The Carolina Panthers will enter the 2019 season with a number of roster holes.

Julius Peppers is 38 and Father Time will catch up at some point. Wes Horton was largely invisible this year. Efe Obada is promising but raw. Thankfully Youth Ian Thomas Jersey , the Panthers will still have Mario Addison, a player who over the last three seasons has established himself was one of the NFL’s most consistently effective sack artists. But despite his effective play, Addison remains one of the league’s most underrated and underappreciated players. Addison’s sick statsMario’s 29.5 sacks between 2016 and 2018 ranks No. 10 in the NFL. This puts Addison above more nationally celebrated players like Joey Bosa (28.5), Geno Atkins (28.0), Jason Pierre-Paul (28.0), Cameron Wake (28.0), Everson Griffen (26.0), and Demarcus Lawrence (26.0). Each of these players have been Pro Bowlers at least once in their careers while Mario Addison has never earned that recognition. One of the reasons why Addison tends to fly under the national radar is because he is almost boringly consistent. Over the last three years his season sack totals have been 9.5 in 2016, 11.0 in 2017, and 9.0 in 2018. While he’s never had the eye-popping 14 sack type of a season to generate national buzz, he’s been consistently solid year after year. Only seven players registered at least 9.0 sacks in each of the last three seasons: Mario Addison, Von Miller, Khalil Mack Authentic Ryan Kalil Jersey , Geno Atkins, Ryan Kerrigan, Chandler Jones, and Frank Clark. Where’s the love?Despite his consistently strong play over the last three years Addison still flies under the national radar. Remember, he’s an eight-year veteran who has played in seven playoff games between 2013 and 2017, including Super Bowl 50. He’s a teammate of Cam Newton and Luke Kuechly and plays for a franchise that normally appears in a couple of nationally televised games each year.One way to evaluate the national attention a player gets is to simply look at the number of Twitter followers he has. When compared to the “9.0 sacks club” listed above, Addison’s 19,600 Twitter followers are dwarfed by his peers such as Von Miller (444k followers), Khalil Mack (228k), Chandler Jones (225k), Ryan Kerrigan (131k), Geno Atkins (100k), and even Frank Clark (48k).Yes Authentic Luke Kuechly Jersey , Frank Clark has more than twice as many Twitter followers as Mario Addison.Don’t be surprised if Mario reaches double digits in sacks in 2019. He will be entering the final season of his 3-year, $22.5 million deal and a dominant campaign will only help with free agency looming. Hopefully the defense around Super Mario will be improved next year (more pressure up front, better secondary behind), freeing him up to keep punishing opposing quarterbacks. As Panthers fans we know we’ve got one of the NFL’s better pass rushers in Mario Addison. Let’s hope a dominant 2019 helps the rest of the world figure it out as well.Tuesday Turtle Spotlight: There are better ways to kill the clock The Carolina Panthers had a mixed day for what was ultimately a promising win against a solid Cincinnati Bengals team. Fortunately, their tendency for dangerously conservative game management didn’t show itself until the game was likely out of reach. Read on to see why traditional, supposedly conservative, play calling is actually one of the riskier habits of the Carolina coaching staff.First, let’s start with what Rivera did well. He elected to attempt a 4th and 4 on the Cincinnati 40. Cam Newton’s pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage on a great play by Carlos Dunlap, but I support the decision to be aggressive with that down and distance and that field position. Rivera’s defense, who really pulled it together in the second half, rewarded the gamble by turning the ball back around with a quick three and out that only saw them advance the ball three yards.Rivera used to often cite trust in his defense when asked about punting in these situations. It is nice to see his original faith reward and support this new philosophy of trying to win games.Unsurprisingly, there is still a little more leaf left to turn over. Rivera has done an admirable job in the last two weeks of taking the kinds of risks that win games. He did make a mistake, however Authentic Greg Olsen Jersey , in trying to run the clock down while playing for a field goal in a one possession game. All a play has to do keep the clock rolling is finish in bounds. As far as the clock is concerned, a sack is as good as a run. The Panthers had reason to put faith in their running game, to be fair. McCaffrey ended up with 184 yards on the day. That was great. The Panthers also ran the ball six straight plays on that final drive and the Bengals saw it coming every time. That was not great. By the time the Bengals used their last timeout, the Panthers had a 2nd and 9 from the Bengals 24 with 2:26 left in the game. A sack here wouldn’t necessarily put them out of Graham Gano’s range and, at the same time, a field goal from that very spot is no guarantee with him.The Panthers elected to keep the ball on the ground. Two runs from McCaffrey got them through the two minute warning and gained two yards. They also forced the Panthers to a 40 yard field goal.Gano converted and made a two score deficit that Bengals couldn’t erase in the time they had left. It would have been a very different game if he had missed. Another first down after the two minute warning would have ended the game, no kicks required. A sack would have resulted in a slightly longer field goal. An interception would have likely hurt the Panthers as much as a missed kick. Gano, in his career, has missed 19.4% of his field goals from a distance between 40 and 49 yards. Cam Newton has thrown an interception on 2.7% of his pass attempts. Risking a passing attempt or two would have been worth it to try to get the first down and end the game with the ball in Newton’s hands.Passing is how offenses work in the modern NFL. The Bengals were ready for a run on every down in that situation. Rivera (or possibly offensive coordinator Norv Turner) elected to turtle up and keep the ball “safely” on the ground. Instead of trying to win, coaching decisions again increased their opponent’s chances of winning at the end of the game.I want to be clear about this. We are talking about very low odds for the Bengals to come back. But we’ve seen it before. I would be using much stronger words right now if Gano had missed his kick. He didn’t and the Panthers won. Sometimes the wrong call works out anyway. The point of this column isn’t to call the coaches bad or to say that they should take big risks on every down and in every situation. I’m just here to point out the small moments that have turned games in the past. So far this season, Rivera has shown marked improvement in his decision making in these situations. He seems to be actually bucking some of his by-the-book principles on game day. I think that is great. The book he was raised on is older than the rules that govern the modern game. It seems like Rivera is learning to adapt so that he can survive.