Kelvin Benjamin Will Unintentionally Cause The Panthers To Have A Setback In 2016
Even though many NFL fans and experts expect the Carolina Panthers to take the next step and win the super bowl there is a realistic possibility that Kelvin Benjamin will unintentionally cause the team to have a setback. This is because during last season, the Panthers ran an offensive system where Cam Newton was primarily in charge of handling the ball off or running the ball on his own in an effort to get the opposing defense to stack the box. Once the Panthers made the opposing defense honor the running game by stacking the box it allowed them to run some play action passes. Where they would fake the handoff to the running backs making the opposing defense believe that they are going to run the ball. As a result, the opposing defense will keep the box stacked thus giving the Panthers receivers more man to man coverage and Cam Newton more open space on the field to lead his receivers to the ball which would have increased the likelihood of the pass being completed. This allowed the team to keep drives alive while forcing the opposing team to put more players in coverage to decrease the likelihood of the offense scoring a substantial amount of points in a short period of time thus giving The running backs room to run the ball again. The combination of these factors enabled the offense to stay on the field for a prolonged period of time in fact, during last season the offense was on the field for an average of 32:12 minutes. This means that the defense received the proper rest between drives which enabled them to have enough energy to execute a properly tackle to a player when they are running with the ball or being able to keep up with wide receivers.
However, the Carolina Panthers will most likely make some changes to their offensive system during this upcoming season to give Benjamin a sense of confidence that he is the missing piece for them to win the super bowl. As a result of this, one would expect that the Panthers would increase the number of pass attempts by 3 to 5 per game from 31.2 to 34.2-36.2. The increase in the number of pass attempts will cause the offense to spend less time on the field because of incompletion or big plays that result in short drives. This means that defense would have to go back on the field without the proper amount of rest which leads to the defense being more susceptible to giving up yards and points because they were not able to regain some energy between possessions to be able to stop the opposing offense.
