By Cameron DaSilva
Aug 1, 2016 at 4:30p ET
The Carolina Panthers lost a handful of key defenders this offseason after reaching the Super Bowl in February. The biggest name was Josh Norman, of course, but another piece of the secondary went to a division rival – and his former team – in free agency.
Roman Harper signed a one-year deal with the New Orleans Saints back in June, bringing him back to the team that he spent the first eight years of his career with. The Panthers were forced to adjust their secondary accordingly, but that’s not the only change they made.
Head coach Ron Rivera addressed another adjustment Carolina will make now that one of their best defenders plays for a division rival.
“He’s now in New Orleans and I promise they probably put the spotlight on him with the rubber hose to get as much information as they can,” Rivera said via the Charlotte Observer. “He’s a smart guy, so we’ve had to do it on offense and defense. We’ve had to keep that in mind and we had to change a lot of things we had used in the past.”