Most improved position groups in the NFL heading into the 2019 season

#4 Panthers defensive front

When Carolina made that magical run to the Super Bowl in 2015/16, it was Cam Newton winning league MVP that dominated the media, but to a large degree that team was so good because of their defense, especially the front-seven. While Thomas Davis won’t suit up for them for the first time in 14 years, I think the front-five so to speak could be even better than the D-line was back then.

With the Panthers shifting to more of a 3-4 base front this year, I count the outside linebackers to this group as well. Kawann Short and Dontari Poe were already an excellent duo on the interior, but this team invested more heavily into the guys around them than most people expected. First they brought in Bruce Irvin, who will somehow be on his third team in three years now, but has been productive to some degree everywhere he’s been at.

Then with a left tackle prospect like Washington State’s Andre Dillard on the board at 16th overall in the draft, Carolina decided to go a different route with Florida State edge rusher Brian Burns, who I thought was the best at bending around the corner in this class. Plus, they came back in the fourth round and selected Alabama’s Christian Miller, who has shown flashes of dominance even though his game has been marked by inconsistencies.

However, it was last week when they completed that unit with a familiar foe in Gerald McCoy, who they have seen up close many times from his nine-year career in Tampa Bay. After the Panthers ranked 27th in the league with just 35 sacks in 2018, they might have one of the most disruptive defensive fronts in football and could really shake things up with that next season.