The Carolina Panthers—and pretty much everybody else, for that matter—believed they were rostering their best offensive line in recent memory heading into the 2023 season. Well . . .
In their 37-27 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, the group allowed a ridiculous 36 pressures of quarterback Andy Dalton—the most of any offensive line in Week 3. So now, according to Pro Football Focus, these humbled hog mollies have relinquished a total of 60 pressures through three games—which has them on track to absolutely shatter a dubious mark:
Buy Panthers TicketsPanthers OL has allowed 60 pressures in 3 weeks.
That's on pace for 340 over the season.
Most @PFF has ever charted was 297.
— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) September 25, 2023
The primary contributor to this weekend’s sum was rookie left guard Chandler Zavala, who let through 14 pressures en route to a 0.0 pass-blocking grade. Carolina’s fourth-round selection now leads the league in pressures allowed at 24—with the next closest player, Pittsburgh Steelers left tackle Dan Moore Jr., at 18.
Surely, we must provide at least some context to these numbers. The Panthers have welcomed those opportunities quite a bit, as they’ve chalked up more passing attempts (129) than every other team in the NFL besides the Minnesota Vikings (138).
They’re also without their usual starting guards. Left guard Brady Christensen will be missing the rest of the year with a biceps injury while right guard Austin Corbett remains sidelined after offseason surgery on his torn ACL.
In any event, James Campen’s unit is not performing anywhere close to well enough—which is a particularly frightening prospect for their 5-foot-10, 200-pound rookie passer.
