It's not because of a lack of talent. Besides Phillips' interception, Thomas Keiser had a nice sack. He was called up from the practice squad last season and promptly had 4 sacks in just 2 games before just as quickly being demoted to his rightful, lowly position as a backup.
Jordan Senn was getting an amazing 14 tackles a game when pressed into "emergency" starting duty at LB last year when his affletic superiors were injured. I don't know when exactly he came into tonight's game, but he had an incredible 13 tackles in about a half of play. He remains firmly entrenched as a backup.
The one depth chart I saw yesterday had Kuechly as starting. Now I read this article and Kluechy is listed as the number two guy so it's possible he doesn't start.
[h=1]Checking out Panthers' depth chart[/h] August, 7, 2012 Aug 7
5:29
PM ET
By
Pat Yasinskas | ESPN.com
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- The
Carolina Panthers put out their first depth chart Tuesday afternoon. Let me emphasize this is an unofficial depth chart, but there are several things that jump out at me.
Let’s start with one thing that’s very atypical for the Panthers, who generally are the most conservative team in the NFC South when it comes to such matters. The Panthers are listing rookie
Amini Silatolu as the No. 1 left guard. That probably will be the case come opening day, but the Panthers generally don’t list rookies as starters on their first preseason depth chart. Instead, they give veterans every benefit of the doubt. But I think this is a pretty good sign that the Panthers aren’t really counting on veterans like
Mike Pollak or
Bruce Campbell to start. I’d say an injury is about the only thing that would prevent Silatolu from being the starter when the regular season opens.
But the flip side of this is that the Panthers are listing first-round draft choice
Luke Kuechly as the No. 2 weak-side linebacker behind veteran
Thomas Davis. Kuechly has been working with the first team throughout training camp. This one purely is a courtesy to Davis, who is trying to come back from his third torn ACL. Kuechly is pretty much guaranteed a starting job in the regular season.
Another item worth noting is that
Derek Anderson is listed as the No. 2 quarterback behind
Cam Newton and
Jimmy Clausen is No. 3. Coach Ron Rivera was asked after Tuesday’s practice if Anderson was the backup and the coach didn’t hesitate to affirm that. It looks like Clausen, who started as a rookie in 2010, is looking at another season of being the third quarterback.
The Panthers are listing
Sherrod Martin as their starting free safety and that could end up being the case in the regular season. But all indications out of Carolina’s camp are that Martin is very much in competition with free-agent addition
Haruki Nakamura for the starting job.
I’ve also been told that the Panthers view the punter and kicker jobs as serious competitions. They’re listing veteran
Olindo Mare No. 1 and
Justin Medlock No. 2 at kicker and
Nick Harris as the No. 1 punter with rookie
Brad Nortman as No. 2. But the order at both spots could change, depending on what happens in the preseason games.