The Carolina Panthers’ defense had a lot of problems last season. To make a very long and agonizing story short, their pass rushers couldn’t get consistent pressure on the quarterback, their defensive backs couldn’t cover long enough to make up for it and the unit as a whole did not tackle particularly well.
According to Pro Football Focus, Carolina graded out as only the 23rd-best tackling team in the NFL last season. That put them second in the NFC South, but still a very long drop down from the Saints, who ranked fourth in the league in team tackling grades.
On the bright side, the unit showed a lot of improvement in tackling and every other aspect of the game once head coach Ron Rivera took over defensive play-calling late in the season.
Rivera is now locked in as the team’s de facto defensive coordinator, so they should have a better chance to hit the ground running in 2019.
