Panthers’ offensive line holds meeting to address ‘not acceptable’ play in loss to Jets
The offensive line was one of the last units to stream into the locker room after the thumping that was the Carolina Panthers’ preseason opener on Saturday.
Leaders on the unit said they’d called a meeting among themselves — and the message was loud and clear.
“That s--- wasn’t good enough,” offensive tackle Cam Erving said of his unit’s performance. “It’s not about who caused it, it just needed to be said. And it was said.”
Saturday afternoon was supposed to be a lot of things. Among them: the soft-launch of the era of rookie quarterback Bryce Young, the return of Matt Corral after his preseason injury a year ago, the chance for a player to make an unexpected impact and extend his NFL life.
Instead, the prevailing sentiment that fans in Bank of America Stadium felt after the 27-0 loss was concern about one of the Carolina’s most senior units: its offensive line.
The issues began on the team’s first offensive series. On Young’s first throw, he completed an 8-yard pass to Adam Thielen but also got pummeled by Jets defensive end Solomon Thomas right after he let it go. That would mark Young’s only first-down conversion on his day.
He was under pressure on his third throw, too, after the Jets ran a stunt and linebacker Jermaine Johnson leveled Young again. Young’s pass fell incomplete.
Thus was the central theme of the No. 1 pick’s first NFL preseason game. Young ended his day 4 of 6 for 21 yards and punctuated his 11-play day with a sack. That means he was hit three times — hard — in his seven dropbacks.
“We just weren’t good enough across the board,” said a visibly frustrated Ickey Ekwonu, who got beat on that first series that led to Young’s hurried first passing attempt.
“He shouldn’t be getting hit at all,” the team’s first-round draft pick last year continued. “So at the end of the day, that’s on us, so we just weren’t good enough today.”
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Young only played three series, but the poor front-line play didn’t stop when he exited the contest. Third-string quarterback Matt Corral played the rest of the team’s snaps and took four sacks.
A postgame offensive line meeting of this nature is not typical, Ekwonu told reporters after the game. But neither was the unit’s play. The Panthers’ offensive line retained all five of their starters from the year before and a handful of their reserves — including the versatile “sixth man” in Cade Mays, who has been starting for the injured veteran guard Austin Corbett. The unit even held onto offensive line coach James Campen, a holdover from the Matt Rhule era who drew praise from Jets star quarterback Aaron Rodgers last week.
This seemed to add to the urgency after the game.
“First of all, today as a group was not good enough, not to our standard as an O-line,” guard Justin McCray said. “We just get back to work, man. We’re off tomorrow. Everybody should be able to get the film and see what they could’ve done wrong.
“So most of the time when the offensive linemen lose, it’s a technique thing. It’s on us. So we’ll chip away at that and get back to work on Monday.”
Both quarterbacks took a load of responsibility for the protection failures Saturday. Young, in his soft-spoken professionalism, explained that there were things he could’ve done to mitigate the pressure, like getting the ball out faster. Corral shared similar remarks.
But the offensive line was quick to take accountability nonetheless.
Even on the field — in the second half while Young wore only his jersey without his pads — some offensive linemen went up to the rookie and told him that the protection will be better going forward.
“I mean, we found out he could take a hit,” Erving said. “I mean, that wasn’t really surprising coming from where he played college ball at. So that kid’s been doing everything the right way. We have to make sure we do a better job of protecting him.”
He added: “Like I said before, man. Preseason or regular season, it’s not acceptable.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2023 at 7:30 AM.
