As Panthers celebrated Jalen Coker’s 4th-down magic, the WR’s mind went elsewhere
It was fourth-and-3, in the middle of the third quarter, and there was a general feeling building that the Los Angeles Rams had finally grown tired of the Carolina Panthers and were about to put the plucky home team in their proper place.
It might not have looked like it, but the feeling was palpable:
The Panthers needed some magic.
So head coach Dave Canales kept his offense on the field in search of some. That’s not unusual, necessarily. Especially not this season. The Panthers have more fourth-down conversion attempts than anyone else in the NFL in 2025. But what’s unusual was what Canales saw — and how quickly the second-year coach trusted his eyes.
What did you see, Dave?
“Just matchups,” Canales said after Sunday’s 31-28 win against the Los Angeles Rams.
“And Jalen Coker.”
Quarterback Bryce Young snapped the ball, took a two-step drop and fired it to his second-year receiver, who’d beaten his defender on a go route. Coker snagged the perfectly placed pass and ran and ran and ran until he was caught from behind at the 5-yard line by Rams cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr. — and then Coker dragged Forbes into the end zone with him. Touchdown.
It was Coker’s first score of the season — and maybe the biggest touchdown of the year for Carolina. The cold-and-wet crowd was the loudest it’d been all year, too, stunned into screams as the Panthers took their first lead of the day.
And as everyone else celebrated the score, and their second-year receiver’s fourth-down magic, Coker himself found his mind going elsewhere. He found a sense of peace.
“It kind of takes me back to Week 1, when I was out, was hurt. All that stuff that’s been building up,” Coker said. “And finally getting into the end zone ...“
Coker shrugged and smiled, then practiced some understatement.
“It was good.”
Explaining Jalen Coker’s big day
To be clear: Coker’s Sunday alone was enough to warrant special consideration. The receiver played the game of his short NFL life, leading the team with four receptions on six targets for 74 yards and a touchdown — a massive part of the Panthers’ astonishing 31-28 win over the Rams.
Young didn’t just trust Coker on that fourth-down play; he trusted him on the final consequential play of the game, a third-and-5 with 2:17 left in the game, for a 10-yard pass that sealed the victory for good.
But what made it extra special was how far Coker had come to get there.
Coker, after all, was expected to be a massive part of the Panthers’ passing offense at the outset of 2025. He had a great training camp and an even better preseason, one punctuated with an exclamation mark of a preseason opener against the Browns, which featured a touchdown and a crazy one-handed grab. The team traded Adam Thielen away thinking Coker was the veteran’s heir apparent, in fact.
And then, a few days before their Week 1 game, Coker went down. Quad injury. He headed to injured reserve. It took him until Week 7 against the Jets to get activated, and it was a struggle to get ingratiated into the offense thereafter. Even with offensive coordinator Brad Idzik and Canales saying they wanted to get Coker more involved, his production waned. His targets stalled.
He’s been punching up against the sophomore wall the past few games, making most of his opportunities, but couldn’t break through until Sunday, on the biggest stage. And afterward, there was an outpouring of love from his teammates who’d bore witness to everything Coker had gone through this season.
“I mean, that’s him,” McMillan said of Coker, with a smile. “He’s proven day-in and day-out that he’s capable of making plays and being a big part of this offense’s successes. So there’s no surprise there at all.”
Running back Rico Dowdle agreed.
“Coming through when the team needed him the most and making those big plays,” Dowdle said of Coker. “Like I said, ‘Coke’s always open.’ He’s a great receiver. Great routes. I got to first see him last year when we (the Cowboys) played against him, and he had that explosive touchdown right before halftime. So I’ve known about Coker, and the guy just continues to work, keep his head down and was able to come through in a big-time way today.”
Added Coker: “I continue to hold myself to a high standard. And to play in this league, and at this level, you’re going to have to make plays like that.”
Jalen Coker’s play one of several special ones
There would be several other plays that warranted consideration for “play of the day.” Nick Scott’s interception in the end zone, ending an insane NFL streak from Matthew Stafford. Mike Jackson’s pick-six. Derrick Brown’s strip sack. Tetairoa McMillan’s fourth-down touchdown catch, a few drives after Coker’s.
But the plays that kept lingering after he was gone — the ones Canales and Young and everyone kept answering to — were the fourth-down plays. The Coker play in particular, fourth-and-3, the Panthers overstaying their welcome, until they were the ones kicking the visitors out.
“It’s single high. They’re man to man,” Canales said of those fourth-down plays. “Somebody’s got to win.”
On Sunday, the winners were the Panthers.
On that play, the winner was Coker — in more ways than one.
This story was originally published December 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
