Tag: Carolina Panthers

Carolina Panthers Update

By: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers are currently sitting at 3-9 but they have been playing decently well recently. The Panthers are 2-2 in their last 4 games and have lost close games to good teams in their last two. They beat the New Orleans Saints and then the New York Giants in overtime the next week. In the past 2 weeks, Carolina lost to the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs by 3 points and then lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 3 in overtime this past week. I personally have been pretty impressed by the way the Panthers have been playing as a whole. They had two big opportunities to beat Tampa Bay where Bryce Young hit Adam Thielen for a touchdown to go up 3 with a minute left. Unfortunately, the Bucs had all 3 timeouts left and drove down the field and got a field goal to tie the game to go to overtime. The Bucs got the ball to start overtime and they missed a field goal and gave Carolina the ball back. Bryce Young found Adam Thielen again with an impressive one handed catch on a third and five to put the Panthers in field goal range. Carolina tried to run the ball with Chuba Hubbard to get closer and make an easier field goal attempt, but he got stripped and Tampa Bay got the ball back. The Bucs drove the ball down the field and got a field goal to win. I personally am just happy that the Panthers look like a functional team again and are putting up fights against good teams. At this point in the season, I would just like to see them put together a few more wins and gain momentum for next season while securing a top pick in this year’s draft. I am also happy that Bryce Young has put together two of the best games of his career so far even though they were both losses. Chuba Hubbard also looks like a top running back and with Jonathan Brooks coming back Carolina has two good running backs they can use in the future. The worst part about the Panthers this year is the defense who is towards the bottom of the league in just about every category this season. In my opinion, if the Panthers just go out and get an elite receiver this offseason and build up the defense everything will be alright. I think Bryce Young is still the guy for Carolina, they just need to get him another weapon.

If Carolina can use their draft pick wisely they could be a good team next year. In conclusion, even though the Panthers are sitting at an ugly 3-9 right now, I think the future is still bright and there is not a lot more that needs to be fixed.

The Panthers’ Problems

By: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers have started off the season 0-2 and look like the worst team in the NFL again this season. They lost to the Saints 47-10 in the season opener in New Orleans, and then lost to the Los Angeles Chargers 26-3 in week 2 for their home opener. A lot of people wonder why the Panthers are just so bad this year. The reason why isn’t just from one problem, it is from a ton of different problems added together.

The first and biggest problem in my opinion is that their owner, David Tepper, is the worst owner in the NFL. He consistently makes the wrong decisions such as hiring the wrong coaches, like when he hired Frank Reich last season and he didn’t even make it through the whole season before he got fired. He hired Reich after Steve Wilkes almost led the Panthers to the playoffs the year before even after they traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers and got off to a terrible start. The players made it known that they wanted to keep Steve Wilkes around, but Tepper obviously did not care and we saw how that turned out. In my opinion, the sooner David Tepper steps down as the owner of the Panthers, the sooner the Panthers will turn things around. Tepper just has no idea what he is doing and he acts more of a fan than an owner. The Panthers also seem to make the wrong decision everytime about what players to sign. They traded for Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield in back to back years and neither of them could play well on the Panthers. Now Baker is playing the best football of his NFL career for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Sam Darnold has put together a couple good games for the Vikings. They selected Bryce Young with the first overall pick last year and have already benched him after week two of his second season. Young has started off his career 2-17 as the Panthers starter and I know he hasn’t been playing well, but the problem is not all on him.

If Mayfield and Darnold can play well when they are not on the Panthers, I believe Bryce Young can too. He has been given one of the worst receiving rooms and offensive lines in the league to start his career and as an undersized quarterback, there’s not much he can do about it. The problem is not just the quarterback position, it is just about everywhere on the field. The Panthers should start by figuring out if Bryce Young is the guy to build around or not. Then they need to keep getting the offensive and defensive lines better. After that, they should go out and get a top receiver who is in talks of being traded by their current team such as Tee Higgins or maybe even Deebo Samuel. That is the best way to start getting on the right track. If Young is not the guy, which right now it seems like he is not, they need to try to get a good draft pick and draft a top quarterback this offseason. They should not try to trade for another mediocre quarterback like they have in past years because we see how that has gone.

The final thing I will talk about what they need to do is they need to figure out who to keep and who to let go of on the coaching staff. Dave Canales is in his first season as the Panther’s head coach and it has not looked good so far. I get that we are only two games into the season, but if this keeps up he might not make it the whole season just like Frank Reich. At the end of the day, there are many problems with the Carolina Panthers organization, but I believe if they can start correcting their mistakes little by little they can turn it around.