd like another bigger matchup guy, but they're hard to come by; considering that Fox started Williams at FS, he's not afraid of a big guy in there at that spot. I like that, though you'd rather have him match to the TE.
I'd take a good zone FS instead, but we need one or the other. In a year, the only guy under contract is Minter, and we'll have to have a replacement ready for the other spot if not for Minter himself.

 

Seifert must have had a drastically different view of the free safety. He was constantly trying to find that guy who could cover like a corner back. Fox does not seem to care much if his free safety can cover well or not.

 

I can't wait to see the speed of these backers behind the strength of Jenks and Kemo (provided they stay healthy).

 

Well, the two don't really differ that much philosophically in coverage and disguising coverage - hell, the approach is basically the same, in the Trgo-led defenses. The Ss were interchangeable there, and here, but yeah, Grant played more of a true FS in zone, and could cover in man. I thought that was kinda awesome personally, but in that defense, we didn't have enough talent developed up front to really take advantage and had to play a lot of zone.

 

Grant is not the only guy I am thinking of as far as Seifert trying to get a cover safety. Rashard Anderson was going to be a free safety for a while too. When you think of his teams with the 49ers you think of Merton Hanks at free safety.

In retrospect we probably should have kept Grant. I did not think he was that great when he was here but we have not been able to replace him adequately. If we had re-signed him and let Minter walk when his deal was up we would be in better shape now.

 

I agree that Grant has not been replaced. I also believe that 2005 was one of our best years, in terms of covering the deep halves of the field. There were a couple of big ones (Arizona game comes to mind, as well as the NFCCG), but we defended the deep ball well last year. We did not defend it as well in 2003, IMO. It's never been terrible (at least under Fox), but it's varied each year.

 

Different scheme, way different front seven. Fox seems to rely more on pressure up front to protect his safeties. And yeah -- Seifert seemed to me to want to rely more on the back seven, especially the back four.