Bryce Young-led Panthers offense didn't 'earn' another series

Alex Zietlow, The Charlotte Observer on Aug 15, 2026

Published in Football

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The Carolina Panthers’ first-team offense was supposed to be out on the Highmark Stadium grass for 10 to 20 plays Saturday.

But in the end, they only played nine.

Head coach Dave Canales pulled the plug early, so to speak. And he answered to why postgame.

“My hope was 20-ish plays, but I also had a three-series cap in my mind,” Canales told reporters after the team’s 29-14 loss. “We didn’t earn those extra reps. The first quarter was over, we had three series, we went three-and-out three times. We gotta do better.”

There are two sides to such logic. Of what “earning” playing time means in a preseason context. The first might follow this line of questioning: Shouldn’t the starters accomplish something in order to “earn” sitting out the rest of a preseason game? Isn’t resting a reward in a game like this? And even so, shouldn’t poor play incentivize keeping the first team out there to codify communication, to establish routine, to actually execute?

The other side of the "earning it” argument exists, though, too. It sounds something like this: The preseason is important for starters, no doubt. But preseason games have other meaningful functions, too. Like figuring out who from the second and third string ought to stick around on the 53-man roster come cut-down day in September. Like repping shell offenses and defenses and mixing in personnel packages. And if the starters aren’t playing well, why should their failures ruin the rest of the game’s many purposes?

Canales abides by the latter. He made that clear a year ago, in the Panthers’ preseason game at Houston. And he did so again Saturday — in a more-or-less clobbering in which the offense didn’t earn much of anything.

Starting quarterback Bryce Young led three three-and-outs on Saturday. Young completed 3 of 5 passes for 18 yards and a passer rating of 67.1. Jonathon Brooks had three carries for 5 yards and added one catch for 9 yards. The only truly positive play on the first-team offense came thanks to a first-down reception from Jalen Coker … only for the gain to be undone by a Luke Fortner penalty. (And then, on the next play, Chandler Zavala gave up a sack, and the drive — as well as the Panthers first-team offense’s day — reached a merciful conclusion.)

There were penalties; the Panthers had nine for 78 yards Saturday. There were interior offensive line issues; the absences of starting guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis certainly didn’t help.

But there were also no overreactions. Young certainly didn’t do so.

Brooks didn’t draw much from Saturday’s result, either; his day was more about an emotional return, how after two years he was here, back on the field, starting. Cornerback Mike Jackson, after the game, took accountability for the two catches he said he allowed due to pre-snap alignment issues — but also shrugged away concern.

“Obviously not the start we wanted, not the drives we wanted,” Young said. “But you know, that’s part of it, part of the process. Lot of moving parts. Wasn’t able to execute. It sucks.

“Everybody wants to go out there and keep playing. Obviously, coaches have a plan. … It’s the weird part about the preseason: You don’t get that bounce-back (opportunity) — and that’s everyone, that’s not just us. All the groups, they don’t always know if they’ll get that play back. Part of it. We’ll go back, watch the tape and grow for it.”

The second-team offense outperformed the first. Backup quarterback Kenny Pickett was tough and accurate. Ja’seem Reed caught his second touchdown in as many preseason contests. Running back AJ Dillon proved he was a receiving threat as well as a running one. Even QB Kyle Trask and John Metchie found pay dirt at the very end of the contest.

But when the game still mattered, when the starters were out there, the Panthers fell flat. And didn’t deserve another set of reps if it came at the cost of everything else the team needed to accomplish Saturday, Canales said.

“It’s all valuable information,” Canales said. “These games are so important to me because we have to evaluate what we’re doing and what it looks like. Check out the film and say, ‘Look, here was the breakdown of some of these things. Here’s how we can improve fundamentally.’ All of that. …

“I always look at these opportunities in a positive way. At the same time, yeah, I want to score points. Run the ball better. I want us to find some explosives. We have fantastic players, and I know they’ll take this as a challenge and continue to go forward.”