Unsurprisingly, this week’s focus for the Carolina Panthers will be quite similar to that of last week’s. But hopefully, there’s a little more meat on the bone to take away from this preseason contest.
Here are the top storylines heading into Friday’s exhibition with the New York Giants.
Take No. 2 for No. 1
Bryce Young’s preseason debut wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t really awful either. It just . . . left us wanting more, right?
He appeared as advertised—remaining cool, calm and collected in the face of constant pressure. The final line of 21 yards on a 4-of-6 clip, however, didn’t pop much.
Well, hopefully we’ll get more pop tonight—and that will ultimately fall on head coach Frank Reich and the offensive line.
As for the former, Reich admitted after last Saturday’s shutout loss to the New York Jets that he kept his play-calling “very generic” by design. Will he and offensive coordinator Thomas Brown open up a few more wrinkles and let their rookie rip?
And to allow that rookie to rip, well, let’s take that over to the next slide . . .
Meeting the standard
No position group disappointed more in the preseason opener than the hog mollies. Heck, offensive line coach James Campen promptly held a private meeting—one that will seemingly remain private—after the game to hash out the performance.
That game saw Carolina’s quarterbacks eat eight hits and five sacks. Three of those hits and one of those sacks happened to Young, whose commendable poise was overshadowed by a lack of protection.
The main event of the front will, again, be at the right guard position—as the team continues to look for the temporary replacement to Austin Corbett. Young’s fellow rookie in Chandler Zavala may see the most interesting chances from the spot.
The early edge
The backer battle behind the duo of Brian Burns and Justin Houston saw second-year speedster Amaré Barno fire the opening shot. Last year’s sixth-rounder led the defense with three pressures and chalked up their only sack of Saturday’s loss.
Meanwhile, the field—consisting of Yetur Gross-Matos, DJ Johnson, Kobe Jones and Eku Leota—combined for two pressures. (Leota had both.)
Can that group strike up a fire at the Meadowlands and get this competition going?
