The slot cornerback position has been a liability for the Carolina Panthers' defense ever since Charles Tillman suffered a knee injury against the Tennessee Titans last month. Tillman’s injury meant Bene Benwikere had to move from the slot to the outside, but this move left the Panthers with no other cornerbacks left to play in the slot. As a result, they were forced to play safety Colin Jones at the slot cornerback position for two games, a role he heavily struggled in. Although Jones was a strong run defender, he was a massive liability in the passing game, as he allowed a 100% completion rate, and gave up two touchdowns in coverage.

The Panthers made a good move when they signed 31-year old Cortland Finnegan as a free agent last week. Although it’s been almost a year since he last played a game in the NFL, Finnegan showed no rust in his debut as a Carolina Panther, and was a big upgrade over Colin Jones at the slot cornerback position.

Finnegan didn’t start the game, and he actually didn’t even get significant snaps until Colin Jones was burned for another touchdown in the first quarter of the Panthers-Saints game. Jones was benched after that play, and the Panthers opted to use a rotation of Cortland Finnegan, Shaq Thompson and even Thomas Davis at the slot cornerback position for the rest of the game. Thompson mostly saw a lot of early down work, while Finnegan played later downs and in longer passing situations.

Finnegan ended up playing 30 snaps on defense (all in the slot), but Drew Brees rarely tested him in coverage. Finnegan ended up allowing just one catch for 14 yards in coverage.

Finnegan was able to showcase his tackling skills on his second snap of the game. The Panthers are running Two-Man Under, which has the outside cornerbacks in man coverage, with two deep safeties behind them as support. Finnegan’s job is to defend the flat zone that is left without a defender since Josh Norman is in man coverage against Brandin Cooks on the outside. Finnegan passes off the slot receiver to the safety Kurt Coleman, and then sits in his flat zone. Tight end Ben Watson comes on a crossing route, and with his eyes on Brees the entire time, Finnegan is able to quickly get to Watson and make a solid tackle to limit Watson’s yards after the catch.

Here’s another play where Finnegan shows his tackling ability. On a bubble screen to the slot cornerback, Finnegan quickly diagnoses the play, gets downhill, avoids the block by the left tackle, and tackles the receiver for no gain on the play.

Finnegan also showed some ability as a blitzer from the slot cornerback position. On this play, he comes off the edge and is able to get low pad level and establish first contact against the running back, which drives the running back right into Brees, forcing Brees to quickly get rid of the ball. Unfortunately, safety Kurt Coleman missed the tackle on the receiver, and the Saints would end up gaining 31 yards on the play.

Finnegan was solid in coverage against the Saints. The Panthers asked him to mostly play zone coverage, but they also had him play man coverage for a few snaps. On this play, Finnegan’s in man coverage with Marques Colston, and his tight coverage prevents Colston from getting any separation. Brees forces the ball into the tight window, but it’s incomplete.

The only reception Finnegan gave up all game was a 14 yard pass to Marques Colston in the second quarter of the game. The Saints execute a switch release (outside receiver breaks inside and runs route, inside receiver breaks outside and runs route), which gives Colston some separation. Brees throws a very accurate pass to the 6-foot-5 receiver, who is able to make the catch along the sidelines over the 5-foot-10 Finnegan.

Finnegan was rarely asked to cover deep against the Saints, but on the one occasion where he did have to run deep with his receiver, he was able to lock the receiver down. Brees ended up dumping this pass off to the running back for no gain.

It will be interesting to see if Finnegan can consistently play at this high level moving forward. The Panthers next game is against the Atlanta Falcons, who have one of the best receivers in the NFL in Julio Jones. The Falcons occasionally like to motion Jones in the slot and have him run deep routes from that alignment, so it will definitely be a tough matchup for Finnegan.

It will also be interesting to see the snap counts at the cornerback position once Charles Tillman returns. Will the Panthers move Benwikere back to the slot and keep Tillman (who has played very well this year) on the outside? Or will they keep Benwikere on the outside and continue to play Finnegan in the slot, and play the 34-year old Tillman in a rotational role? It's been a while since Carolina has had four quality cornerbacks on the roster, so I guess this is a good problem to have.

All GIF's and images courtesy of NFL.com