Panthers PFF grades: Linebackers thrive vs. Texans, almost everyone else bombs

Saturday's preseason matchup between the Carolina Panthers and the Houston Texans was a thumpin, as former President George W. Bush might have put it. Carolina's starting offense was supposed to go at least three series against Houston's vaunted defense, but they performed so poorly that head coach Dave Canales yanked them after just six plays.

On special teams the Panthers continue to look out of sorts and missed another makeable field goal. Meanwhile, on defense there wasn't a whole lot to like either - with the exception of one position group. Let's break down the Pro Football Focus grades for this week's game.

One Panthers WR posts strong grade

It's difficult to come up with a worse performance from the Panthers on offense in recent years, and they've got quite a lot of competition, there. On this side of the ball only one player posted a strong grade. Brycen Tremayne led the team with three catches and 46 yards and earned the highest PFF grade on offense at 77.0 overall for his efforts. Unfortunately, the rest of the offense seemingly forgot to get off the bus. Exactly zero other Panthers offensive players earned a grade of 70.0 or higher this week.

All three quarterbacks bomb

It was a small sample size (seven total snaps) but PFF naturally didn't like what they saw from starting quarterback Bryce Young. He posted a 49.7 overall grade, including a 51.9 in passing for his brief action on the field. Andy Dalton saw only six snaps before an elbow injury sidelined him - and his grade was even lower, coming in at 41.0 with a 41.9 mark in passing. Jack Plummer was the worst of it, coming in with a 35.3 passing mark and an overall grade of 34.9. Only tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders (32.0) had a lower grade this week for Carolina's offense.

Linebackers lead Panthers defense

Defensively it was much the same story, but there was at least one exception to the rule: the insider linebacker group played relatively well, according to PFF. Special teams ace Jon Rhattigan earned the top grade here, coming in at 90.0 overall, including an 83.5 in coverage. Next was second-year linebacker Trevin Wallace, who posted an 83.7 overall grade, and third place went to Bam Martin-Scott, who earned a 79.5 overall grade.

There wasn't much else to like for this unit, with nobody else earning a grade higher than 72.3 overall.

Defensive line bottoms out

At the very bottom of the chart for Carolina's defensive grades were a handful of linemen and edge rushers. Nose tackle Shy Tuttle wound up with the third-lowest grade on defense at 47.4 overall, dragged down by a 50.8 in run defense. The silver medal of shame went to outside linebacker Thomas Incoom, who came in at 44.1 overall. The very worst grade on defense went to defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson, who posted a putrid 29.5 overall mark and a 34.0 in run defense.

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