Things have gone very right for Panthers defensive tackle Kawann Short this week, with a five-year, $80.5 million contract freshly signed. Things didn’t go well for the Panthers last year.
So what happened? I asked Short during a Tuesday visit to PFT Live.
“We got ahead of ourselves,” Short said. “Just talking individually . . . we took that 2015 season and we ran with it into 2016 and that wasn’t the case. We needed to know that we need to start over in 2016 and start from the jump from day one and get back on the track.”
How hard was it for the Panthers to put 2015 behind them when 2016 started with a rematch in Denver of the last game from 2015?
“It was very hard, man,” Short said. “Wanted to beat those guys and we fell short at the last minute so that kicked us down a little more. It just fell downhill from there but you know we’ve got to know how to face adversity and jump back next week and realize it’s a whole new week next weekend, a whole new team we play against.”
I then asked Short something I’ve wondered about from time to time (yeah, I probably need a hobby): How differently would the season have gone, if the Panthers had won in Denver to start the season?
“That’s a great question,” Short said. “That’s something we won’t know but it could have and, you know, a lot of things happen like that. But we base it on, we should’ve came out the gate regardless being ready and being ready to play and focused. We went back and watched that tape. . . . We did a lot of things that we weren’t supposed to do. You know, everybody was out of their place, wasn’t doing their job, and we saw it on tape and you see why we fell short.”
The Panthers fell very short of the postseason in 2016. They now are hoping to turn things around dramatically in 2017. For more from Short, check out the video of his visit to the show.
