Icege

Link to article CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nothing mattered more to the Carolina Panthers in their exhibition opener than the crisp play of quarterback Bryce Young during a 73-yard touchdown drive on the second of two series for the first-team offense. But that’s not to say the rest of the game was meaningless. So there was a lot for Dave Canales and his coaching staff to comb through from the loss to the Cleveland Browns, which Canales indicated wasn’t quite as bad as the 30-10 final score would suggest. Climbers WR Jalen Coker - "Leaned out" in the offseason with a stricter diet and training regimen, maybe some impressive snags including a TD and a one-handed catch negated by a penalty, and logged five special teams snaps after playing a total of 31 all of last season. CB Corey Thornton - Showed up against the pass as well as the run and is competing for CB3. EDGE Nic Scourton - Made Canales' favorite play of the game when he hustled to force Shedeur out of bounds for a 1yd loss. S Lathan Ransom - Was second on the team in tackles against CLE and seems inevitable to take Nick Scott's starting position. Fallers S Nick Scott - Has been helping Moehrig with calls but made a critical special teams error and seems destined to be overtaken by Ransom or Richardson sooner rather than later. Special teams - Negated a 46yd kickoff return with holding penalties, had too many men on the field on a Browns punt, and gave up 46yds on two punt returns. CB Shemar Bartholomew - Was one of the guys called for holding that negated the 46yd return, has been passed by Thornton on the depth chart, slipped on a play that went for a 19yd completion, and was a step slow on an in-breaking route that turned into a 12yd TD (but did have a nice PBU). Back-up offensive tackles - Nijman and BC got beat bad on third and long to give up a sack, and Nijman also was called for a facemask penalty that wiped out a 34yd one-handed catch by Coker.

1v1s between receivers and DBs underway. Couple of vids posted to Twitter that I'll have to get to later today if somebody else doesn't

Camp stream

Summarizing what I see to lessen the load on y'alls browsers with all of the tweets loading Full pads today WR Hunter Renfrow is back after missing the last two weeks with a hamstring LB Claudin Cherelus doesn't have on pads but is warming up individually LG Damien Lewis is week-to-week with a shoulder injury (has it wrapped) CB Jaycee Horn not in pads (stitches in his left thumb after last week's car accident) CB Akayleb Evans is practicing (missed the preseason opener) DT Derrick Brown (rib/oblique) is expected to have a limited practice Mike Jackson + CSW were spotted getting in extra work during special teams drills DE LaBryan Ray (didn't play Sunday) is not in pads either G Chandler Zavala is still nursing a knee and is not in pads

All of the discussion about 3-4 vs 4-3 when teams are mostly in nickel is... interesting?

Clapp and Penning both carted off That #1 overall pick is damn near guaranteed at this point... rough.

Evero's seat is uncomfortably warm, for sure, but I appreciate the team not scapegoating him after last season. They sunk everything into the offense and left the defense being held together by spit and duct tape. Then lose the two leaders in DB + Shaq to start? Ugh... I'm hoping to see more of a return to scheme now that he's got the talent to execute. Going to need a lot of luck though to get through the season healthy. DBs might not be as bad as originally feared (though a starting-caliber safety would be the cherry on top) and the DL is deep after all of the resources thrown at it... but the LB room is rough. I don't expect to start seeing strides until midway through the season. The Bills game I think will be a big tone setter for the rest of the season for the defense.

I expected Shedeur to look decent but tbh he looked better than expected. Even the Browns' second-string OL has to feel like a massive upgrade over what he was playing behind at Colorado... I think he'll benefit from sitting and watching for a year but hey... if the Browns are going to throw somebody out there he gives them the most upside imo.

Thornton was targeted six times. Only three were caught for 15yds (2 YAC, 7 LNG), one for a TD. He also had a PBU and a TFL. CB room might end up being Jaycee, Mike Jackson, CSW, Corey Thornton, and that fifth spot a fight between Bartholomew/Evans/Dotson/Reid.

Re-watching the all-22 and there was a chunk play to be had on that first third down where third-string LG Carter gave up quick pressure. TMac was set to come open deep over the middle. Bryce looked like he was going to dump it off to JT when the pressure came but had to pull it down and go.

DAWG

I can see him starting the season as the other safety and then Ransom or Richardson taking over after injury. Re-watching the game now that the all-22 has been posted and Trevon Moehrig looks reeeaaally good. He's sticking to guys in coverage, laying the hammer against the run, and communicating with the rest of the secondary to get them in position.

Beer for the article. Was just reading it yesterday and it has a lot of good info in it.

Starters look good as does depth at RB + WR. Should the OL stay healthy and somebody begin to separate themselves from the rest of the guys in the TE group then the offense should be good to go. Had some execution errors last night but that's what preseason is for: working out any issues before the games count towards the record.

Carrying the water for both Jimmy Haslam and Woody Johnson is wild but go off.

Son, this is a Panthers' forum. Feel free to go here to be excited about the Browns' new QB.

Confirming what the realists among the fanbase already understood: Depth, especially for some position groups, will be an issue as the team continues to rebuild/retool The defense will be a work in progress but has improved from last season Special teams, as a result of questionable depth on the defense, will suffer However, we did see some things to keep the optimists happy! The WR room is crazy deep with a very, very high ceiling should TMac, Horn Jr, and/or XL show half of the development that Coker has Bryce looked like the Bryce that came back from benching Corey Thornton is this season's UDFA darling that seems destined to make the roster And not to leave out the pessimists: omg Andy Dalton blargh omg Nick Scott starting at safety blargh Mercury is still in gatorade (or whatever the crystal girls say)

Which of the current 32 QB2s are a service to the organization and fans?