The Carolina Panthers have a little breathing room now, and they probably need it.
After dropping back-to-back games in a five-day stretch and absorbing more injuries Thursday night against Green Bay, Carolina won’t play again until Nov. 8 against Denver. That pause comes at a good time for a team that suddenly has a long list of issues to sort through.
One of the biggest concerns is the secondary, where the Panthers are running dangerously thin at cornerback. Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson are already on injured reserve, Akayleb Evans was put on IR before the Green Bay game, and then Will Lee III strained his hamstring Thursday night and had to be carted to the locker room.
By the end of the game, the Panthers were down to Chau Smith-Wade, Marco Wilson and Malcolm DeWalt IV as their only healthy corners. DeWalt was making his NFL debut, and Green Bay made the most of the situation. Jordan Love threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns, and Christian Watson hauled in eight catches for 113 yards.
Carolina doesn’t have a Jaycee Horn waiting around somewhere, but this feels like a spot where the Panthers at least need to take a look around. At this point, they need healthy bodies, especially if Lee is sidelined for any length of time.
The problems up front aren’t much prettier. Taylor Moton was placed on injured reserve after the Tampa Bay game, Damien Lewis sat out Thursday with a knee injury and Corey Bullock left the Green Bay game with a quad injury. Jake Curhan ended up at left guard after coming up from the practice squad.
Bryce Young was sacked six times, and there were moments when Green Bay was on him almost as soon as the ball was snapped. Young also held the ball too long on some of those plays, so the sacks don’t all land on the line. Still, it’s tough to move the ball when the protection keeps shuffling and the quarterback is under that kind of heat.
Lewis would be a welcome return. Moton is out for a while, so Carolina can’t do much about that right now, but the next stretch should at least bring some clarity about how the Panthers want their offensive line to look against Denver.
The offense has shown it can function better than this. Carolina put up 30 points against Detroit, 34 against Atlanta and 25 in Philadelphia. It wasn’t spotless, but there was a stretch where the Panthers seemed to be finding a rhythm, with Young playing well and the offense staying balanced.
The last two games have blown that feeling up. Carolina scored 13 against Tampa Bay and 19 against Green Bay, and Thursday night was especially aggravating because the defense kept handing the offense extra chances. Green Bay turned it over three times, and the Panthers managed only three points off those takeaways.
That slump is a mix of problems. The line has struggled.
Young hasn’t been sharp the last two games. There hasn’t been enough downfield production, and at times Carolina has made even routine first downs feel like a grind.
If I’m Dave Canales, I’m going back to what worked against Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia and measuring it against what the Panthers are doing now. This offense shouldn’t look this different in such a short span.
One bright spot Thursday was the way Carolina used Chuba Hubbard. He ran 22 times for 81 yards and a touchdown, but the bigger note was his work as a receiver: seven catches for 38 yards. Hubbard finished with 29 touches and 119 yards from scrimmage in a game where not much else was clicking.
That pass-game usage stood out. With Young facing pressure and little opening downfield, Hubbard gave him a quick outlet instead of forcing him to wait for a play to develop. Seven receptions may not be a weekly expectation, but there’s no reason Carolina can’t keep finding ways to feature him.
He doesn’t need 29 touches every week. The Panthers just need to make sure one of their most dependable offensive pieces doesn’t vanish when the offense starts to wobble.
Carolina is 3-4 now, and the Panthers look very different from the team that went into Philadelphia and beat the Eagles. Injuries have obviously had a hand in that, and the short turnaround from Tampa Bay to Green Bay didn’t help.
This time, they’ve got more than four days to clean it up.
In Other News...
Panthers Just Sent A Message Fans Might Not Like
Earlier this year, the Panthers moved on from Jimmy Horn Jr. after a string of mistakes, including a muffed punt that helped push him out of the picture. So when David Moore put one on the ground recently and the error fed into a loss, it naturally reopened the conversation about how Carolina handles accountability on special teams and whether the standard is being applied evenly.
Moores mistake did not lead to the same kind of roster fallout, and that contrast is hard for fans to ignore. For a team trying to establish a sharper edge and cleaner execution, the message can feel less about the play itself than about what the Panthers are willing to tolerate when it happens again. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Loss Revealed Who Actually Held Up In Week 8
The Panthers Week 8 loss to the Packers exposed just how much they were asking from a patchwork roster, with a makeshift offensive line and a depleted cornerback room absorbing a lot of the pressure. Even in defeat, Pro Football Focus grading gave a clearer picture of who was steady and who was struggling, offering a useful snapshot of how Carolinas depth held up under the circumstances.
Corey Bullock came away as the best-performing presence on the offensive line, while Lee Hunter stood out on defense in the kind of game where every clean rep mattered. The broader takeaway was less about the final score than the way the grades underscored which Panthers were able to keep their footing when the roster around them was already stretched thin. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Sent A Clear Message About Their Biggest Problem
The Panthers moved quickly after their Week 8 loss to Green Bay, making a blunt change on the defensive side by firing Ejiro Evero and Jonathan Cooley. Carolina pointed to the defenses struggles as the reason, with the run defense and the points allowed becoming too much to ignore after a rough first half of the season.
Todd Walsh will step in as interim defensive coordinator beginning in Week 9, giving the team a short-term reset and a new voice in a room that clearly needed one. For a Carolina team trying to stabilize its season, the move says as much about urgency as it does about performance, and now the bigger question is whether the changes can actually produce a cleaner, tougher defense right away. [Read more 🡒]