The Falcoholic
After a tense battle against a perennial NFC South contender in the Buccaneers and a primetime battle against a tough-to-beat Vikings team, Week 3 gives the Falcons something a little less intimidating with the Carolina Panthers. The danger is in overlooking Carolina, as the Falcons did to their considerable detriment a year ago.
I don’t mean to imply that the Panthers are hopeless, but nor are they a good football team. They’re waiting for pieces to gel, players to take the next step, and good fortune to break their way more consistently, much like the stuck-in-the-mud Falcons of 2022. The difference is that Carolina may have their quarterback—the jury’s very out on that—and are pretty damn banged up already. I don’t have high hopes for their 2025 season, but then, I never did.
Nonetheless, the Falcons found out last year that Young is capable of catching fire, and there are roster changes and the specter of a divisional mudfight to make them justifiably wary of Carolina. Let’s take a look at the matchup ahead.
Just like last year’s final game, the Falcons completely outclass this Panthers team on paper. Unlike last year, the defense is looking pretty good for Atlanta, which will hopefully swing the outcome.
Carolina has talent, but this is probably a pretty good reflection of who they are and how things will look the rest of the way. They can occasionally be interesting because of their pass rushers and ability to create turnovers and can pass their way back into games they’ve fallen out of to an extent, but every indicator is that they will once again be a below average team.
Since the last time we saw them, the Panthers have not changed a ton, but they have re-tooled their receiving corps and defense.
On offense, they added Rico Dowdle to back up Chuba Hubbard with prized draft pick Jonathan Brooks back on the shelf for the second straight year and added two new faces at receiver. The most important one is Tetairoa McMillan, a gifted 6’5” receiver who already looks like Young’s most compelling target. They also added longtime Raiders receiver Hunter Renfrow, who is coming off a dangerous game where he reeled in seven passes for 48 yards and two touchdowns. Billy Bowman Jr. will have his hands full with the veteran on Sunday.
Defensively, the changes were more sweeping. The Panthers added defensive tackle Bobby Brown and linebacker Christian Rozeboom from the Rams, safety Tre’Von Moehrig from the Raiders, and Patrick Jones from the Vikings. The hope was that they could rebuild a run defense that was terrible a year ago, but the early returns on that are mixed. The draft brought in interesting pass rushers in Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen and depth, and Umanmielen has Carolina’s lone sack to this point.
It wasn’t a transformative offseason, but McMillan figures to be good for a long time, Renfrow is helping now, and the...
