Should Ejiro Evero try to bring Jeremy Chinn back to the Panthers?

A look at what went wrong for Chinn in Evero’s defense after the initial plan.

The Panthers have quite a few defensive decisions to make for the 2024 free agency period, as they’ll have to figure out the future of two of their best players in Frankie Luvu and Brian Burns. Ejiro Evero is returning to be their defensive coordinator for at least one more season, as continuity appears to be key on that side of the ball. However, the one decision that I honestly can’t get a bead on is defensive back Jeremy Chinn, who is set to be a free agent as well.

Chinn joined Carolina as a second round pick during the 2020 offseason, one where Matt Rhule and Phil Snow basically deployed him as a linebacker. This led to his best season to date as a pro, where he logged 117 total tackles, 5 pass deflections, 2 forced fumbles, 2 fumble recoveries (both returned for touchdowns in the same game), 5 QB hits, and a sack. The following two seasons, the Panthers deployed Chinn as basically a full time safety, which didn’t really suit his skillset and it showed in deep coverage throughout those years. Then, in 2023, Ejiro Evero took over the DC position as Frank Reich’s regime took shape. During the offseason, we were promised a new and exciting role for Chinn, one that nobody could seem to define, including Chinn himself.

He even had this to say back in March;

So, keeping Chinn closer to the line of scrimmage/closer to the box made a bit of sense due to his success as an off-ball linebacker his rookie year. And to Evero’s credit, the Panthers defense was extremely impressive in 2023. However, Chinn wasn’t much of the reason. Following the Panthers ugly loss to the Lions in October, Chinn had played 55% of their snaps to date on the season. Chinn was normally an every down player in the 3 seasons prior to that. Evero explained this in an interesting way;

Chinn only played 30% of the snaps against Detroit and ended up leaving due to injury. The next game, the Panthers got beat badly again by the Dolphins this time, where Chinn only logged 39% of the snaps and was off to injured/reserve and missed the next 5 games. Carolina eased him back in after designating him to return from IR, but he never played more than 50% of the snaps in the remaining 6 games and only logged over 30% twice (via Pro Football Reference).

Chinn was reportedly frustrated by his dimished role in the defense following the end of this unfortunate season.

Evero never really explained his side of things following the season, but it isn’t all that hard to extrapolate. The Panthers rush defense was a definite weakness, so it appears that in many situations Evero favored keeping his bigger players on the front seven in the game for those 3rd and short to medium situations. This is a shame as Chinn has always been a pretty good run defender, but I understand the line of thinking. Carolina’s front seven was already a bit undersized and teams were often playing with a lead and no real urgency to score points quickly, as the Panthers offense was a mess.

Evero explained early in the 2023 offseason that he felt Chinn was a weapon and had a plan for him. That never came to fruition, as they kept him in a nickel/dime defender role. So, they now face the question; is it worth bringing him back? Based on the last 3 seasons of work, Chinn was an average defender at best. Evero couldn’t seem to maximize his skillset, even if the game script supposedly didn’t work in their favor to do so.

I’m a bit torn on this. I think you don’t let good players go for reasonable prices, and Chinn showed he can be quite excellent as a rookie. However, it appears his role needs to be highly specialized. Can Evero make that role work with another offseason to build this defense in his image? I’m not sure, but so far he hasn’t made mention of Chinn at all since the close of the season. That could have to do with his future in Carolina being in doubt during the GM and Head Coaching search, where Evero is now set to return and the coaching staff he worked with in 2023 remaining intact for the most part.

A to Z sports came in with their contract projection, and they have Chinn as a 1 year, $3 million dollar prove it deal in free agency. It may be worth Carolina and Evero bringing him back after this disaster of a season to see what they can do with him, and to bring back a guy who has been around for the last 4 years on defense.

What are your thoughts, Panthers fans? Would you like to see what Evero can do with Chinn in year 2?