Dave Canales’ 5 takeaways from the Panthers’ rough opening loss to the Jaguars
Panthers head coach Dave Canales said, after watching game film on Monday morning, that he felt two ways about Sunday’s season-opening loss:
Disappointed, yes. But encouraged.
“And I can sense that from this group as well,” the second-year head coach said about 24 hours less after the Panthers’ 26-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
“I can sense that they know that we have a team that can be good, that can play a really good brand of football,” he continued. “I can sense that from the feeling I got in our team meeting. The look in their eyes. The disappointment afterward, but also this sense of, ‘Guys, we can do better than this.’”
Here is how the team can improve on its rough start to the 2025 season, according to Canales — plus some other important updates.
Burning the play clock: Canales addresses offensive operational issues
The Panthers had two drives that burned over five minutes of game clock on Sunday. One yielded a field goal. The other, a turnover on downs.
Some of that could be explained by at-the-line adjustments, a propensity to get Chuba Hubbard and the run game going. But much of that, Canales said, is a combination of not getting the play into quarterback Bryce Young in time and Young also not getting out of the huddle fast enough.
In other words: It’s an operational bug — not a feature.
“That’s something that we want to get better at,” Canales said, when asked about getting the plays off with only a few seconds left in the play clock. “So we’ll be attacking that this week.”
Such an issue “creates more challenges” for the Panthers offense, Canales said.
“We have the information we need to get the hot (routes) right,” he said. “To get the protection right. But it’s those critical 5 or 6 seconds — it doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but it’s everything for us to be able to play at the line of scrimmage, get the right looks and execute.”
Tackling issues: Explaining the 71-yard run and more
The headlining issue of the Panthers’ defense on Sunday was something you’ve heard before: This defense couldn’t stop the run.
Carolina gave up 200 rushing yards on Sunday. Most of which arrived via Travis Etienne Jr., who had 143 yards on the day — half of which came on a 71-yard rush in the second quarter.
Canales said that the 200-yard game — the seventh consecutive game the Panthers have given up over 200 rushing yards, dating back to last year — was mostly a product of poor tackling.
“Coming off the film, the scheme was there; we gotta get guys down,” Canales said. “We had a couple of (tackles for losses) available for us early on in the game. We gotta get the guy to the ground.
“The big 70-yarder was really like a free player — we got two guys outside, two guys in the D-gap, and we’re trying to spill that so Tre’von Moehrig can be in position to make that play. They cut us off, so all of a sudden, he’s got a decision to make. Do I jump inside or hop back out? And the ball got popped out there, and Nick Scott had a chance to make that tackle and didn’t get him down.”
This issue goes further back than the Canales regime. In 35 games with Ejiro Evero as the team’s defensive coordinator, the Panthers have given up 120 rushing yards or more 26 times.
Reliving that fourth-and-1 play call
The play that caused the most hand-wringing and head-scratching on Sunday was arguably the most consequential one of the game: on the Panthers’ first drive of the second half, fourth-and-1 on the Jaguars’ 5-yard line.
Canales called a play that solicited an empty backfield. The result? A snap that appeared to surprise Young; tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders and receiver Xavier Legette floating to the left; Young throwing the ball to the back pylon where no one was. Turnover on downs.
“We had good matchups,” Canales said, echoing what he said Sunday after the game. “We had what we wanted. We just gotta execute it. And that’s kind of what we went back to. Bryce and I had that conversation. He liked the call. We had guys in good matchups, and we just gotta execute.”
Turk Wharton out for 2-4 weeks, plus other injury news
Defensive lineman Turk Wharton — who was making his debut for the Panthers on Sunday — was having a great game before going down in the second quarter with a hamstring injury and not returning.
After Wharton’s MRI, Canales said the lineman is going to miss “two to four weeks.” Canales did not know if he’d be moved to the injured reserve Sunday.
In other injury news: Pat Jones II, who suffered an ankle injury Sunday, is “going to be OK” despite some soreness this morning.
And left tackle Ickey Ekwonu, who underwent an appendectomy a little over two weeks ago, is still day-to-day.
Canales on Ekwonu: “He had a great workout today. I think with this thing, what I’m learning, is that every day is a huge leap in that direction. I expect him to be back this week. I hope he is. We’re going to put him back out there in practice and in a limited fashion and make sure he’s pushing on people and feels confident to go.”
Canales ‘pushing’ for younger players to play on defense
The Panthers’ coaching staff and front office have been echoing the same thoughts all offseason — that developing the young players is a core tenet of their long-term plan.
And that was true on offense. Brycen Tremayne, 25, for instance, got more snaps (19) than David Moore (12) at the receiver position Sunday. Second-year tight end JT Sanders took the most snaps at the tight end spot — 61% of all offensive plays.
But on defense, that wasn’t necessarily true. Only two second-year players played the bulk of the defensive snaps — linebacker Trevin Wallace (86%) and cornerback Chau Smith-Wade (71%) — whereas rookie outside linebackers Nic Scourton (27%) and Princely Umanmielen (12%) played very little.
Moreover: Second-year safety Demani Richardson didn’t play a defensive snap; rookie safety Lathan Ransom played nine defensive snaps and 12 on special teams.
When asked about the team’s playing distribution Sunday, the coach responded: “I’m pushing that.”
“I’d love for all of our young guys to play,” Canales said. Evero, the defensive coordinator, calls the plays on defense and serves as the “head coach of the defense” in many ways. “I really believe that it is so valuable for those guys to be out there. Are they going to be perfect? No. Will every rep that they take be valuable and beneficial for their future? Yes. And so I would love for those guys to get opportunities out there so we can see what we have. And also just knowing that it’s a long season and a lot of people are going to play at different times. It’ll help us going forward.”
Canales affirmed that it wasn’t a conversation he’d have to have with Evero. He said it was something the Panthers have to address “collectively as a staff.”
Quick hits
- The Panthers made two transactions on Monday. The team announced it signed defensive tackle Tommy Akingbesote and cornerback Israel Mukuamu to their practice squad. Mukuamu is from Charlotte. The slots on the PS opened up after defensive tackle and 2024 draft pick Jaden Crumedy was promoted to the active roster earlier this week, and after defensive lineman Sam Roberts signed with the Falcons ahead of Week 1.
- Canales confirmed he had a discussion with team owner David Tepper after the loss. He said it was a “great” discussion and didn’t delve further into details than that.
- Wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan notched 68 receiving yards on Sunday. That total marks the third-most by a Panthers rookie in their debut. Those ahead of him? Muhsin Muhammad (96 yards) and Kelvin Benjamin (92). “It’s cool, but at the end of the day, everybody on this team wants to win games,” McMillan said of the honor. He later added that he could’ve gotten two hands on the pass from Young on a fourth-down play in the third quarter, where his third-year quarterback tossed him a ball that saw him streaking to the end zone. If McMillan had hauled that 30-yard pass in, he would’ve had the record alone.
This story was originally published September 8, 2025 at 3:30 PM.
