The Panthers are in good shape with their special teams unit he

ading into the 2019 season thanks to The Specialists."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Keep Sounding PodcastPanthers 2019 NFL DraftCSR Film RoomPanthers 2018 season review: Special teamsNew Replica Christian McCaffrey Jersey ,5commentsThe Panthers are in good shape with their special teams unit heading into the 2019 season thanks to The Specialists.ESTShareTweetShareSharePanthers 2018 season review: Special teamsThe Panthers’ 2018 season may not have turned out the way they wanted it to, but that wasn’t the fault of their special teams unit. (In fact, they beat the Giants in Week 5 thanks to a 63-yard field goal.) Because kickers and punters are everyone’s favorite topic to discuss, let’s take a closer look at what Graham Gano, Michael Palardy and J.J. Jansen offered the Panthers in 2018.KickerGano was the team’s kicker for the first 12 games of the season before suffering a season-ending knee injury. In those 12 games he was 14-for-16 in field goal attempts (87.5%) and 30-for-33 in extra point attempts (90.9%). One of his misses was from 30-39 yards while the other was from 50+. Gano’s most exciting kick in 2018 was the 63-yarder he nailed in the closing seconds to help the Panthers beat the Giants in Week 5.Gano injured his knee in practice before the Panthers’ Week 14 game against the Browns and was placed on injured reserve two weeks later. Chandler Catanzaro was signed to fill in for Gano over the final four weeks of the season. Catanzaro was 5-for-5 in field goal attempts and 7-for-8 in extra points in his four weeks with the Panthers.Heading into 2019 it’s Gano’s job to lose considering the amount of money the Panthers have tied into the position. I’m sure the coaching staff will bring someone into training camp to ‘push Gano’ during the preseason, but unless he injures himself or completely forgets how to kick a football it’s almost a guarantee that Gano will be the Panthers’ kicker in 2019.PunterPalardy was rewarded in 2018 with a three-year contract extension worth $7.5 million after setting a franchise record for net punting average in 2017.The Panthers will have Palardy’s services until the end of the 2021 season, so it’s safe to say that he will be dropping bombs for Carolina in 2019. While he’s no Brad Nortman, it’s nice that the Panthers have a quality punter who can flip the field if needed for the next few years.Long snapperJansen’s name doesn’t come up very often in discussions about the Panthers Stitched Christian McCaffrey Jersey , and that’s just the way he would like it. Normally, you don’t know who the long snapper is unless he’s really bad at his job, and the fact that you never see or hear anything about Jansen says a lot about how good he is at whippin’ the football back to Palardy. Jansen is under contract until 2020 at just over $1 million per year, so there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll be on the roster for the duration of the contract.What’s next?We shouldn’t expect to see any changes heading into the 2019 season. All three players are under reasonably affordable contracts (well, maybe not Gano... but he’s here whether we like it or not) and provided enough value in 2018 to keep them around for at least another year. Other than the minor issue of Gano being slightly overpaid, the Panthers are in good shape with their specialists. They have a good long snapper, a good punter and a good kicker. Hopefully that continues to be true in 2019 and beyond.Author’s note: Despite what Gano, Palardy and Jansen may have accomplished on the field in 2018 Baby Christian McCaffrey Jersey , nothing will ever top the moment they became The Specialists. Nothing. The Panthers defense wasn’t as strong in 2018 as it has been in years past."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Keep Sounding PodcastPanthers 2019 NFL DraftCSR Film RoomPanthers 2018 season review: The Panthers defenseNew,7commentsThe Panthers defense wasn’t as strong in 2018 as it has been in years past. ESTShareTweetShareSharePanthers 2018 season review: The Panthers defenseThe Panthers’ defense struggled in 2018. There are several reasons this was the case, and it’s hard to single out one thing to place the most blame on—whether it be injuries, lack of a pass rush, inconsistency in coaching, or just failed execution—the overall story of the 2018 Panthers defense is a sad one. Let’s dive into the details a bit and look back at what happened to the Panthers’ defense last season.Injuries in the secondaryThe Panthers signed cornerback Ross Cockrell and safety Da’Norris Searcy to shore up their secondary with veteran leadership, but unfortunately Cockrell broke his leg during training camp and Searcy sustained two concussions before the end of Week 2. Carolina also lost backup defensive back Kevon Seymour, who injured his shoulder during the preseason. All three players were placed in injured reserve and left the Panthers with a lack of depth on their roster in 2018. Due to so many injuries Best Christian McCaffrey Jersey , the Panthers had to rely on the tandem of James Bradberry and rookie Donte Jackson at cornerback, and brought in safety Eric Reid in free agency to fill the void left by Searcy’s absence. The secondary wasn’t the biggest failure of the defense in 2018, but if the Panthers would have been a bit luckier with the injury bug, things could have ended a lot differently in 2018 for Carolina’s defense.No pass rushNot only did the Panthers suffer from key injuries in the secondary, the front seven couldn’t generate pressure on the quarterback in 2018. This resulted in the defense giving up a lot of big plays by their opponents. The Panthers finished 2018 with 35 sacks, down from 2017’s total of 50. This lack of pressure put even more strain on an injury-riddled secondary, and the Panthers defense suffered because of it. Perhaps the most depressing part of the Panthers’ lack of sacks in 2018 was the fact that future Hall of Famer and Panthers GOAT Julius Peppers finished the season one half-sack shy of moving into third place all-time in sacks. (Peppers ended his career with 159.5 sacks, good enough for fourth all-time in NFL history.) It’s truly a shame that we didn’t get to witness a bit of history with Peppers getting one more sack Adult Christian McCaffrey Jersey , but on the other hand we should consider ourselves fortunate to have the privilege of watching him play for so long.Coaching carousel Ron Rivera fired two defensive coaches and stripped Eric Washington of his play-calling duties during the midst of the team’s losing streak in the second half of the season. Once Rivera took over as the de-facto defensive coordinator the team played much better, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to turn the season around. It turns out the defense wasn’t the only reason the Panthers ended 2018 with a losing record. While 2018 didn’t end the way we wanted, there’s a chance the future will be brighter for Carolina with Rivera planning to call the plays on defense again in 2019.What’s next?There’s a lot more to the 2018 Panthers defense than I’ve covered today. So much that it will take more than one column to dive into all the details. Here at CSR we’re going to spend this week taking a closer look at the Panthers’ defense in 2018, and we’re going to provide some intricate details on each position group during the next few days. If that’s something that interests you, stay tuned!