Derrick Brown refuses to blame Carolina Panthers' coaches, but he probably should

Welp, that happened. After months of hype and offseason hope that the Carolina Panthers might finally be turning the corner after closing the 2024 season out strong, it turns out this is still the same old bottom-feeder we've seen since midway through the 2018 campaign.

In Sunday afternoon's season opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars the Panthers were soundly beaten by a score of 26-10. The final score does little to illustrate just how poorly they played, though. That's the real disturbing thing about this latest Week 1 failure - on both sides of the ball the Panthers defeated themselves with atrocious execution.

Offensively, Bryce Young turned back into the pumpkin he was in his first two starts in 2024, which resulted in him getting benched. Austin Corbett couldn't even snap the ball right, Xavier Legette couldn't keep his feet under him and Dave Canales couldn't get the playcalls in a timely manner.

Defensively, the Panthers were supposed to be much better up front thanks to the return of Derrick Brown. However, they were once again destroyed on the ground, allowing 200 rushing yards to a mediocre Jacksonville rushing attack.

Here's what Brown had to say to the media after the game.

Derrick Brown said the #Panthers don’t need any more speeches. They need to execute.

He won’t blame the coaching staff. pic.twitter.com/fOBvGWNbEe
— Mike Kaye (@mike_e_kaye) September 7, 2025

It's nice that Brown isn't blaming the Panthers' coaching staff - but that's what he's supposed to do. The simple fact is that when a team executes as poorly as Carolina did yesterday it most definitely is the coaching staff's fault.

Canales could have helped by playing his starters more often than he did in the preseason, but that would have done nothing to resolve the consistent clock issues that were 100% about his own execution. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero seemed to have no answers at all for any kind of misdirection the Jaguars threw at them.

If things had gone differently over the last seven years the Panthers might have a case to clean house and dismiss this entire staff overnight. However, because they've been so impulsive and unwilling to give anyone a lasting chance that won't fly anymore. Carolina has little choice but to stay the course and hope that Canales and his staff can figure things out.

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