Monday Morning Thoughts: Buckle Up, It's Going to be a Long Season

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Normally I wouldn't write off a team after three games, but this could be an exception. The Carolina Panthers are in trouble and there's no end to losing in sight.

After Sunday's 37-27 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, the Panthers are now 0-3 and have the Minnesota Vikings on deck, followed up by road trips to Detroit and Miami before hitting the bye week. It's not a far-fetched thought to believe the Panthers could roll into the bye with an 0-6 record and be well behind the eight ball.

The one glaring issue for this team entering the season has been its biggest Achilles heel - depth. Even with a fully healthy roster, the lack of quality depth behind the starting units was non-existent. Now that the Panthers are suffering key injuries all over the place, you're starting to see the remaining starters play way too many snaps and those who were projected to be backups slide into starting/more significant roles.

Entering Sunday's game, Carolina was already down QB Bryce Young, OL Brady Christensen, OL Austin Corbett, LB Shaq Thompson, LB Marquis Haynes Sr., and CB Jaycee Horn. They left Seattle with injuries concerns to WR Jonathan Mingo (concussion), S Xavier Woods (hamstring), and LB Frankie Luvu (hip).

All 32 teams in the NFL deal with injuries. It's not an excuse. Yes, the coaches always say "next man up" but it doesn't help if the "next man up" is incapable of getting the job done.

Before the season, I predicted a slow start for the Panthers with a 1-5 record heading into the bye. I also had them rallying to win seven of their last eleven games to finish with an 8-9 record. It can still happen. Things get a little easier after the bye week with the Texans, Colts, and Bears. But the offense has to find an identity before then or it will turn into a nightmare season. Carolina traded their 2024 first-round draft pick as part of the trade to move up and land Bryce Young, so there's no reward for finishing with a bottom-five or ten record this year.

The passing game found some answers yesterday with Andy Dalton under center. Adam Thielen had a breakout game, Jonathan Mingo showed flashes before exiting with a concussion, and DJ Chark made some plays. I do believe that will carry over to some extent whenever Young returns as the starter. For me, the biggest concern is with the rushing attack. Where has that dominant ground game that nearly led Carolina to a division title a year ago gone?

It goes back to injuries.

Again, you're without Brady Christensen (for the season) and Austin Corbett (for now) and they've been mixing and matching trying to find the right five to fill in their respective spots. Rookie Chandler Zavala has worked at both left and right guard while Cade Mays and Calvin Throckmorton have been worked in on the right side. The inability to establish the run is what takes this team out of its offense. Frank Reich even admitted in the postgame press conference that he didn't want to throw it 58 times. But if he didn't throw it 58 times, the Panthers wouldn't have had a chance.

"Yeah, you don't come into Seattle and throw it 58 times and win very many games," Reich said. "So that was not the formula that we wanted. The run game was non-existent. So we've got to continue to work on that. I did think that Andy handled the pass game pretty well. I think he handled the pass game pretty well, made a lot of good throws. We made some plays in the pass game. I thought giving 58 attempts and here -- there are times the protection broke down, but it wasn't horrible. I have to look at the tape, but in many ways, I thought Andy was pretty solid. I thought Andy did a lot of good things today."

The reality is, that many of the contributors who were a part of last year's turnaround are no longer here. And some of those who were are unavailable right now due to injury. When you have this much turnover, it's not a "retool". It is a rebuild. And until the Panthers get some of those injured pieces back, it's going to be a struggle.

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