By David Rogers. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As a first look at No. 1 overall draft picks go, the preseason NFL debut the Carolina Panthers’ Bryce Young was fairly ho-hum. Young only directed the first three series in the New York Jets’ 27-0 drubbing of the Panthers at Bank of America Stadium, completing 4-of-6 passes for a pedestrian 21 yards, so no one is drawing any conclusions about his future.
Carolina head coach Frank Reich admitted later that the team’s offensive game plan was “vanilla,” that the coaching staff was just trying to see a lot of players and keep things fairly simple in a preseason matchup that means nothing in terms of its postseason ambitions, but he probably didn’t expect the lack of execution on several levels.
Although the Jets overwhelmed Carolina in all three phases of the game, what became most clear during this contest was the Panthers’ need to improve the offensive line play. Quarterbacks need time to find open receivers and neither Young nor relief pitcher Matt Corral — last year’s QB draft pick — got sufficient protection to orchestrate much through the air. One can always raise the question as to whether the QBs were getting the ball out of their hands fast enough, but the Jets recorded five QB sacks to rack up 35 lost Panther yards.
Running backs need gaps at the line of scrimmage through which to gallop — but few opportunities presented themselves.
Young and Corral combined to complete 19 passes on 28 attempts for 147 yards. Spencer Brown, signed as an undrafted free agent out of UAB in 2021, was the Panthers’ leading rusher, carrying the ball eight times for 34 yards. Chuba Hubbard picked up nine yards on four carries and Raheem Blackshear, a 2022 undrafted free agent out of Virginia Tech by way of Rutgers, gained two yards on one carry. Add in Corral’s one carry for seven yards and the Panthers rushed 15 times, gaining 52 yards, the longest a 13-yard pickup by Brown. It was only a first preseason game when coaches may be more interested in evaluating talent than taking a winning step toward the Super Bowl, but 165 total net yards on offense is nothing to write home about.
Failing to credit the New York Jets’ mostly reserve defensive unit would be a crime, too, as well as its ball-controlling offensive effort led by former BYU star Zach Wilson, trying to rebound from a less than steady NFL debut in 2022. Not only did the Jets defense shut out the Panthers with an interception, eight quarterback hurries and six tackles for loss, but the NY offense controlled possession almost 36 minutes compared to just 24 minutes by Carolina.
It may not have been a Carolina win but it gave head coach Frank Reich a lot to ponder afterwards.
“What we just talked about in (the locker room) was it was a good week that really just ended on a bad note with this game,” said the new Panthers head coach about the team’s first outing under his direction. “Obviously, the game weighs more important than the week, but you have to keep everything in perspective. So that’s what we do. What we do is we look at every play, every player. We evaluate everything. We will grow from it and look forward to diving into the tape and getting better next week.”
Reich was similarly philosophical in talking about Young’s debut with the first team offense.
“Obviously, we had a little too much pressure at times,” Reich conceded, before adding, “Bryce was accurate. He got rid of the ball quickly. There is some good in having to try to overcome some bad field position which we did not do. We got our second drive. We are backed up there pretty much. Those are great situations. We talk about this all the time. Let’s get the tough situations and put ourselves to the test. We had a couple of those today. We didn’t pass those tests but those are good to learn from.”
Other meaningful postgame Reich soundbites:
- “I thought Matt Corral showed some flashes.”
- “You don’t like getting shut out and getting beat, 27-0, but I have a lot of years in this league that tell me preseason scores are not the most meaningful thing. Not that we aren’t accountable for that. We are — but it is not the most important thing right now.”
- “When you are a new coaching staff, I just don’t want to show too much. Some teams don’t know the things we are going to do and there is some of it I’m willing to take on the chin a little bit in preseason to hide things we are going to do in the regular season.”
Carolina will look to learn from this week’s lessons when they take on the New York Giants on Aug. 18 at The Meadowlands, then return home to host the Detroit Lions on Aug. 25 in a final preseason tuneup.
