Panthers Focus on Retooling Special Teams

Shapecity · Jun 7, 2009

CHARLOTTE -- All offseason, Carolina Panthers special teams coach Danny Crossman heard about how the team had 21 of 22 starters back.

All he could do was laugh — it beats crying — because the opposite's true for his unit.

Crossman's running a reclamation project this season, trying to replace a veteran long snapper and returner with rookies and otherwise rebuild a phase of the game that had built decent results.

“Everybody always says that's the big number,” Crossman said with a grin at the mention of the offensive and defensive starters returning. “I say ‘Wait a second, no we don't.'”

With the Panthers tight against the salary cap because of using the franchise tag on Julius Peppers, the special teams were the area affected the most. They had no cap room to make an offer to return man Mark Jones, and longtime snapper Jason Kyle's still waiting for something that might not materialize.

Crossman's also facing the prospect of replacing his top three tacklers from last year, as Richard Marshall won't be as available now that he's a starting cornerback and Nick Goings and Donte Curry are gone.

“There will be growing pains like there always are,” Crossman said.

Special teams gets rebuilt every so often anyway, but this season has brought a bigger turnover than most.

Losing Goings, Curry and Marshall at once is crushing, since they made up more than a third of the team's tackle total. Marshall, a fast and tenacious player, will particularly be missed on the outside of all four main phases (return and coverage on both kickoffs and punts). Goings and Curry got by on smarts more than speed or strength, but someone's going to have to fill their roles.

“A guy like Nick, when you started, people didn't give him a chance,” Crossman said. “But he had a great understanding, was smart, was always in the right position for so many years that allowed him to make so many plays. A lot of more talented people came through, but he was always a more productive player. Same with Donte Curry. For being the last guy down the field he makes the most tackles, because he had a great understanding of what we were doing, what the opponent was doing and he found a way to make plays.

“Hopefully, we have some guys who have either been here and find a way to take it to the next level, or these young guys who find out this is my way of getting stuff done.”

It doesn't take a long look at what's going on in summer school to see who he's thinking of.

Marshall's still going to have some role, but may fall off kick coverage since he'll immediately have to play defense. But between Dante Wesley (the only returning player with double-digit special teams tackles) and rookies such as Sherrod Martin and Captain Munnerlyn, Crossman hopes to maintain some of the same speed and physical play. Martin in particular needs to become that kind of player, especially in the short term.

Goings and Curry could be replaced by rookie fullback Tony Fiammetta and linebacker Dan Connor, who spent most of last year on injured reserve. Connor was being counted on last year, before he suffered an ACL tear covering a kickoff (though he ran down another one before leaving his last game), at which point Curry rejoined the roster.

Perhaps the biggest question mark they have is how to replace Kyle (who might return if they find salary cap room). They traded a conditional 2010 seventh-round pick to Green Bay for J.J. Jansen, and added undrafted rookie Nick Sundberg and Canadian import Patrick MacDonald for competition. If none of them prove trustworthy, there's a chance the 37-year-old Kyle comes back, but they're looking for younger and cheaper replacements now.

It's likely that two will go to Spartanburg (Jansen and Sundberg seem most likely), but Crossman acknowledged they better decide quickly, so holder/punter Jason Baker gets to know the new guy.

“It's well documented the situation we were in,” Crossman said. “We let some quality people go. In my perfect world, we'd have a lot of those people back, but that's just the nature of this beast. All those guys have some positive attributes, but what they haven't done is the heat of the battle.
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Source: Herald

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Panthers Focus on Retooling Special Teams

Shapecity S2/JBB Teamster Staff Member Administrator

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Panthers Focus on Retooling Special Teams

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