One of, if not the greatest mystery of the Carolina Panthers’ summer is figuring out how safety/linebacker/nickel cornerback Jeremy Chinn will be used. (See? We still don’t even know what to classify him as.)
But, luckily, NFL analyst Charles Davis has an idea for us.
Davis recently previewed Carolina’s upcoming campaign for The 33rd Team and highlighted Chinn as part of his blurb on Ejiro Evero’s defense. He believes, following Evero’s 2022 season with the Denver Broncos, that the fourth-year Swiss Army knife may have a role similar to that of a three-time Second-team All-Pro.
Davis writes:
The second part is Jeremy Chinn, Their safety, a young man out of Southern Illinois, was all over the place as a rookie. He played back deep, near the line of scrimmage, blitzed and fell into coverage. They did it all with him.
Last year, the Panthers wanted him to be much more of a pure safety before he got hurt. But now, with Evero, I expect to see him more as a rover and a disruptor. If you want to see what I think you’ll get, go back and plug in some tape of Justin Simmons in Denver last year under Evero. Chinn will be much more like that and will have a big impact on a lot of games.
In 2022, Simmons played 435 of his snaps from the full safety spot, 231 from the box and 123 from the slot. Given Chinn’s early usage in these preseason contests, where he’s picked up nine of his 13 plays as a nickel cornerback and zero as a full safety, he probably won’t be deployed in the same area as Simmons.
What Davis may be alluding to, instead, is the type of impact Chinn will have under his new coordinator. With Evero, Simmons recorded a league-leading and new career-high six interceptions.
And Chinn, a bigger and faster athlete than Simmons, may finally have a chance to roam the field as the playmaker the Panthers always hoped he’d be.
