Ron Rivera Voices His Opinion About the Panthers Very Risky Secondary Moves
Just a year ago the Panthers had one of the best secondaries in the NFL. Now it appears they have reached rock bottom with several controversial roster moves. Players continue to get dropped and reused as part of Gettleman's recycle plans.
So far the Panthers have allowed the seventh most passing yards. They ranked 6th of 32 in points against them last season (via Pro Football Reference). The Panthers are averaging 8.6 yards per attempt.
Ron Rivera has continued to emphasize that they want to go for younger talent which is why they released Bene Benwikere who is 25, for practice squad players. Rivera is known for the famous phrase, "the talent is on the roster." Is it really? There hasn't been a whole lot of talent to show for this season. So far the Panthers have given up Josh Norman, Benwikere, Finnegan, Harper and McClain.
"We had two veterans -- Robert McClain and Bene Benwikere," said Rivera, Via BlackandBlueReview.com. "Again, it was a little big of a roll of the dice, I guess. We felt good about (James) Bradberry and didn't expect him to get hurt. So it's one of the tough things right now[....]"
Rivera is thinking that fixing the pass rush is the first priority to helping the struggling secondary. Carolina has just 12 sacks right now and Kony Ealy has yet to record one sack. He performed very well during last years playoffs, which comes as a big surprise.
"Well, that's probably the biggest disappointment is we haven't had the production we would have liked out of the front," said Rivera. "The front has done a nice job. We've done a good job stopping the run, but that is not what's killing us."
