Gee, how interesting can a matchup between two 0-3 teams really be, right? Well, every squad has a story—and the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings are no exceptions.
Here are the top storylines for what could be a fateful Week 4 fracas:
Big Bryce Energy
After a one-week freeze, the Bryce Age continues on Sunday—when Carolina’s prized rookie quarterback makes his return from an ankle sprain. But this year’s No. 1 overall pick hasn’t looked like much of a prize so far, at least in the box score.
While his tape tells more of the story than the print does, Young hasn’t put up top numbers—as he completed a hair under 60 percent of his passes for 299 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions over his first pair of starts. The offense, in turn, dragged through those contests—converting on only nine of their 28 third-down tries, hitting the end zone just twice and averaging all of 260.0 total yards.
The unit woke up under backup Andy Dalton in Seattle, as the 13th-year veteran tossed for 361 yards in the spot start. So can Young, who’s seemingly been rejuvenated by the brief reset, carry over his energy from this week’s practices into his latest outing?
Adam's revenge!
Man, that blue still doesn’t look entirely right on him, does it?
Anyway, if Young gets going, Thielen will probably play a featured role in it. He did for Dalton last week, amassing 11 receptions for a game-high 145 yards and a score in the 37-27 loss to the Seahawks.
Not that the 33-year-old needs any extra juice for an encore, but he’ll be welcoming in his old purple pals who released him earlier this year. Thielen, a Minnesota man through and through, had spent a decade with the Vikings organization—wrapping up his long tenure with two Pro Bowl nods and the fourth-most receiving yards in franchise history. (Mind you, this is a franchise that once employed Randy Moss and Cris Carter.)
While the “revenge” angle is a cute little kicker to this story, Thielen probably won’t be focusing on proving Minnesota wrong. He’ll be more focused on his own team and their own journey to respectability.
Griddy Lock?
As if we didn’t just establish that the Vikings have historically blessed themselves with some of the greatest pass-catching talent of all-time, let’s talk about Justin Jefferson.
Actually, what’s really left to be said about the game’s premier wideout?
The 24-year-old, when he was a 23-year-old, recorded a league-leading 1,809 receiving yards in 2022—and somehow, he’s on pace to absolutely obliterate that tally. Jefferson notched 150 yards in Week 1, 159 in Week 2 and a disappointing 149 in Week 3. That output has him on track for an all-time mark of 2,595 yards.
(This is where we’d say, “Obviously, he won’t be able to keep up a 152.6-yard average for 14 more games. But it’s Justin Joshua Jefferson—so who knows?)
Now, how are the Panthers going to stop him? Well, you don’t.
They, like the rest of the NFL, can only hope to contain Jefferson. And unfortunately for the Panthers, it’ll be an even tougher task without cornerback Jaycee Horn and safety Xavier Woods roaming the secondary.
