Panthers 'hope' to play starters in preseason finale vs. Bills

Well, it looks like we’ll be getting that sneak peek after all.

Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales spoke with reporters on Thursday, following the team’s final practice ahead of this summer’s preseason finale. And after holding out his starting units from each of the first two exhibitions, he was asked if he’ll finally give them some burn against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday afternoon.

“That’s my hope,” Canales replied. “My hope is to get the starters out there early in the game, give them some exposure. And the importance of it to me, is how valuable the night-before prep is. Waking up in the morning, we have a one o’clock kick. We got a lot of those this year. So just the body readiness. The plan behind this camp was to practice early so that we can have that readiness going into the season where most of our kicks are one o’clock.”

10 of the Panthers’ 17 regular-season games are slated to kick off at 1:00 p.m. ET. They’ll also have a pair of afternoon battles out west against the Las Vegas Raiders and Denver Broncos—which are set for 1:05 p.m. PST and 1:25 p.m. PST, respectively.

Canales continued.

“But this is a great opportunity to go through their pre-game routines with each other, to have the communications on the sidelines as we go into the first drive there and just gather information, talk, this is how it’ll feel like,” he added. “So, I love this opportunity for the guys and they’re excited about it.”

If all goes according to plan, this will be our first in-game look at quarterback Bryce Young this summer. It’ll also be our first in-game look at Young inside of Canales’ offense, which has been the primary focus of Carolina’s offseason.