Dave Canales Cannot Afford Old Mistakes in Panthers Preseason Games

Fresh off the Carolina Panthers' first in-game action of 2026, head coach Dave Canales is already thinking ahead to Saturday. The Panthers take their first road trip of the football year, heading to Buffalo for a preseason duel against the Bills.

After a 33-30 win over the Arizona Cardinals in the HOF game, in which zero solidified starters played, Canales is changing that, as he should. Speaking with the media on Sunday, Canales announced that starters will see game reps.

The exact number of snaps is important, though; it's one of three preseason games left, so this won't be a high snap count for guys like Bryce Young, Tetairoa McMillan, and others. Obviously, starters don't need to play beginning to end in the preseason, but they should play more than Canales intends.

Dave Canales Limiting Starter Reps for Saturday's Game

Dave Canales and Bryce Young at Panthers Mini Camp — IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

10-20 reps- that's the workload that the starters will see in their first action of the 2026 season. It's such a small sample size that unless something really drastic happens, whether positive or negative, there won't be any significant takeaways.

Canales: Bryce Young and the starters will play 10-20 reps at Buffalo.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) August 9, 2026

This shouldn't be a surprise, though. Canales is notorious for not playing starters much at all in the preseason. So far, not a great strategy from the Panthers' head coach. 20 snaps is roughly two series for the entire game, meaning that the starters will see significantly less than a single quarter of in-game action.

Injuries are a scary thought, and yes, keeping the starters off the field decreases the chances of them getting hurt. That being said, the starters need reps; offensive and defensive linemen need real snaps in the trenches where an opposing team is rushing at them with everything they have.

Young needs to feel a good amount of pressure while finding targets like Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan. Jonathon Brooks, more than anyone, needs more than a quarter's worth of action, as he's barely had live game reps since 2024.

Not only is it important individually for players to get warm individually, but the team as a whole has clearly suffered from a lack of preseason reps in the past.

Panthers Need to Avoid Another Slow Start

Dave Canales against the New Orleans Saint — IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Something in the preseason process has to change at some point. For the last two seasons in a row, the Panthers have started 0-2. It's a trend that can't continue this season, when Carolina is looking to make a leap and continue the franchise's upward trajectory.

Both of the last two preseasons shared the common theme of not many reps. Canales has been notorious for acting cautiously before the regular season, which has mostly limited starters to a series or two in preseason games.

Maybe that trend ends, and this is being overblown. Even so, two years in a row of awful starts to the season seems like plenty of proof that the Panthers are one of the least prepared teams entering Week 1.

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