New York Giants Week 2: First Look at Panthers’ Defense

Let's get familiar with the names on the Carolina defense whom the Giants will liekly see this weekend.

The New York Giants started the 2022 season 1-0 after beating the Tennessee Titans and their vaunted defense, although the Giants did struggle with certain concepts the Titans threw at them. Specifically, the Titans found success when running stunts against the Giants' inexperienced offensive line (both as individuals and together as a unit).

What will the Carolina Panthers defense throw at the Giants? Let's get to know the key names and anticipate what we might see Sunday.

Personnel

The headliner of this Panthers defense is Brian Burns, the fourth-year edge rusher with one of the quickest first steps in the NFL. Burns lines up on either side of the defensive line for the Panthers and has the versatility to make plays consistently in pass or run defense.

In 2021 against the Giants, Burns had one sack, one quarterback hit, two hurries, and three run stops.

On the interior of the defensive line, Derrick Brown is the anchor that typically lines up either head up against the center or between the center and guard. Primarily thought of as a two-gapping player that just eats blocks to clear space for other defenders, Brown is also capable of pushing the pocket and making life uncomfortable for quarterbacks.

The Swiss army knife of the Panthers defense is Jeremy Chinn, third-year safety that lines up as an edge rusher, off-ball linebacker, nickel, and deep safety. Chinn is a jack-of-all-trades, master of none that is an elite athlete that, for safeties, is in the 95th percentile of height, 94th percentile of weight, 84th percentile 40-yard dash time, 95th percentile in the vertical jump, and 98th percentile in the broad jump.

That elite athleticism is used in Carolina's system and allows defensive coordinator Phil Snow to gameplan around Chinn’s usage, whether he needs to be used more as an extra rusher or as a tight end eraser in the passing game. As a run defender, Chinn is capable of causing problems for opposing running backs, and he rarely misses a tackle when he’s got a clean angle on the ball carrier.

On the outside, the Panthers have three cornerbacks that rotate as wide corners in Donte Jackson, Jaycee Horn, and C.J. Henderson. Speed and length is the name of the game outside for the Panthers. The starting corners are Jackson and Horn, with Henderson coming in to give them a break. Against the Browns, the trio allowed a combined nine catches and 72 yards on 14 targets.

The supporting cast isn’t as good as the top talent on the Panthers' defense, but players like Xavier Woods, Yetur Gross-Matos, Matt Ioannidis, and Shaq Thompson will play a majority of the snaps against the Giants. Woods has primarily played as a deep safety throughout his career and appears he’ll do the same for the Panthers' defense in his first year in Carolina.

Gross-Matos and Ioannidis are run defenders along the defensive line. Thompson was drafted to be an elite cover man but hasn’t lived up to his expectations, although he is still a great athlete for the position.

The weakest spot of this Panthers defense is easily linebackers Frankie Luvu and Damien Wilson, although Wilson often rotates out in nickel packages. Luvu has struggled throughout his five-year career, with a 21 percent missed tackle rate. Wilson is another Panthers linebacker who, throughout his career, has been a wildly inconsistent tackler.

Scheme

Schematically, the Panthers bread and butter is to show different fronts often and never let the opposition know who was lining up, regardless of who is on the field. In 2021, the Panthers used multiple defensive fronts featuring three, four, or even five players on the line of scrimmage.

One of the most effective formations that the Panthers like to run is a 5-1-5, meaning there are five players on the line of scrimmage, one off-ball linebacker, and five defensive backs. When the Panthers use this 5-1 front, they also call cover one often, leaving man-to-man coverage underneath with a single safety deep over the top.

The idea from Snow is that with the athletes the Panthers have in the secondary, they could play man coverage against most receivers. Up front, it’s incredibly difficult to block both Brian Burns and Derrick Brown with just one blocker, so the Panthers essentially think that if they can force one-on-ones, they will win those battles.

The best way to negate that is to keep tight ends and/or running backs in pass protection, which then allows the Panthers to put an additional defender in coverage underneath or rush the passer while the Giants have fewer receiving options on the field.

What Snow and the Panthers do more than any other team is operate out of a 3-3-5 defense. Snow was Matt Rhule’s defensive coordinator at Baylor, where they had arguably the best defense in the Big XII while running a 3-3-5.

With three down linemen, three athletic linebackers, and five athletic defensive backs, it allows the Panthers to keep the same personnel on the field but play a variety of coverages out of multiple fronts. In 2022, Luvu will be the off-ball linebacker that sometimes comes down to the edge.

The exotic fronts that the Panthers use under Snow allow them to drop defenders into coverage that aren’t traditional rushers and send blitzes that, if an offense doesn’t account for these rushers, can cause fits offensively. The Panthers specifically like to send their slot defender on the blitz, whether it’s Jaycee Horn or Jeremy Chinn.

What This Means for the Giants

In Week 1 against the Titans, the Giants found success running the ball towards the outside, and the Panthers gave up those same kinds of explosive runs against the Cleveland Browns. Could that be the Panthers in Week 1 trying to find their rhythm? Absolutely, but the fact remains that whether or not containing outside runs falls on chemistry and rhythm, the Panthers were atrocious as tackles in space.

The Panthers had the most missed tackles in the NFL against the run in Week 1 (15). Saquon Barkley forced four missed tackles against the Titans; Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb forced 11. If Barkley gets to the second level, this could be another week where he has some gashing runs.

The focal point for the Giants should be to get the ball to playmakers that can make defenders miss because the Panthers are going to overpursue or just generally operate with poor technique as tacklers. Barkley, Sterling Shepard, and Kadarius Toney should all make the most of whatever opportunities they may get this week.

Expect to see 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers) often again, as that seems to be what Brian Daboll wants to do offensively. Attacking the middle of the field should be a priority for the Giants in this one, both because of the lack of coverage ability from the Panthers linebackers and the possibility to make big plays after the catch.

The Giants should work more RPOs into the game plan this week against a defense that will occasionally leave the slot open with a Blitzer, so bubble screens and quick slants could be an easy completion to make the Panthers pay.

Final Thoughts

Going into Week 1, the Titans defense was worrisome at every level, but that’s not the case this week. This Panthers defense knows how to maximize its talent, but the issue is that the talent isn’t there at every level.

As long as the Giants can create explosive plays again, which is very much on the table, they should be able to find success against the Panthers. Failure to adjust to the exotic fronts the Panthers will show could make this an incredibly difficult game for the Giants.

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