It is getting late early. Buckle your seatbelts and be prepared for a long season. We can only be thankful for Panthers fans sake that David Tepper did not have any drinks in his vicinity on Sunday, or anything else the Carolina Panthers team owner could throw in frustration and anger.
The Panthers shelled out money hand over fist and spent this offseason attempting to improve after posting an embarrassing 2-15 record last season. They hired a new head coach, Dave Canales from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They improved the team around quarterback Bryce Young. But nothing was different on Sunday afternoon.
“This doesn’t define us,” Young said. “It’s a long year.”
The Panthers’ excitement for their new start was burned to the ground before halftime of the season opener. They were getting blown out by their division rival the New Orleans Saints 30-0 before their season was even thirty minutes old.
It took quarterback Derek Carr and the Saints’ new offense one series to produce a touchdown on an explosive play, and one half to score 30 points.
“That was a fun way to start the season,” said Carr, who got booed in the Superdome at times last season, but heard only rousing applause this time. “They liked us a lot today. That was nice.”
Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams each got in on the action and ran for touchdowns and Blake Grupe booted four field goals, two from beyond 50 yards, in a near perfect debut for new Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak. His first game calling plays resulted in the most points the Saints have ever scored in a season opener. Who could ask for anything more.
“That’s what we made some changes for,” Kamara said. “I’ve been here a while and I know what it’s supposed to feel like, and it felt good today.”
Young, who struggled to find his footing as a rookie after being the first overall draft pick out of the University of Alabama, following the Panthers’ blockbuster trade to move up eight spots to get him, threw a head-scratching interception on his first pass of the season. Things did not get better. He threw a worse interception to start the second half, overthrowing an open target, Adam Thielen. The Saints turned that pick into a touchdown and a 37-3 bludgeoning. At that point, Young’s stat line was laughable: 6 of 14, 50 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions and a nearly impossible 13.1 passer rating. It might be time for him to grab a clipboard.
Young had some empty calories and slightly padded his stats after the game was already out of reach, and the Saints rolled to a 47-10 victory. Young failed to complete even 50% of his passes, finishing 13-of-30 for 161 yards.
If Young was not the first pick of last year’s draft, there would most likely be loud talks of benching him. Canales is one game into his NFL head coaching career and because his team’s owner has a quick trigger, he has to be sweating and a little worried about how long he will get if Sunday’s result is what can expect for the next 16 weeks.
“The nature of the loss matters, but whether it was by three points or as much as it was today, you have to just count them as a loss and then move forward to the next challenge,” Canales said. “In weeks from now, it’s not going to matter what the score was.”
Embed from Getty ImagesOne game is not a large enough sample size to jump to any conclusions. However, the Panthers’ performance was so bad, it is hard to not think the worst. Especially since Carolina was the worst team in the NFL in 2023 and Young was awful. The Panthers spent a boatload, more than $150 million on two guards in free agency, drafted a receiver in the first round, and a running back and tight end in the early rounds, traded for receiver Diontae Johnson from the Pittsburgh Steelers and made other additions. But, despite that hard work and energy, it all looks like a waste.
Tepper, due to his business background and empire, is not a wait and see kind of guy in any scenario, and you have to imagine losing so badly in Week 1 after all of those investments will have him uptight and on edge more than normal.
Young’s noticeable regression and struggles Sunday are the biggest concern and footnotes to take away from the contest. The Panthers already have buyers’ remorse and presumably figured out they made a grave error picking Young over the Houston Texans’ C.J. Stroud. But one season was not enough to wave the white flag on Young. Yet there cannot be a ton of optimism after Sunday. If Young is as bad as he has looked through one game of his second season, that will set the Panthers back at least a decade, especially considering what they gave up in draft capital to trade for him.
There is still plenty of time left this season to turn around, and perhaps the Panthers will not be as bad as they looked in the opener. If they do not improve, heads will roll and major changes will be in order. And it might not take Tepper until the end of the season to make them.
The Panthers host Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
The Saints are on the road vs. Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.
