And they met in the regular season and Carolina bested them. And ability to play head to head doesn't mean better. Let's take the 2007 Giants victory in the Superbowl, were they better than the Pats that year cause they beat them in the Superbowl? Or just better matched up against the Pats?
Kap had a lower Y/A, higher INT% higher TD% he was sacked more, and had a big drop in NY/A to show. And he's only been doing it for 2 years as well.
They could be upgrades, or they could not. They lost both of them and Witner, and replaced them with COok and Bethea. Cook is a good value sign. Bethea has nothing in the tank at this point. And it's not a matter of what if as far as injuries. Injuries happen in the NFL. And the NBA is much easier to get into the playoffs than NFL as they have an 8/15 shot of getting in while the NFL it's 6/16.