Winners and Losers: Preseason Game 1

[TD alt]

Some are making a lot of noise about Legette lising his spot to Coker based upon being ejected last evening. I'll believe that when I see it. Legette didn't lose a thing but his temper. 

[cmichd08]

7 hours ago, OnlyPantherFaninMaine said:

Winners:

Corey Thornton - Aggressive in run defense, capable in pass defense. Might be another UDFA gem. Loved what I saw.

Tetairoa McMillan - Showed the big play ability and hands to be selected in the top 10. 

Jalen Coker - Ascending. Might be the most reliable target on this team now, and going forward. 

Nick Scourton - Loved the hustle to notch his first sack. Had a couple TFLs as well. 

Losers:

Nick Scott

Andy Dalton

Special Teams

2nd/3rd String Defense

Jack Plummer

Xavier Legette 

 

Dalton and Legette should be tied for number one when it comes to be the biggest losers last night.

[spydaman27]

7 hours ago, ClawOn said:

Not a "loser" necessarily but Horn Jr didn't look as quick (to me) as I anticipated based on practice clips

Oh God the 6th round pick in in his first ever nfl preseason game didn’t look quick enough. 

[mc52beast]

I think Panther fans forgot about our history of making backup qb’s look like HOFers.

[panthers55]

So our depth is suspect for sure. Who didn't know that. It has taken us all offseason just to find starters at every position.  And it will take all the guys time to gel. What is preseason for? Finding your 53 and who can contribute right away. Did we find a few dogs in Thorton and Bartholomew? And we get to see some guys who we will want to stash on the practice squad. Overall I thought our tackling was much improved and effort was good. They say teams improve the most between the first and second preseason game. Let's hope so. Dalton was awful and he would be scary going in as the starter. And our back seven outside of starters were pretty porous. Keep steadfast and lets see what happens.

Edited August 9, 2025 by panthers55

[Davidson Deac II]

19 minutes ago, mc52beast said:

I think Panther fans forgot about our history of making backup qb’s look like HOFers.

If you are talking about Sanders, well this is a thread about Panther players, so he is not really a part of the discussion.

But he made some sharp passes last night.  Whether he can do that during an actual game is debatable, but he did nothing to hurt his chances last night.  

[panthers55]

2 hours ago, TD alt said:

Some are making a lot of noise about Legette lising his spot to Coker based upon being ejected last evening. I'll believe that when I see it. Legette didn't lose a thing but his temper. 

Truth is X showed some fire. Yeah it was stupid but I have no problem with it. We need dogs on both side of the ball.

[MHS831]

12 hours ago, Joe Bear said:

Leaving out Young is pretty wild.

Winners:
Jalen Coker, Bryce Young, Nic Scourton, Corey Thornton, Tetairoa McMillan, Sam Martin, JJ Jansen, Ryan Fitzgerald

Losers:
Trevor Etienne, OL, most of the defense and anyone who watched all 60 minutes

Etienne helped gift ESPN its highlight for the next 9 days. 

Yeah I was going to add Young--my only concern was when he had a free play (offsides) and then did not throw it deep--opting for a wide open WR (Thielen, I think) near the sideline and missed him horribly.

I would add Ja'Tyre Carter (LG) to the "Losers" list--second and third teamers ate his lunch.  Brady Christensen looked bad at LT at times, giving up a sack, but he is decent as a utility OL.  

Cade Mays was strong at C, based on the moments when I watched him.  They really do not like to show instant replays during preseason games--I think every play should have an endzone instant replay fwiw.  Mays, Zavala, and BC is pretty good depth on the OL, fwiw.

As for Etienne, several people seemed to have trouble gauging the ball (speed, depth) early on--I think the 7 pm time messed with some perceptions (In high school, it was harder to see incoming passes when the lights were on and the sky was not black yet--so I base that comment on my experience--not sure if there is any legitimacy behind it)

 

 

[Navy_football]

Really the only bad throw from Young was the one to Thielen on the defensive offsides play. And to be fair, he was gitting hit low as he was releasing the ball. Calm in the pocket and does a good job manipulating it. Takes his shots when he gets match ups. Very impressed with his first outing. Still needs to show it consistently. 

DJ Johnson - he just isn't the guy and should probably look to be replaced. Loses contain all the time. It isn't a physical thing for him as much as mental. Shy Tuttle still getting stone walled at the LOS. He is not good depth. And I was not impressed with Rico stutter stepping instead of hitting the hole a couple of times. One thing about Chuba, he hits the hole at 100mph. 

[Navy_football]

Etienne is elusive. Probably the most elusive RB on the team right now. Want to see him in screens out wide. But overall, he's the screen guy. He'll be the best on the team in space. His jukes are effortless. Kind of like Bryce. I get why they drafted him over a safety now. 

We need safety help. It ain't on the roster. Need a vet that won't get constantly duped by play actions and fakes. It's ridiculous at this point. 

[TD alt]

I get why people present winner-loser threads and articles, because it stimulates discussion, but I'm guessing that we aren't going to find the real winners and losers until final cuts. But if you forced me to pick one winner and one loser based off last night, then Corey Thornton would be the winner, and Ejiro Evero would be the loser. Things have a way of changing though.

[Khyber53]

2 minutes ago, TD alt said:

I get why people present winner-loser threads and articles, because it stimulates discussion, but I'm guessing that we aren't going to find the real winners and losers until final cuts. But if you forced me to pick one winner and one loser based off last night, then Corey Thornton would be the winner, and Ejiro Evero would be the loser. Things have a way of changing though.

About Ejiro Evero... this is a prove it year for him. I haven't believed that he's the guy, I just didn't see the schemes last season or before. He just doesn't look like a good DC to me, at least right now. I sure hope he proves me wrong, but last night their 2s were beating our 1s, their 2s beat our 2s and so on. Defensively we sucked.