Carolina Panthers: The Need To Keep Charles Tillman

Charles Tillman‘s veteran leadership is vital to him staying with the Carolina Panthers.

It was clear that the defensive secondary was a primary concern for the Carolina Panthers heading into this off-season. During the draft the organization picked up three defensive backs in hope of finding a solution to the hole left by Josh Norman’s departure to Washington.

Even though the Panthers made enough picks to potentially solve the problem, Charles Tillman is one individual that the team should look into keeping on the roster for at least one more season.

Christopher Dabe of NOLA.com reported that Tillman wants nothing more but to return to the Panthers for the 2016 campaign. The issue is that he’s coming off of a season-ending ACL injury and at this point, his value to the Panthers is fading. Tillman tore his ACL in Week 17 which caused him to miss the remainder of the season and would keep him sidelined for another two months or more.

Panthers head coach Ron Rivera, who coached Tillman when he was a member of the Chicago Bears earlier in his career, is mum on the idea of bringing the veteran player back.

“I guess if we did something, it would be later on,” Rivera said in a piece by David Newton of ESPN. “But right now we’re set.”

With 13 years of play in the NFL, Tillman has reached some levels of success. At the close of the 2015 season he’s earned 911 total tackles, 38 interceptions and 44 forced fumbles. In fact, he’d become well-known for his ability to punch the ball out of the offensive player’s hands when making a tackle. Still, at 35-years of age the question lingers as to how much he can contribute on a team looking for a big playmaker.

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Tillman’s performance has been very consistent. 2004 and 2014 are the only two years in which he didn’t earn at least one interception. Every other year he ended with at least two interceptions and picked off at least five in three separate seasons.

The Panthers come into the 2016 with an unproven core of defensive backs that feature a lot of youth, inexperience and Bene Benwikere who is coming off of a broken leg that ended his playing time last year. Draft picks James Bradberry, Daryl Worley and Zack Sanchez are all expected to compete for the open positions on the starting roster. With all of those questions up in the air, Tillman could find space on this roster as a veteran leader early in the year until the true starting group revels itself at some point in the season.

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Carolina should be interested in bringing Tillman back for another year to add some veteran stability to this core group. There is a long list of examples in which a veteran player was able to impact the team not only by his play on the field, but the leadership needed to drive the younger players towards success.

If Carolina is to improve upon last year’s success then it must limit the opportunities for teams to take advantage of their defensive secondary, as their defense has been one of the best in the league in recent years. Keeping Tillman on board doesn’t solve every issue at once, but it adds some much needed stability to the unit that is going through changes.

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