The Monday following the Carolina Panthers total dismantling
at the hands of the New England Patriots, Dave Canales made his way to the lectern in the Panthers media room and told everyone listening that the team was taking a long, hard look at who they were over the first four games of the season. A promise to look at where they were at with their scheme and personnel to make needed changes going forward.Truth be told, when I heard that I was tempted to roll my eyes so hard they would push out the back
of my head. I didn’t, and decided that the second year head coach deserves a chance to go through some growing pains and chose to take that outlook going forward… at least for now.
Not long after, the Panthers released the underwhelming 2023 3rd round pick DJ Johnson in what would end up being the amuse-bouche before many other changes were revealed during a record setting day for the Panthers against the Miami Dolphins. For this week’s game review, let’s take a look at a litany of changes the Panthers coaching staff made in the last week that have, hopefully, set the team up for continued success.
Committing (or re-committing) to the run game
For a coach that would preach the value of running the football, Canales sure did seem to call a lot of pass plays during the first four games. Granted, some of them were necessary given that the Panthers were frequently losing by double digit points. Many times, it seemed like the running game was effective but underutilized in favor of a more volatile Panthers passing game.
After the Dolphins took their commanding lead, Canales finally began to prioritize running the football with Rico Dowdle, and by goodness did that man deliver. Down 17-0, a situation where everyone in the stadium expected the Panthers to start forcing Bryce Young to pass the Panthers back into contention, the Panthers ran the ball 5 straight times. The tone was set for the rest of the game and Dowdle went on to ruin the day for every Dolphins supporter with 206 yards and a touchdown.
Another layer of this re-commitment to the running game was Canales and the coaching staff’s willingness to go outside of their traditional wide-zone running schemes and implement more down hill, gap style plays. They even sprinkled in some other unique-ish ways of getting runners in space like reverses and pitch plays. Dowdle’s opening 53-yard scamper of the 2nd half was on a pitch play that you would not find many examples of during Canales first 20 games calling offensive plays.
Personnel changes in the defensive front seven
This was teased with the release of DJ Johnson, but on Sunday their changes to how they deployed their personnel made a huge difference.
At outside linebacker, despite both Patrick Jones and DJ Wonnum being healthy, the release of Johnson had rookie Nic Scourton out-snapping Wonnum on his way to producing a team best PFF grade of 89.6. PFF grades are not everything, but Scourton certainly played well enough to justify the team placing some faith in him over Wonnum.
At linebacker, those with a keen eye noticed that Trevin Wallace had taken the “green dot” for the Panthers defense from Christian Rozeboom. Wallace became responsible for relaying the play-call from the coaching staff and Rozeboom shifted into a more two-down linebacker role while Wallace played 100% of snaps. Wallace looked in command of a defense that allowed only 19 yards rushing on the day and Rozeboom looked to be playing much more free.
While maybe not technically considered a part of the front 7, Trevon Moehrig and Lathan Ransom took turns as honorary linebackers in an attempt to put more speed on the field to match the fast-paced Dolphins offense. We’ll see if this continues and the two thumpers continue to line-up near the line of scrimmage on every down, but at least for this game the duo’s presence heavily affected the opposing teams rushing attack and underneath passing game.
Leaning on the rookies
The deployment of Scourton and Ransom were already mentioned, but the rest of the Panthers rookie class had an overwhelmingly positive showing.
To state the obvious, Tetairoa McMillan is still very good at football. Not only does he consistently lead the Panthers in receiving yards week after week, but he has the uncanny ability to turn every defensive back he faces into 2023 Panthers cornerback CJ Henderson. You know, the cornerback who would panic in 1-on-1 situations and was constantly flagged for pass interference and/or defensive holding. Well, for the 5th straight game to open his career, an opposing defender has drawn a flag while covering McMillan.
Beyond McMillan, the other rookie skill position players on offense each had shining moments. 6th round receiver Jimmy Horn’s first ever NFL game will be remembered for his clutch 17 yard reception on 4th and 5. That catch set up rookie running back Trevor Etienne for a 12 yard run to the 4 yard line on the next play. Culminating in rookie tight end Mitchell Evans capping off the game winning drive moments later, with a 4 yard touchdown reception. To reiterate, the Panthers were set-up with 4th and 5 from the 33 yard line and turned to 3 rookies from the last day of the 2025 NFL Draft to essentially save their season. The trio of rookies – who, mind you, saw little to no playing time in the first month of the season – delivered on back-to-back-to-back plays and all but sealed the Panthers victory.
Honorable mentions to Princely Umanmielen who showed some pass rush juice in limited snaps; Ryan Fitzgerald for making all his kicks after a missing a couple in Foxboro; and to undrafted free agent rookie Corey Thornton for filling in admirably at nickelback in lieu of the injured Chau Smith-Wade.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week, Panthers fans. I’ll be back next week to see if the good vibes will continue after the Panthers face-off versus the Dallas Cowboys.
