Cat Scratch Reader
Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! We had a ton of questions early this week about the preseason. Luckily, the games are over with, and now we can look to roster cuts, final Offseason moves, and looking forward to the regular season. Let’s dive right in!!
TLGPanthersFan: Time to maybe be concerned a little about Bryce? We have seen plenty of times a QB play well to end the season and then next season does not carry over.
I’m not all that concerned about Bryce Young. We saw what appeared to be end of 2024 Bryce in the first preseason game. Even if the offense looked a little rough throughout the rest of the very limited preseason snaps, I’m not super concerned about Bryce yet. I do think the offense will be sluggish to start week one, but I’m not necessarily worried about Bryce until I see him struggle in more than one or two series at bat.
schrodingersblackcat: Is there any way to put a positive spin on Canales’ decision to pull Bryce and let him end the preseason on a complete dud where he (and our entire offense) looked deflated before the season even starts?
My positive spin is that Bryce didn’t get hurt. I do remember Cam Newton’s unfortunate lisfranc injury that basically ended his run in Carolina (the first time, anyway). I’m prepared like I said above for the offense to look sluggish in week one, which seems to be normal across the NFL. But overall, at least they didn’t suffer any significant injuries as a result of the preseason action!
TXPanther: Should Dave Canales have a developmental coaching staff when he is in development as a HC himself? Seems like he should hold off on that until they at least make the playoffs once during his tenure.
This is a very fair criticism that I had myself of his handling of the preseason. I’m not sure why he had Brad Idzik calling plays the first couple games and then took over himself when the starters weren’t playing in the final game. However, Brad is definitely an extension of Canales instead of someone like Thomas Brown who had never really worked with Frank Reich. I guess I’m sitting on the “wait and see” train, but if the offense has any sustained struggles, you can definitely point to how Canales handled both the starters and the play callers in the preseason as a reason.
Unbelievable: Will the Panthers have back-to-back winning seasons before 2030?
I think they can. It really depends on if they continue on the current path or decide to blow things up again between now and then. The primary reason for being where they are at now is changing the plan and trying to fix everything in the short term, rather than steadily improve and make long term decisions like they seemed to do this off-season and (mostly) last off-season. Stay tuned, but I...
