The Carolina Panthers have only played two games so far in the 2024 NFL regular season, but they’re already coming apart. There haven’t been many good things about this team’s start to the season.
Their offense is off to a historically bad start, and their best defender, Derrick Brown, hurt himself and will miss the rest of the season. When you lose, dysfunction is likely to follow, and it may already be happening.
Today, the team lost 26-3 at home to the Los Angeles Chargers. After the game, wide receiver Diontae Johnson was asked if the lack of downfield throws shocked him. Johnson’s answer shows that things are not going well in the locker room right now. According to Joe Person at the Athletic, this is what he said.
Diontae Johnson on Panthers playcalling
“Yes, we all are. But things are the way they are. We’re not in charge of making the plays. “So it’s our job to go out there and do every play they call and record it.”
That’s not really what you’d expect to hear from a player who was expected to lead the Panthers in targets before the season. Johnson did have the most targets on the team today with six, but he only caught three of them for a sum of 15 yards. By the end of the day, Bryce Young had a terrible passer rating of 57.2 and only gained 3.2 yards per pass completion.
People who played with Young don’t seem ready to give up on him yet, based on what they said after the game. One thing that Johnson said about the play calls could mean that the players are already starting to dislike first-year head coach Dave Canales. Canales may be in over his head. His team has been beaten by 60 points in two games.