Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots will welcome the Carolina Panthers to Gillette Stadium on Sunday in what will not only be a battle of 1-2 teams. It also will be a meeting between two relatively unfamiliar foes.
So, in order to find out more about Carolina, we reached out to Walker Clement of Pats Pulpit’s sister site Cat Scratch Reader — the SB Nation community for all things Panthers. Here is what he told us about the upcoming game and what to expect from New England’s Week 4 opponent.
1. How has Bryce Young progressed in his third season? Is he proving to be the franchise quarterback the organization hoped he’d be?
The jury remains out on Young. He ended last season as the obvious future of the Carolina Panthers if he maintained that level of play heading into this season. He opened the 2025 season looking completely lost again.
He’s slowly regaining his composure and returning to a competitive level of play, but at this point we don’t know if we can trust him to remain consistent. A lot of us are looking forward to watching him play this week to see if he takes that next step or if he falls apart again. Another lot of us are already over him and are ready to burn the entire zoo down again and start over.
2. What’s the plan if Tetairoa McMillan can’t play on Sunday? How crucial has he been to Carolina’s pass game?
McMillan is expected to play on Sunday, but there is no real plan if he can’t. Xavier Legette, last year’s first round pick at wide receiver is dealing with his own hamstring issue and has totalled eight receptions for ten yards this season, including one for negative two yards on eight targets in his last game.
McMillan is quickly becoming the engine of the Panthers entire passing game. Without him we’d just be hoping the team was already pointed downhill with a full head of steam.
3. How has DT Derrick Brown looked after missing last season?
In short, excellent. Brown is an absolute monster of a man who is a top 5 player at defensive tackle. There aren’t a lot of names that you should fear on the Panthers defense, but Brown’s remains at the top of the list.
4. Who are some underrated names Patriots fans should know heading into this game?
Cornerback Mike Jackson bounced around the league for awhile before landing with the Panthers. He is now playing as a top ten corner starting opposite Jaycee Horn.
Otherwise, expect to hear Christian Rozeboom and Trevin Wallace’s names a lot. That’s not a good thing for Panthers fans. The starting inside linebacker duo have combined for most of the defense’s mistakes and broken plays, spanning from bad coverage of tight ends and backs to big gains surrenderes in the running game.
**5. The Patriots are currently 5.5-point favorites this weekend. What must New England do to avoid a losing streak? What must...
