Panthers ponder what’s next after ‘maybe the coolest atmosphere’ ever
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Panthers lost Saturday at home, 34-31, to LA Rams in dramatic playoff finish.
- Left tackle Ickey Ekwonu tore his patellar tendon; surgery and extensive rehab next.
- Canales, Young and Evero will all return, but the team has to upgrade numerous positions.
Like all NFL years for every team except the Super Bowl champion, the Carolina Panthers saw their season end abruptly and with a lot of regrets Saturday night.
Carolina’s 34-31 playoff loss to the L.A. Rams was thrilling, devastating and will be remembered for the electricity that crackled through the stadium for four straight hours.
“Maybe the coolest atmosphere in the history of the Panthers,” proclaimed Carolina long snapper J.J. Jansen, who has been with the team since 2009 and played in more games than any Carolina player ever.
But when it was over — after Rams tight end Colby Parkinson made an acrobatic 19-yard touchdown catch to win it with 38 seconds left — it was really over.
Harsh reality set in for the Panthers, whose delicious “almost” on Saturday still wasn’t enough. Not only did they lose the game, but they lost left tackle Ickey Ekwonu in the first quarter to what turned out to be a very serious knee injury. Ekwonu has a ruptured patellar tendon, which will require surgery and likely between 6-12 months of rehabilitation.
So Sunday was an odd day for the Panthers, who had to pack up their lockers, turn in their digital playbooks and ponder what’s next. Said Jansen about the locker room mood: “Disappointment. Sadness. Probably a little bit of stunned-ness. I think our whole bench felt we were going to win that game.”
Unlike many years, the Panthers won’t be looking for a head coach or a starting quarterback this offseason. Those are the two most important roles on any NFL team, and the Panthers have them ably filled with Dave Canales and Bryce Young.
They also aren’t going to fire defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, although that one will be more controversial among Carolina fans. Evero has taken some heat (including from this corner) for the Panthers’ soft defense on the Rams’ final drive — on some plays, the Panthers were so far back that the Rams receivers had 10-12 yards of space before they ran into any resistance at all. But Canales said Sunday that Evero “absolutely, 100%” will be the Carolina’s DC again next season.
But change is inevitable, as free agents come and go (I would expect Rico Dowdle to leave, for instance).
“It won’t be the same,” said Panthers guard Robert Hunt, who for much of Sunday morning kept himself busy by getting teammates to sign one of his jerseys and mark the moment. “This team will look completely different. That’s the nature of this league.”
And it needs to be different. It needs to be better; the Panthers still need a good bit more talent (outside linebacker, pass rusher, offensive tackle, etc.) I would argue the Panthers came close to maxing out with their current talent level this season. They only ended up 8-10, counting the playoff game, but they won the NFC South and gave the Rams all they could handle in a game where they were 10.5-point underdogs.
“I think that last night was a microcosm of the season,” said Young, who threw for 264 yards and directed a Carolina team that scored the most points the franchise ever had in a playoff loss. “Just responding. Fighting back.”
Indeed, the fourth quarter in Charlotte contained four lead changes, which tied an NFL record for any playoff game. This came after the Panthers fell behind 14-0 early in the second quarter.
At that point, as Jansen would say later: “I bet you that America probably thought this game could be 41-10 and a blowout, right?”
Instead, the Panthers settled in and were half of what will be one of the best games of this NFL postseason, in front of a sellout crowd that got fired up by Cam Newton banging the “Keep Pounding” drum and stood up and screamed for most of the game.
“That was the best environment I’ve been around in my career,” Panthers tight end Tommy Tremble said.
It all got short-circuited, however, after the Panthers took a 31-27 lead in the final three minutes on a TD pass to breakout star Jalen Coker. Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford — the league’s presumptive Most Valuable Player this year — still had 2:39 left and three timeouts.
At that point, Rams receiver Davante Adams said, Stafford told his teammates: “Let’s go snatch these guys’ hearts.” Adams added admiringly: “That was pretty cold.”
Stafford then completed 6-of-7 passes (feel free to do the hand motion here) on the final drive. Those throws went for 71 yards and a TD. The only incompletion was a wide-open drop by Adams.
Said Rams coach Sean McVay of Stafford: “It was MVP type of stuff, what he did.”
Still, the Panthers acquitted themselves well. As Derrick Brown said Sunday: “So many people… just trash on this team and this organization.”
And that’s because, as Jansen pointed out: “For so long here, you know, we’ve been 5-12. We’ve been out of it in October.”
Not this year. The Panthers posted their eighth straight losing season, yes, but they broke their seven-year non-playoffs streak, won a ton of close contests and played well in their most important game of the season. On Saturday, they brought back pretty much every living legend they could think of and had them participate in pregame and mid-game ceremonies, if they weren’t already broadcasting the game (which is why Greg Olsen and Luke Kuechly weren’t on the field). And the team responded, playing well after its early nightmare.
“Just unbelievably disappointed we weren’t able to get it done at the end,” said Canales, who said Sunday that he would maintain his role as primary playcaller in 2026. “But the guys played incredibly hard, battled back and made it a game.”
Now the ritual locker room clean-out day is over and the offseason begins, with all the hard decisions that will entail. In the NFC South, the Panthers will now be the hunted. They have to get better to go beyond Saturday night. As extraordinary of a night as it was, it still ended in a loss.
Said Young: “We’re not entitled to anything next year…. It’s going to take digging even deeper.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
