Ejiro Evero Talks Panthers' Front Seven, Challenges Atlanta Presents + More

Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero met with the media to preview this week's game against the Atlanta Falcons.

How Brian Burns looked at practice and if he expects him to play on Sunday

"He looked great and we'll just take that day-by-day."

First impressions of Justin Houston

"Oh, he's a stud. He's a professional, first of all. He comes to work every day, do the work, takes care of his body, and studies. He's great in meetings, great on the field. He's another coach on the field and he still has a lot of ability left in his body."

Why Shy Tuttle is the best option at nose

We're always looking for the best combinations. I would say this, the nose is important but so are the ends and so is everybody [else]. Our interior three guys specifically, we're not really asking our nose to play dramatically different than our ends. The techniques carry over and at the end of the day, you want guys that are versatile. You don't want to be limited by guys who can only play one spot."

LaBryan Ray and Nick Thurman

"They've done a great job. They've gotten better. It's kind of fortunate and unprecedented to find guys that late that make the team and are going to be big-time contributors. Coach [Todd] Wash has done a great job with them. They play the way we want to play. They stay square, they head blocks, and their football acumen has continued to grow within our system. We're excited about them."

Thoughts on the Atlanta offense

"The coach is outstanding. I think they have a very challenging scheme. They got good players all over the place. Obviously, we know they're going to run the ball. Everything says that. But they've got really good skill players and the quarterback [Desmond Ridder] has done a really good job as a second-year player continuing to grow, so it's going to be a great challenge."

Game planning for someone like Cordarrelle Patterson

"Yeah, I mean, they've got a couple of them. Patterson, the young man from Texas [Bijan Robinson], [Tyler] Allgeier is a really good back. They got good receivers. [Kyle] Pitts fits in a bunch of different molds, so they've got a bunch of guys that can do a lot of different things."

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