The Carolina Panthers are heading into Thursday night with their secondary stretched even thinner.
Akayleb Evans was placed on injured reserve Thursday, a move that leaves the Panthers scrambling again in the back end just hours before their Week 8 matchup at the Green Bay Packers on " Thursday Night Football" . Evans was already ruled out because of knee and triceps injuries, and now he joins a growing injury pile in Carolina’s defensive backfield.
Evans, a fourth-round pick by the Minnesota Vikings in 2022, had started the last three games for a Panthers secondary already missing key pieces. Jaycee Horn is on injured reserve with a quad injury, while Mike Jackson is also on injured reserve because of a groin injury.
Not long ago, head coach Dave Canales sounded more optimistic. Earlier this week, he called Evans " day-to-day" and said Carolina had enough options in the secondary for Thursday night. That hope is gone now, and the Panthers are left trying to patch together a unit that has been hit hard all season.
The timing matters, too, because Carolina needs a cleaner defensive showing than it got in Week 7. The Panthers were blasted 43-13 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, including 26 points allowed in the second quarter.
Carolina also handed away 22 points off turnovers. But the damage from Tampa Bay didn’t really come through the air.
Baker Mayfield attempted only 11 passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. The real issue was on the ground, where the Buccaneers rolled up 258 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 49 carries.
Carolina enters the game at 3-3 and sits atop the NFC South, just ahead of the Atlanta Falcons at 3-4.
Green Bay presents a very different problem.
Jordan Love has put together a passing line of 1,958 yards, 13 touchdowns and five interceptions through seven games. He went for 274 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in the Packers’ 20-17 loss to the Lions on Sunday.
The Packers haven’t leaned heavily on the run this season, averaging just 2.9 yards per rush, even though Josh Jacobs returned against Detroit. Jacobs ran for 36 yards on 11 carries, and Green Bay finished with 60 rushing yards on 19 attempts.
With Carolina’s secondary again missing so many bodies, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has every reason to attack through the air. That puts even more pressure on the Panthers to keep pace offensively if they want to hang around in Green Bay.
In Other News...
Panthers Suddenly Have A Trade Deadline Problem In The Secondary
The Panthers have spent the weeks leading up to the trade deadline looking for help at cornerback after injuries hit Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson, and the market has already started to come into focus. ESPN has tied Carolina to a pair of possible targets in Riq Woolen and Donte Jackson, giving the team at least a couple of paths to patch up a position group that has suddenly become a concern.
Woolen would bring the bigger upside if Carolina wanted to swing for impact, even if there are obvious questions attached to his play. Jackson, meanwhile, would offer a more familiar kind of solution and could help stabilize the spot sooner rather than later. Either way, the Panthers appear to have a real deadline decision to make if they want to keep the secondary from becoming an even bigger issue. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Secondary Suddenly Faces A Brutal Test In Green Bay
With the Panthers heading into Thursday nights game in Green Bay, the secondary has been thinned to the point where roster depth is now part of the weekly game plan. Carolina is elevating veteran cornerback Marco Wilson from the practice squad as the injuries continue to pile up, leaving the team with just two healthy cornerbacks on the active roster.
Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson are on injured reserve, while Akayleb Evans is sidelined with injuries, and the challenge does not stop there. The Panthers will also be without pass rusher Jaelan Phillips and left guard Damien Lewis, adding more pressure to a short-handed group that is about to be tested under the lights against the Packers. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Have Something To Prove After That Tampa Bay Collapse
The Panthers are back on a short week, and the timing could not be much better for a team still trying to shake off the damage from its collapse against Tampa Bay. Carolina heads into its matchup with the Green Bay Packers preparing for its second game in five days, with Green Bay set to be without three starters. Even so, the Panthers enter the week with little margin for error and a lot to prove after a performance that raised fresh questions about where this team stands.
Carolina opened the week as a slight underdog, and the betting line has not moved, a sign that oddsmakers are waiting to see whether the Panthers can respond rather than reward them for the matchup on paper. The question now is less about what Green Bay is missing and more about whether Carolina can show the kind of consistency it failed to display last time out. For a team searching for traction, this game offers a chance to steady the week, but only if the Panthers play like the more urgent side from the start. [Read more 🡒]