Season-Opening Loss Brings Urgency to Unanswered Questions for Panthers

The Carolina Panthers simply didn’t look prepared to play in their season opener in Jacksonville against the Jaguars on Sunday — not before nor after the lightning delay. The 26-10 score wasn’t even indicative of how inept the Panthers looked throughout the day, held to three scoreless quarters before breaking through with a garbage-time TD in the fourth.

Panthers’ players were blown off the line on both sides of the ball. There was no pressure from the defense on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and Jacksonville rushed over and through Panthers defenders for 200 yards on the ground — the seventh straight game going back to last season in which the Panthers defense has allowed 200 or more rushing yards. 

Meanwhile, center Austin Corbett was hiking the ball on the shotgun as if Bryce Young was a foot taller, regularly causing the 5′ 10″ QB to have to stretch regularly just to get the play started. 

With Panthers facing second and short deep in Jaguars territory late, there was no burst from the line or apparent will to finish, as Young would end the drive on fourth down by inexplicably throwing the ball through the back of the end zone.

The play calling was bad throughout the afternoon. Xavier Legette looked just like he did last year — lost on the field, not knowing where he was or how to plant his feet as he came down with the ball. 

Young threw two interceptions (a third was called back due to penalty) and lost a fumble. The game was realistically over at that time, but he made a terrible decision on a play where he should have eaten the ball and those optics mattered. 

To be fair, Young made a few nice passes and luck was no lady for him in Florida. Chuba Hubbard didn’t appear to have the same burst we saw from him last year. Young missed Adam Thielen at wide receiver. Hunter Renfrow brought in one reception but dropped a couple of others due to big hits. 

Tetairoa “T-Mac” McMillan looked like he’ll be Young’s best friend this season, with incredible catch-passing and hands like oven mitts reeling in five catches for 68 yards. 

Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero had the defense looking like they were in practice, unwilling to touch the quarterback … or receivers … or running backs. 

This loss is on Canales, however. Outside of Young and T-Mac, the offense didn’t look prepared or as if they had met each other before Sunday. Ignoring the importance of preseason, getting reps together in actual exhibition games rather than “practice,” has had an impact on this team. 

It seemed Canales learned absolutely nothing from last year’s disastrous start for Young and the offense. There are 16 games to go, but the coach will have to start his work on getting his team better prepared for games. 

The state of the Panthers

Despite a 5-12 finish last season, the Carolina Panthers appeared to be on the upswing at the end of the year, especially regarding the progress from Bryce Young. Hope sprang from the competitiveness the Panthers showed along the final stretch, taking two teams that would end up playing in the Super Bowl down to the wire. 

That momentum continued into the offseason but did not carry into the preseason this year, with lackluster performances from the offense leading Canales to pull Young and the other starters after just two sets of downs against Houston. They would not see any action in the final preseason game. 

“I wanted them to go out and earn another series,” insisted Canales after the early pull in the second game. “I really felt giving them two shots to do it. [When it didn’t happen,] I wasn’t going to put them back out there and say, ‘Let’s play some more football.’” 

After barely playing Young and the starters last preseason, and remembering the horrid start Young got off to that sent him to the bench, I had hoped Canales would give them more time this year to get reps in, but he apparently thought the work they got against the Texans in practice that week was good enough. 

That’s become the trend in the NFL in recent years, with coaches placing more value on practicing against teams than actual game time experience in exhibitions. It showed in the way the team played (or didn’t play) together when it mattered on Sunday. 

Another decision that looks to be haunting the Panthers almost immediately was the late-August trade of Young’s security blanket, Adam Thielen, to Minnesota for future draft picks. Thielen returned to Minnesota, where he played the first nine years of his career, earning two Pro Bowl nods. 

The Vikings had some injuries to receivers and desperately needed help there for their young quarterback who will be playing for the first time in the NFL after sitting out last season with an injury. That’s great for their quarterback, but it left Young with mostly inexperienced receivers to throw to and no one who could build his confidence the way Thielen could. 

That presence matters, and while Thielen is nearing the end of his career, he was critical to the success of the Panthers’ offense in 2025. 

While the ink was barely dry on the Thielen deal, Jalen Coker, who had a nice rookie season, went down with a quad injury and is expected to miss the first 4-6 weeks of the season.

That brought about the return of Hunter Renfrow, who had been cut from the team during camp. Renfrow missed the 2024-25 season due to ulcerative colitis, but looked good early in the preseason before becoming a late cut that surprised some. 

Renfrow, like Thielen, is a veteran and known as having an uncanny ability to get open, so hopefully he can fill the void and help Young continue to progress as a quarterback. Sunday didn’t show anything comparable to Thielen’s skill on the field, however. 

Back for his sophomore season, Legette will need to find some stickum, as he had issues with holding onto the ball in his rookie year. T-Mac, a first-round draft pick from University of Arizona, gives Young a big target and has a reputation for catching everything within reach. 

The two had a previous relationship when Young practiced throwing to him at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, which led Young to endorse the receiver before he was even drafted by Carolina. David Moore and rookie Jimmy Horn Jr. round out the receiver group. 

Ja’Tavion Sanders is expected to start at tight end with Tommy Tremble backing him up as he continues his recovery from offseason back surgery. The backfield looks good with Chuba Hubbard returning from a career year in 2024 and the addition of Rico Dowdle, who had over 1,000 yards for Dallas last season on a one-year deal. 

Will the defense rebound in 2025? 

After having one of the worst defenses of all-time last year, there should only be one way to go and that is up. The decision to keep DC Ejiro Evero after that awful year raised some eyebrows, and after Week 1 in Jacksonville, the eyebrows remain elevated. 

First and foremost, defensive tackle Derrick Brown is back after getting injured in the opening game last year and missing the rest of the season. With his big body in the middle of the line, there shouldn’t be holes as big as wide as 485 to run through. 

The Panthers threw a lot of money at their defense, adding defensive end Tershawn Wharton, who already went down with a hamstring injury on Sunday and will miss 2-4 weeks, along with DT Bobby Brown lll, Christian Rozeboom and Patrick Jones ll at linebacker, and safety Tre’von Moehrig. 

Jaycee Horn signed a big contract after his outstanding season last year and came away from Sunday’s season opener with a one-handed interception that provided one of the team’s few contributions to the league highlight reel. The team also added linebackers Princely Umanmielen and Nic Scourton in the draft. 

Umanmielen and Scourton are both expected to help the pass rush, with Umanmielen having an especially quick burst off the line attacking the quarterback. 

Moehrig was among the best safeties in the league stopping the run last season with the Raiders and brings the physicality Canales has talked about in the preseason that he wants from this team. Jones had a career best seven sacks with Minnesota last year. 

Yet none of these promising additions were able to stop the Jaguars’ rush on Sunday. Evero should consider himself on the immediate hot seat if he can’t find a way to turn this defense around quickly, having already fielded the worst defense in the league last year.

Even if he’s not quite as loud as he once was, we all know the man footing the bill has expectations for this team, so to keep him quiet, there has to be more progress. 

I don’t see the Panthers making the playoffs this year, but I think they can get to 7-8 wins if a few of the current unanswered questions break the right way. 

If they finish with as much hope as they ended the 2024-25 season with, the playoffs could be in order … in 2027.