Carolina Panthers head coach Ron Rivera wanted to make some changes to his defensive philosophy following last season.
According to Steve Reed of the Associated Press, Rivera realized that his 4-3 base defense needed some additional wrinkles to attempt to counter the types of offensive attacks that are becoming more common across the NFL.
“The biggest thing is that we are playing so many multiple style offenses that you just can’t line up and let them attack you,” Rivera said.
The addition of Gerald McCoy on Monday, draftees Brian Burns and Christian Miller, and veteran linebacker Bruce Irvin earlier in free agency should help Rivera accomplish his vision. It’s one thing to want to have a scheme geared toward accomplishing a certain task. The Panthers also needed to have the pieces capable of enacting the game plans.
However, Rivera did add some adjustments to Carolina’s defense in spots last season after assuming the play-calling duties and was pleased with the limited sample of results.
“In the middle of the year I started doing some different things, and I saw that every time we did some of those things positive things happened,” Rivera said.
McCoy has the ability to play as a standard defensive tackle in Rivera’s traditional 4-3 sets while being an option as an end in packages that incorporate more 3-4 principles. Aaron Donald successfully adapted from a 4-3 role to 3-4 scheme when the Rams hired Wade Phillips as defensive coordinator and Rivera could look to copy some of Phillips’ ideas to best utilize his new addition.
“He’s a guy we would love to have here to be a part of what we’re doing,” Rivera said before McCoy agreed to sign with the team. “He’s going through the process so we are waiting to see what the outcome is going to be.”
McCoy should also help make Rivera’s changes on defense that much easier to accomplish.
