The Panthers’ embarrassing Week 1 loss to the New Orleans Saints has caused quite the (understandable) stir among the Carolina faithful.
So, naturally, Panthers fans have questions about the potentially bleak future . That’s why The Observer has brought back the weekly mailbag to answer the questions and concerns from the fan base .
Here are some standout questions from social media:
Dalton’s outlook on QB1
Jay asks: How soon does Andy Dalton start for our Panthers?
Mike Kaye: There were several questions that fell in line with this one, so we’ll use Jay as the flag-bearer here.
The Panthers are in a rough spot because of how much they’ve invested in Bryce Young. Not only did they trade up for him and give up a ton of assets for him — including top wideout D.J. Moore — but they also hired a young “QB whisperer” in head coach Dave Canales to fix him this season. They also hired the former assistant GM, Dan Morgan, to run the front office, and he’s invested in Young from the 2023 decision to trade up for him.
While the internal messaging this year has been “it’s not all about Bryce,” it most certainly is to anyone outside of the organization. Fans know how much the team invested in Young, and they (rightfully) want to see a major return on that investment. The Panthers’ front office knows this, the coaching staff knows this, and the locker room knows this.
Young was voted a captain, for whatever that’s worth, and his teammates have sung his praises all year. One abysmal performance shouldn’t shake that foundation, especially as everyone who played on Sunday against the Saints was part of the problem. The 47-10 dismantling was the bad type of complementary football, as all three units came up empty or worse.
With that said, I expect the Panthers to stay the course with Young until they literally can’t anymore for the sake of locker room sanity.
Young’s performance against the Saints was the worst of his career. But the Panthers have invested two full offseasons in him, and to pull the plug in the first month of the season, after a summer of spotlighting him, would be asinine, despite the early returns.
He’s been bad, but he’s also the 2023 first overall pick. It’s September of 2024 (if you needed the reminder after Sunday’s spooky “Back to the Future” afternoon).
The schedule is going to get really tough after the first six or so games. If the Panthers start 0-6 or 1-5, that might be when the team needs a change for the sake of its employees, and probably its employer.
The Panthers’ postgame messaging of “it’s one loss” implies that everyone will need to learn from this one, including Young. And to be fair, him getting more opportunities to prove himself is really the only answer at this point. Going 6-11 or 5-12 with Dalton does nothing for this franchise in the grand scheme of things, outside of moving the squad further away from another No. 1 pick.
No preseason a problem?
@95KeepPounding asks: In his presser, head coach Dave Canales said we have a bunch of new guys who haven’t played together, sighting (sic) communication issues. He said this after not playing them together in our three practice games. He took over a 2-15 team, not a winning team. Do you think he regrets missing those reps?
The Observer immediately followed up that opening statement with a question about the lack of preseason reps for the starters and how Canales processes that decision in hindsight. This was his response:
“It all matters, it all counts, so that’s something we’ve got to think about. But again, we had an opportunity today to play football. We played a lot of football, particularly on defense, so we’ll learn a lot from just being able to get this group together and work off each other.”
While I understand the urge to blame the lack of preseason reps on Sunday’s failure, the performance, to me, goes beyond a potential six-series entry in the exhibition slate. Blaming a lack of reps in the preseason on a 37-point Week 1 loss, to me, is like blaming the eating habits of a 35-year-old man on his parents. Sure, how that person — or the team — was raised and developed has an impact on the results, but eventually, as an adult or a professional, it’s time to figure things out when it matters.
The first quarter, if you want to blame that on the preseason scarcity, is fine, I guess. But honestly, the rest of the mess was just as bad, and blaming the lack of reps is kind of giving the talent a mulligan of sorts.
Do I think the Panthers starters should have played more in the preseason? Yes. Do I think the lack of reps caused this titanic disaster? Nope.
The execution was certainly a problem. But on defense, Ejiro Evero had a ton of familiar faces who were looking to stop Derek Carr and company. Most of the starters were familiar with the defense from last year or previous stops, and yet they performed like they thought up was down.
On offense, the scheming and play-calling were fine, albeit nothing particularly out of this world.
While Jonathan Mingo played in the preseason, he fumbled (nearly twice). Young got a TON of reps in joint practice and still overthrew receivers for two interceptions.
Sometimes, execution is just bad football. Sure, the team looked ill-prepared, but I’m not sure two series in each of the three preseason games would have made a stark difference.
Canales likely looks back on the decision and thinks that in hindsight it might have made sense to play the starters more. But I’m also sure that he can make the excuse that a lot of those starters were banged up and wouldn’t have played much anyway.
Somehow worse against the run
@CzechPanther asks: How is the defense worse against the run? The D-line was being pushed around all game and allowed 180 yards with almost 5 yards avg.
It was pretty awful. Panthers defenders did a much better job of tackling themselves than bringing down Alvin Kamara and Taysom Hill. Despite investing in A’Shawn Robinson and Jadeveon Clowney, two well-known run-stoppers, the defensive front took a massive beating against New Orleans.
Last season, the Panthers gave up 4.1 yards per carry, and 122.4 rushing yards per game.
On Sunday, as @CzechPanther points out, they gave up 180 rushing yards at 4.9 yards per tote.
I think there are two important things to remember here: 1) Hill has historically given the Panthers trouble on the ground because of his tight end-like size and mediocre-QB-like passing ability, which can freeze the opposition immediately after the snap, and 2) the Panthers were down by 17 points before their own QB completed his first pass to someone who wasn’t on the Saints.
The Saints wore out the Panthers’ defense early and just continued to put their foot on the gas on the ground. Of the Saints’ 66 offensive snaps, New Orleans ran the ball 37 times. The Saints offensive line, with a super loud crowd behind them, were able to bully the Panthers to the second level and their runners were able to churn up the field.
Three of the Saints’ 10 biggest gains came on the ground. Kamara posted two 17-yard treks, while Jamaal Williams picked up 14 yards on a touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
It was bad, but I think the context of the game mattered. I’m interested to see how J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards look against the Panthers in Week 2 before making a major judgment on whether the run defense is actually worse this season.
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