Cat Scratch Reader
Y’all, I’m nervous. Dave Canales and Bryce Young seem like the real deal. They could be a winning combination of leaders for the Carolina Panthers both tomorrow and for years to come. But we’ve thought that before about some of our previous combinations of head coaches and quarterbacks. Some of those quarterbacks have gone on to greater successes elsewhere. That’s less true of the head coaches. What those coaches—and general managers past—have done is leave a legacy imprinted deep in the Panthers roster of poor free agency decisions and even poorer drafting. It has been a legacy of losing that consumed the culture inside Bank of America Stadium. One that we haven’t seen fully washed out.
Maybe Canales and Young have already expunged that legacy and are ready to build their own, brighter future for the Panthers. I kind of believe they can and will. I also kinda believed that of Frank Reich. I don’t trust my beliefs right now when it comes to the Carolina Panthers because every time I build them on hope, which is all we have to go on before tomorrow’s kickoff, they get pulled out from under me.
I’m also not alone.
76% of y’all are optimistic the team is heading in the right direction. That number jumps into the 90s tomorrow if the Panthers win or, depending on the nature of the loss, drops into the 30s if they lose. I’m expecting wild swings in confidence across this season as the team finds their feet. I am, in spite of myself, expecting them to find their feet. Maybe they don’t make the playoffs. Probably they don’t. But I think they give the Bucs a run for their money.
Then we can start to get unreservedly excited about things like which wide receiver is the most exciting on the roster. The answer to this question was obvious, but we’ll see if that holds true through the season. Maybe Xavier Legette steps up and steals some hype back for himself. Maybe Coker returns and becomes the Mr. Reliable he was threatening to be last season. Maybe Tetairoa McMillan is worth everything we hoped and more, and he outshines all of Young’s other targets. Any of those stories are welcome because I want nothing more (realistically) as a Panthers fan than to be having conversations about the successes of our passing game by the end of the season.
