The Carolina Panthers accomplished an amazing feat yesterday: they looked better than they did in Week 1 while simultaneously leaving many of their fans even more bereft of hope. Bryce Young opened the game with two turnovers that should never have happened. He made mistakes and his offensive line let him down massively. That line protected him for most of the rest of the game, but they never lived up to their offseason billing. An immediate 10-point deficit and a stymied running game that led to Young throwing 55 passes yesterday left fans feeling like they were on a sinking ship, even while the Panthers clawed back in the second half. Carolina is allergic to giving their fans something as simple as hope. If they’re the cats then we are the live mouse they toy with season after season.
Improvements by every pass catcher not named Xavier Legette and big plays by young defenders contributed to a second half rally that saw the Panthers turn a 27-3 deficit to the Arizona Cardinals into a miracle last possession, after an onside kick recovery, with a chance to win the game. That ultimate drive was a comedy of errors on both sides, but no one drive from yesterday represents the whole story of this team.
The first six minutes and the last two minutes were the definition of impotence. Everything inbetween was a slowly building display of competence and adjustments. This was the Panthers letting us flee for our lives before catching us by the tail at the last second. Of course, playing with their
prey fans was not intentional. Instead, a supposed strength failed and cascaded into the show we had yesterday. The real key to this game was the Panthers’ inability to control the line of scrimmage at big moments. That resulted in both pressure on Young and an inability to establish the running game.
The line settled down and the offense started to gain some traction in the second half, but they never made much room for Chuba Hubbard and Rico Dowdle. Young spotted the Cardinals with two turnovers and ten points in the opening minutes, then was asked to throw the ball 55 times. No part of that is in Carolina’s recipe for success.
The running game was supposed to be the strength of this team. The fact that the offensive line was so stymied by what was supposed to be an average opponent is worrying. But it makes the effort put forth by the passing game and the defense all the more impressive when compared to last week’s debacle.
There was a lot to like yesterday and a lot to worry about. It didn’t help, emotionally, that the Panthers started out with a series of calamities centered around Young and went into the half down 20 to 3.
What I liked
The passing game
Gasp. I know. It’s so cool to dump on Young and Canales. I’m not going to today.
Call it garbage time if you will, but Young, Tetairoa McMillan, Hunter Renfrow, and Ja’Tavion Sanders demonstrated the core of a stable passing game even though they were working primarily behind the sticks. Head coach Dave Canales has built a functional offense, which is more than I can say for any Panthers coach in living memory. While lacking in preparation and situational play calling, the team finally has the bones of success laid down. Maybe it’s a lot to ask them to flesh that out, but it is the task before them this season.
Considering the years we spent watching Matt Rhule go through quarterbacks and excuses like tissues and the negative that was the Frank Reich 11/17s of a season, I’m surprised so many people are so quick to ignore any shred of hope in favor of immediate negativity. We’re not ditching Young this season. The draft will still be there in January. This is the ride we’re on and it’s already more entertaining and promising than anything we saw outside of three weeks of Good Sam Darnold since Cam Newton was unceremoniously defenestrated the first time.
Are things good yet? No. But the Panthers look better on the field at 0-2 in 2025 than they did at 0-2 in 2024. We all want wins, but if we have to have patience. This is progress.
Kudos to the defense
Princely Umanmielen and Nic Scourton have shown flashes of why they were once considered first round picks. D.J. Wonnum and Pat Jones were excellent yesterday, a revelation compared to their apparent absence against the Jaguars. Mike Jackson got jobbed on a PI call, but otherwise he and Jaycee Horn seem up to the job of containing almost any two-headed receiving corps in the league. In short, that was a shockingly good day from the defense. The Panthers had no chance of attempting a comeback yesterday without the defense holding the Cardinals to seven points in the second half.
Brycen Tremayne
Renfrow and Sanders both took steps forward yesterday while still having a couple of plays I bet they want back. Renfrow will—deservedly—get all the accolades today for his seven receptions for 48 yards and two touchdowns. But I want to call out the undrafted rookie from Stanford. He hauled in three catches for 48 yards on five targets. including a clutch 26-yard reception on 4th & 16 during the Panthers last touchdown drive.
This is the kind of promising play that the Panthers need to find out of low cost players if they want to rebuild their roster and compete.
What I didn’t like
Xavier Legette
His first target of the day was a -2 yard reception that set up 3rd & 12. The play was well defended, but Legette surrendered unnecessary yards and failed to fight for anything more. That put the Panthers in an obvious passing situation at a time when the offensive line couldn’t block a sleeping baby. Young was immediately under pressure on the next play and threw his only interception of the game.
The throw is on Young, but this is a team game. The pressure was on the line, and the field position was—in part—on Legette. That was Legette’s only reception on eight targets. I don’t know what happened to him this offseason, but something has to change.
The offensive line
Damien Lewis and Austin Corbett looked lost yesterday. They bear as much responsibility as anybody for the Panthers struggling to stay on the field in the first half. The entire line failed to generate much space for Hubbard and Dowdle and that made Carolina one dimensional for the entire game. This showed up big on one of the few unpenalized plays of the final drive. Down five points with less than two minutes to go, the line allowed immediate pressures on consecutive plays to put the Panthers behind the sticks. Bad line play exacerbated bad play calls and left the Panthers unable to move the ball or score when they really need to.
Nobody thinks that Young should be throwing 55 passes in a game. But averaging 2.6 yards per carry is no way to conduct an offense either.
This isn’t getting better fast.
Reports are that Robert Hunt (bicep) and Corbett (knee) may miss extended time with injuries they suffered yesterday. A torn biceps or ACL could sideline either of them for the season. Cade Mays should be able to do an acceptable job in Corbett’s absence, but things get a little murkier behind Hunt. Brady Christensen has played just about every position on the line and Chandler Zavala has, uh, had his moments, but neither are players that you want to rely on for a season at right guard.
The linebackers
Christian Rozeboom and Trevin Wallace ain’t it, y’all. The sudden retirement of Josey Jewell combined with these guys falling well short of expectations has left the Panthers in a bind. They have improved at every other level of their defense, but this unit is so far below competitive that they are likely to drag the entire defense down with them.
It’s impressive that Carolina held a strong Arizona rushing attack to 82 yards, but don’t expect that to be a weekly thing. Do expect it to get worse before it gets better.
What’s next
The Panthers have their first home game against the 1-1 Atlanta Falcons. Their offense currently runs through Bijan Robinson, which I’m sure won’t put any undue stress on the Panthers linebackers. As to what Young and company will bring to the field? That’s anybody’s guess. We should wait and see what the prognosis is for both Corbett and Hunt before we make any predictions.
I want to reiterate that yesterday was progress from last season. Canales is still extremely early in his career as both a play caller and a head coach. Young has had a weird ride and, while he does bear some responsibility for that, he has kept a calm and level head in the face of a lot of adversity. His rookie year was detrimental to his development. His second season saw him benched for a third of it. This season he is two for two in terms of games where he has made accurate throws and good decisions more often than not. It’s a low bar, but he has cleared it.
Adam Archuleta said a funny thing yesterday on the broadcast. He loved most of what Young did through the second half and argued that he could be a special player if he could “limit the catastrophic mistakes.” That’s as demoralizing an attaboy as I’ve ever heard, but it is also a dead accurate analysis of Young’s play. He doesn’t miss small. That makes it hard to judge what he can do when he’s firing on all cylinders. If he can fire on all cylinders. Young has a history in the NFL of bad habits born of bad experiences and worse coaching. He had ten games last season after his benching where he was prepared as the starter and not visibly haunted by his rookie season from the first play.
The games under those conditions were pretty fun to watch. This season is the next step for Young. These are his first games with actual stakes. Even today, the season is not lost. He’s playing under real pressure with a real team for what is effectively the first time in his career. He hasn’t been perfect, but he shouldn’t be expected to be perfect. I don’t even want him to be. I don’t want to see how he does while riding high. I want to see, now that he has taken a step or two forwards, if he can keep stepping forwards as the pressure mounts. That test is the point of this entire season to me and it was never going to be completed after two weeks. Instead, we’re going to do this again next week and the week after. Progress is is king. Progress shows process and that’s what leads to winning sustainably and consistently. We may never get there, but it is the only way to get there—no matter who our quarterback is.
(@PanthersAnalyst) 
