Canales is telling us, but we aren’t listening

[TD alt]

1 minute ago, CRA said:

I'd have no issue w/ a Trey Lance coming in and competing for the backup job.  And if he earned that? Well, if things got rocky you could give it a shot. 

But bringing in Lance to be your QB #1 battle out the gate? No thanks. 

Bringing in old Joe or Jameis to battle for your QB1 is a lost cause. Why would you put limitations on Lance? There is no good reason to. In a true competition, you let the play, pure and simple, determine the job status. Too many times, coaches and execs are taking all these additional things into account while QBs battle in a farce of a competition, because the starter has virtually been slotted in the top spot from the beginning.  

[CRA]

6 minutes ago, TD alt said:

Bringing in old Joe or Jameis to battle for your QB1 is a lost cause. Why would you put limitations on Lance? There is no good reason to. In a true competition, you let the play, pure and simple, determine the job status. Too many times, coaches and execs are taking all these additional things into account while QBs battle in a farce of a competition, because the starter has virtually been slotted in the top spot from the beginning.  

well, I guess in my hypothetical......I had different options competing for the #1 spot and it wasn't Bryce vs Joe Flacco. 

Lance in a 1 vs 1 QB battle right now just seems like the opening bar is already being set to low for the #1 spot.   I mean, bringing him.  But he should be the #3 at least when camp opens. 

[Gapanthersfan]

19 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The pessimistic side of me says that played a big part in them not bringing in another QB 

It’s the only sense I can make of it… or, they took BY’s ‘resurgence’ to finish last season as a sign that he had taken the next step and that Andy had played a big role in his maturation and keeping Andy would fit that narrative. 

The latter was my take when the season started, but I can’t help but come up with another possibility with the current state of affairs. 

[Khaki Lackey]

9 minutes ago, TD alt said:

Bringing in old Joe or Jameis to battle for your QB1 is a lost cause. Why would you put limitations on Lance? There is no good reason to. In a true competition, you let the play, pure and simple, determine the job status. Too many times, coaches and execs are taking all these additional things into account while QBs battle in a farce of a competition, because the starter has virtually been slotted in the top spot from the beginning.  

There's no real thing as a QB competition anymore. Hell, the one thing Rhule did right was trying to make Sam or Baker earn the #1 spot but all it did was dilute practice reps with the ones and caused excuses for failure. 

[strato]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

Oof. I couldn't sign off on that. Lance is a bust and hasn't been able to show any ability to be a good starter and White is a CFL/UFL caliber player. I'm thinking more like Lance as a 2nd/3rd string option to compete in camp and get a real veteran QB that actually has a track record of being able to not lose games. Tyrod Taylor, Jacoby Brissett, etc. Something along those lines. Like when we had Rodney Peete and Jake Delhomme. One sure fire bottom third NFL starter and/or upper tier NFL backup and then one gamble player.

Reasonable. I do like the idea of revisiting the how we found Jake model. For a couple of reasons. 

[CPF4LIFE]

Canales gave a real "type poo" answer to that question lmaoo 

[strato]

8 minutes ago, Gapanthersfan said:

It’s the only sense I can make of it… or, they took BY’s ‘resurgence’ to finish last season as a sign that he had taken the next step and that Andy had played a big role in his maturation and keeping Andy would fit that narrative. 

The latter was my take when the season started, but I can’t help but come up with another possibility with the current state of affairs. 

I think both angles could have factored. 

I mean, we have a conversation about it and I say “well Andy knows the offense and is a positive for Bryce” and you say “plus, if we bring someone who would really compete we may be making a problem for ourselves” and I say “fair point, let’s go with Andy”.

 

edit: this assumes there was a Bryce is the unquestioned starter mindset which I do assume myself. 

Edited 1 hour ago by strato

[Jackie Lee]

 

[CRA]

2 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

 

There is a reason it goes public Dave. 

[mrcompletely11]

8 minutes ago, Jackie Lee said:

 

Go fug yourself dave

[Khaki Lackey]

10 minutes ago, strato said:

I think both angles could have factored. 

I mean, we have a conversation about it and I say “well Andy knows the offense and is a positive for Bryce” and you say “plus, if we bring someone who would really compete we may be making a problem for ourselves” and I say “fair point, let’s go with Andy”.

 

edit: this assumes there was a Bryce is the unquestioned starter mindset which I do assume myself. 

Agree. Our QB room is like it is by design. A really bad design, but intentional nonetheless. If Bryce's play last year earned him this year, and he needed the corpse of the red-rocket as his safety blanket, I'm kind of glad we didn't waste any more cap or draft capital on QB.

 

[Chaos]

6 hours ago, Candler Cat said:

He knows

We know

We know he knows

Does he know we know he knows?

[KaseKlosed]

15 hours ago, ProcessBlue2 said:

I went back and watched the press conference from Monday again because I wasn’t really paying attention at the time. He’s telling us what’s going on, but we are just dismissing it as coach speak. Here it is in text.
 

Reporter 1: When you say with confidence, do you think Bryce is confident taking those deep shots, or are they being called? What is going on with that?

Canales: Yeah it’s a mix of all those things.

Reporter 2: What needs to happen for your deep passing game to open up a little bit?

Canales: Chemistry, timing, it’s everybody. Protection-wise, was.. um, finding the right opportunities, coverage-wise, um.. and then it’s just you know, the timing and me to you factor- getting the guys down there and giving them opportunities to make the plays.

Reporter 3: Is it fair to criticize the lack of vertical threat you guys had, like Xavier Legette had a post wide open but the ball got hit up, there are opportunity there but drops, play mishaps, etc. Are you pushing the ball downfield with your play calling or do you feel like there is a disconnect with the production?

Canales: In general it’s a group effort, yes lets get some more opportunities, um, to have those plays come alive- I will call them more when we have more success with them and those things come alive for us, but we have to keep working together, we have to keeping taking those shots in practice to make sure we are comfortable with them and uh; certainly for Brad and I to look at the pass game, coverage, and what they are giving us, uh pretty simple. When they are playing single high and everyone is at the line of scrimmage, we have to make the most out of those opportunities when we have them. Um, so that we uh, are a balanced offense which um, does play off of the run game, which we have got going but now let’s get the pass game going so we can really attack with an offense that I visualize for us.

Reporter 4: Calling and Bryce taking more shots back last season… why have you gotten away from it if it’s as simple as what you’ve said about kinda getting too reliant on the success of the run game?

Canales: By numbers-wise we are about the same, I think it’s just a matter of chemistry, the full group getting comfortable with those things and then making it come alive.

Reporter 5: Is Bryce comfortable taking those deep shots?

Canales: We will have to just keep growing as a group and make sure that you, we are at the time on task, the trust factor, the me to you factor, the.. all these things you know, and grow.

Reporter 6: What do you think will help the trust factor? When you say that do you mean between receivers and Bryce? Staff and Bryce? Or play calling and Bryce?

Canales: all those things and you know, it happens in practice and uh, we’ve had these things come alive in practice and we got to make sure they make it to the game.

Reporter 7: If you’re not seeing success in the vertical game, is there a way to alternate your approach to open up more YAC opportunities?

Canales: That could be a strategy as well, throwing and catching on some of the short/intermediate stuff um, but I do know you want to stretch the field at times and we get these vertical shots called and we try to make sure we are attacking the right coverages and then from there it’s confidence and the me to you factor which happens in practice.

So what I got out of that was he is calling it but Bryce isn’t throwing it. It sounds like Bryce is checking out of it for better coverage match ups and / or thinking he doesn’t have good chemistry with some of the receivers. Also how he totally skips Reporter 5’s question is damning as hell.

Vs. League Avg: Panthers were -9% in open rate and -0.08 in ASS on deep routes. Only the Commanders (41%) and Giants (40%) fared worse.

Route-Specific: On go/vertical routes, Panthers had a 37% separation rate (league avg: 49%; per PFF route study). Slants/seams were better (48%), but pure deep balls exposed the lack of speed/elusiveness.

Context: League-wide deep attempts dropped 8% in 2024 (2,359 total; fewest since 2009), but Panthers attempted just 81 (bottom-10), partly due to poor separation forcing checkdowns.

Why It Matters for QB Play (Bryce Young Tie-In)

This ties directly to the interview analysis: Canales cited "chemistry/timing" for deep issues, but the root is WR separation. Bryce's deep accuracy was 38% (league avg: 46%), but when WRs generated ≥2 yards separation, it jumped to 52%

[KaseKlosed]

Panthers now average 0.32 ASS on deep routes (league avg: 0.28) and a 55% open rate on deep targets (league avg: 52%). They've racked up 28 deep completions (top-10) for 892 yards (8th), a far cry from 2024's bottom-5 finish. Young's deep accuracy sits at 48% (league avg: 46%), with 8 deep TDs (tied for 7th).

 

Key Panthers WRs on Deep Routes (Through Week 10)

Roster shakeup: Adam Thielen was traded post-cuts; Jalen Coker is on IR (injured early); Hunter Renfrow was re-signed as a slot option but sees occasional deep looks. McMillan and Xavier Legette (2024 1st-rounder) form the core vertical duo

 

.Team Total: 71 deep targets (12th in NFL); 30 completions (9th); 958 deep yards (7th).

Strength: McMillan's addition has flipped the script—85th percentile in single-coverage separation (per PFF). Legette's growth adds balance.

Weakness: Depth beyond the top two is thin; Renfrow provide YAC but not elite separation (group ranks 18th in deep YAC).

Comparison to Other Teams

Panthers WRs are now solid mid-tier, a huge leap from 2024's bottom-5. McMillan has vaulted them past teams like the Giants/Patriots, but they're not yet elite (e.g., trailing Eagles/Chiefs). (Min. 65 deep targets/team.)

 

Sources: PFF Receiving/Separation Reports (2025), Next Gen Stats, FantasyPros Advanced WR Metrics

Edited 1 hour ago by KaseKlosed