‘There’s nothing like the playoffs,’ even if some Carolina Panthers won’t admit it
While head coach Dave Canales was hanging onto every play of the Falcons-Saints game on Sunday — the one in which the Falcons ultimately prevailed and sent the Carolina Panthers to their first playoffs since 2017 — Mike Jackson was doing something else.
Playing video games, to be precise. 2K.
The cornerback received texts and checked X occasionally, yes. And he was excited to hear that the Panthers were NFC South champions and thus would host their first playoff game in 10 years.
But come Tuesday evening, with an orange hoodie tucked over his head, Jackson wouldn’t admit that anything about this week will be different than the others that preceded it. Not the slightly different practice schedule — the team plays at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday in Bank of America Stadium instead of its typical Sundays. Not the extra cameras that’ll be there on game day. Not the history at stake.
Instead, he offered some muted answers of the back-to-business variety. The seventh-year NFL veteran said “it’s going to be intense” but that “at the end of the day it just comes down to the fundamentals of football.” He added that “when you go out there, you’re not trying to trick nobody” — that instead you’re just trying to be who you are and “do your job and play football.” Later, when asked about the four defensive playmakers they’ll presumably have against the Rams that they didn’t have in their first meeting against them this season — Jaycee Horn, Christian Rozeboom, Tre’Von Moehrig and Claudin Cherelus — Jackson shrugged.
“It helps a lot,” Jackson said of the returners. “But at the same time we can’t chase what happened the first game. Because this is a whole new game, a whole new day.”
“Don’t get so caught up in this playoff, wild card — whatever,” Jackson added. “Focus in on my technique. Focus in on what I gotta do to put myself and the team in position to win.”
You might think this mentality is strange heading into one of the most consequential games in franchise history — and perhaps the most consequential game of the David Tepper era. Ask around the locker room, and you might find things even stranger: Tetairoa McMillan watched a movie instead of watching the Falcons-Saints game, saying he “didn’t want to stress” over something he couldn’t control. Quarterback Bryce Young similarly tuned into the game’s last two minutes. Rookie safety Lathan Ransom admitted he was “excited” for the prospects Tuesday — but that he also didn’t know any other world than playoff football, citing his one year in the NFL and his national championship pedigree at Ohio State.
It might make you wonder: Is this week different ... at all?
Ask the players, and they’ll say no.
But is that actually true?
It might be, surely. The Panthers, after all, have 30 players on their active roster right now who have never played in a playoff game. Eleven of them are rookies. That leaves 20 who have played in the playoffs with other teams — seven of whom have won Super Bowls — and two (JJ Jansen and Taylor Moton) who have played in playoff games with the Panthers franchise. The locker room, in other words, has playoff experience that varies as much as you could imagine. How can a playoff week in Carolina feel different if no one is on the same page of how it should feel?
“It’s big,” veteran wide receiver David Moore said. “But at the same time, it’s just another football game. That’s how you gotta look at it.”
Then again, the players might just be trying to talk themselves into such standards, a virtuous endeavor. After all, things were different on the practice field, Canales said. The Panthers had full attendance at practice for the first time Tuesday in a long time. All 52 players on the active roster practiced, and the two on the injured reserve — guards Robert Hunt and Chandler Zavala — both were full participants. (Every NFL team can have 53 players on their active roster; Carolina waived two on Tuesday and only added one, opening the door for a potential return of either of the IR guys later this week.)
Even Canales — the spokesperson for incremental progress — couldn’t help but admit that there’s something different about playoff football in the NFL.
“As much as I preach every game is a championship opportunity, there’s nothing like the playoffs,” Canales said. “It just brings an energy. It brings a sense of pride. We know that it’s an exclusive group, and we had to work really hard to be in this position.”
So where does the truth meet gamesmanship? Where does intention meet reality?
Christian Rozeboom, one of the seven in this locker room who have been to the Super Bowl peak, shrugged when asked how this game compares to others. He was even specifically asked about the last time the Panthers hosted the Rams and how that impacts Saturday’s matchup.
“It’s kind of like playing Tampa Bay twice in three weeks,” Rozeboom said, offering no extra weight to the playoff stakes of it all. He added, “They’re going to have their adjustments, and we’ll have our adjustments. They got some guys coming back healthy, and we got some guys coming back healthy.”
Rozeboom was then asked if he would reach out to any of his former teammates on the Rams this week. He was there a year ago, in the same position of preparing for a playoff run, before signing to Charlotte in free agency in March.
Rozeboom admitted that he connected with a few Rams guys before the Week 13 game, especially since he was out with an injury. But would he do that again ahead of Saturday?
He smiled, as if he was hinting he had more to say.
“Not this week.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
