Ron Meeks, who recently resigned from the Indianapolis Colts, has been hired by the Carolina Panthers to fill the role of defensive coordinator. Meeks left the Colts under what can best be described as "heavy scrutiny" recently.He steps into a role vacated by Mike Trgovac.
It's an odd situation because as the Panthers appeared ready to gut their entire defensive staff all at the behest of Julius Peppers, they offered Trgovac a two year extension, which he subsequently spurned to pursue better offers.
Meeks, of course, comes from a Colts' defense that has been erratic, albeit secretly effective. Most people remember the Colts as a team that simply can't stop the run, but as the Herald Online notes, Indy led the league in points allowed in 2007.
The reality is that Meeks won't likely come in and install a 3-4 (the defense the Panthers would need a shift towards to theoretically keep Peppers) but he is the guy that propelled Dwight Freeney to a position as one of the top defensive ends in the NFL. And it's not like Bob Sanders was some huge slouch while he was there.
For Panthers fans, this should be considered a pretty nice coup; there was talk of (gasp) bringing in Jim Haslett, and Meeks, as pointed out by Snyder, has been a head coaching candidate several times over. Even if he can't retain Peppers, expect improved results from the Cats D in 2009.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-09-2009 @ 4:34PM
tonymnace said...
I don't know why Meeks took the hit. The Colts defensive scheme was not the problem this year. True they were weak against the run earlier in the year, but that had more to do with the defensive tackle position on the team. They were counting on two players, Quinn Pitcock who suddenly retired, and Ed Johnson, who was let go for drug violations. They only allowed two 100 yard runners during the last 13 games and they only allowed a modern era NFL record six touchdown passes.
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