Panthers are undoubtedly entertaining. Next step? Win more, starting Sunday vs. Eagles
“Are you not entertained?” Russell Crowe shouts in “Gladiator” during one of the movie’s iconic scenes. “Is that not why you are here?”
I thought of that scene the other day after Carolina Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer made his second trade in nine days, a deal that also marked his 13th trade in nine months. If nothing else, these Panthers are interesting. We are entertained, which is more than I can say for a lot of previous Carolina teams.
At 3-1, the Panthers want to do more than entertain, of course. They want to beat the Philadelphia Eagles at home Sunday (1 p.m., Fox), stay tied for first place in the NFC South and continue to chart an early path toward the playoffs.
Sunday is a big chance for Carolina. Really, the next four weeks are. Every team Carolina plays for the rest of October currently sits at 1-3 in the NFL standings.
So we’ve reached the point in the season where the Panthers need to morph from entertaining to proficient. They need to stack up some wins against mediocre opponents before they get to December, when they hit the final four-game gantlet of at Buffalo, at New Orleans and Tampa Bay (twice!).
Now, though, the Panthers are playing well and playing teams they mostly should beat. In four games so far, they’ve only had one terrible quarter — that third-quarter monstrosity at Dallas, when Carolina was outscored, 20-0. Other than that, the Panthers have graded around a B+ and sometimes higher, even with the injuries piling up.
“We have a good team right now,” coach Matt Rhule said Wednesday, in the aftermath of the Panthers’ sudden trade for cornerback Stephon Gilmore, a Rock Hill native. “We’re trying to become a really good team. We’re trying to become a great team.”
It would help if Christian McCaffrey returns Sunday, but he’s doubtful after tweaking his hamstring Sept. 23 at Houston. Even if McCaffrey doesn’t play for the second straight game, though, the Panthers are getting such good quarterback play right now from Sam Darnold that they should be able to score in the 20s or even the 30s against Philadelphia — as long as the offensive line can hold up and Chuba Hubbard doesn’t put the ball on the ground.
The trade for Gilmore shows clearly that the Panthers believe this is a playoff team that just needs a little extra help. Gilmore has always been a Panthers fan. The guy can easily pronounce Tshimanga Biakabutuka’s name, for instance.
Gilmore said Thursday he would have likely come to the Panthers anyway if New England had released him, which the Patriots had planned on doing Wednesday afternoon if they couldn’t smoke out a trade offer first. Carolina gave up some spare change under the couch cushion — a sixth-round pick in 2023 that they will undoubtedly recoup at some point. And that was enough to get the 2019 NFL Defensive Player of the Year (although to be fair they also have to pay him $5 million, and Gilmore’s 2020 was mediocre and injury-plagued).
Gilmore is out until at least Oct. 24, though, with a quad injury. So the Panthers will he short-staffed once again in the defensive backfield vs. Philadelphia and its dynamic quarterback Jalen Hurts. Carolina linebacker Shaq Thompson will be missing, too. In the NFL’s endless push-pull over who is leaving from injury and who is coming back from injury, this won’t be one of the Panthers’ better injury weeks.
Still, the Panthers are good and aching to get better fast. Fitterer has made trades in back-to-back weeks now for cornerbacks, with C.J. Henderson being the first.
Carolina keeps churning the roster, trying to find an edge.
“This is the way Scott’s wired,” Rhule said, speaking of Fitterer. “And this is the only way I know. I don’t want to sit around and wait to win. I also don’t want to do things that jeopardize the future. I don’t want to take shortcuts.”
There’s nothing wrong with a shortcut, though, if doesn’t burn you on the back end. Trading for Darnold, for instance, was a shortcut that may well work out. He’s not a rookie you have to carefully groom. He’s a four-year pro who has taken his lumps and is obviously ecstatic to finally have a group of skill players to get excited about.
Right now, Darnold is the least of Carolina’s problems. And the Panthers are entertaining. But they have to show they can beat teams they should beat, like Philadelphia.
For a Carolina team that wants to be great, but has had three straight losing seasons before this one, that’s the next step.
This story was originally published October 8, 2021 at 5:12 PM.
