This Panthers WR has always been explosive. Against Falcons, he showed he could be more
Carolina Panthers fans knew who Ihmir Smith-Marsette was before Sunday.
He was the team’s speedy wide receiver. He was the punt returner who’s already shown flashes of brilliance, including a return for a touchdown a few weeks ago. He was the personality who has never been shy about explaining his game, once calling himself “one of the baddest m-----f-----s in the league” with a smile while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, with whom he’d won a Super Bowl in 2022.
He still is all that, as he affirmed in Sunday’s game, which ended in a Panthers 9-7 win over the Atlanta Falcons in a rain-soaked Bank of America Stadium.
But could he be more?
That question was addressed against the Falcons.
“It’s special, just battling through week-in, week-out, just waiting for my opportunity,” said Smith-Marsette when asked about how it felt to have his most impactful day on offense as a Panther to date. “That’s the biggest thing. When my number is called I’m going out with the mindset that I’m going to make this play and I’m going to give it everything I got. So when opportunity came today, I was able to put on display my abilities and was able to just go out there and have fun.”
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound receiver didn’t finish with the most prolific stat-line Sunday. The 2021 fifth-round draft pick out of Iowa, who has played on four teams in his three years in the league, caught both of his targets but only yielded 1 receiving yard. But he ran for a team-second-best 31 yards on four carries. He also fair caught two punt returns and muffed (but recovered) another.
But talk to anyone in the Carolina Panthers locker room postgame, and you get a sense that he can be an asset to this offense.
“His number got called today,” interim head coach Chris Tabor told reporters postgame of Smith-Marsette, who the Panthers traded for in August. “He did a nice job. They did some of the jet sweep stuff, and kind of some of the inside handoff stuff. He just has a knack for kind of sliding through there, and it gave us another little wrinkle in the run game, which we needed today.”
Adam Thielen largely agreed. The team’s veteran receiver actually had a hand in bringing Smith-Marsette to Carolina in the preseason after seeing his potential flash in Minnesota.
“I think he has the ability to be a great receiver in this league, but I think his ability to do a lot of different things can really help a football team win games,” Thielen said of Smith-Marsette. “Changing field position. He can kind of keep the defense off balance with those jet sweeps. And then getting him in the pass game as well. So he provides a lot of flexibility for our offense and for our team.”
It wasn’t just Smith-Marsette who played well on the receiving corps, to be sure.
On that final drive, every member of the maligned receiving room proved their worth. Smith-Marsette’s number was called for a rush. Two plays later, rookie quarterback Bryce Young found fellow rookie Jonathan Mingo on a beautiful over route for 20 yards — and then two plays after that, DJ Chark made a toe-tapping catch for 18 yards that put the Panthers in game-winning field goal range.
There was a sense in the locker room that the passing offense, however imperfect Sunday, showed flashes of what it could be. That feeling was only heightened by that 17-play, 90-yard drive and by those soggy, difficult conditions.
Same could be said for Smith-Marsette — the receiver whose breakout game embodied the question the receiving room asks itself every game, every practice.
“It’s something we always talk about,” Smith-Marsette said, “Why not be the reason to flip things?”
“It starts with us, and it ends with us,” he added.
And something about Smith-Marsette’s performance suggested that Sunday was only the beginning.
