The Optimist: Title not found

The 2025 Carolina Panthers are officially a bad team. Some things about them are funny. Like how they dominated the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3, then lost to the New England Patriots 42-13 in Week 4. That is funny because the Falcons turned around to beat a solid Washington Commanders team 34-27. Given the Panthers second string outscored their first string yesterday 7-6, that means the Falcons came within two points of outscoring the Panthers over two weeks despite losing to them 30-0 in the first week of that period. While some things are funny, nothing is exactly fun.

The Panthers struggled to get any pressure on Drake Maye yesterday just as they struggled to stop the Patriots from pressuring Bryce Young, just as Young struggled to complete passes when he wasn’t under pressure, just as Canales struggled to call plays that were appropriate to the down, distance, and capacity of his team.

It felt bad to watch.

It felt worse because Young pulled the team together for a crisp, methodical touchdown drive on their opening possession. It felt worse because the defense followed up by surrendering two yards on a three-and-out to force a punt. We all had a brief, brilliant moment where we thought the Panthers were picking up where they left off against the Falcons. And then nothing good happened after that.

We have the privilege of clarity right now, small consolation that it is. It is clear that the Panthers are bad. It’s as obvious to you and me as it is to Young, Dave Canales, and David Tepper. It is unfortunately less clear what can be done about that. Injuries have played a significant role in where the Panthers are today, but so too has the in-game decision making of both Young and Canales.

I doubt either will be fired or benched tomorrow. For one, it isn’t obvious that either is entirely the problem, thus it is unclear if their removal would actually change things for the better. For two, neither can be replaced effectively and quickly. For another, Tepper is still trying to rehabilitate his image as a man with an itchy trigger finger. Removing them would be an impulsive move with little result for the 2025 season. There isn’t an obvious head coaching candidate who could right the ship this season just as there isn’t an available quarterback to step up who wouldn’t cost the moon to pry off some other team’s roster.

That said, firing the head coach and benching the quarterback of a 1-3 team that is coming off of a 5-12 season is a legitimate conversation to have. Many fans around the Carolinas and the internet at large are having this conversation right now and it is still September. That sucks.

It isn’t impossible that something clicks in this team and they piece themselves together into a competitive squad. We’ve seen it happen before. We’ve even seen this team look that way from approximately the fourth quarter of the Cardinals game until the sixth minute of the Pats game. It’s just that a bad team having a bad start to the season is so familiar that we all expect that to be the full story.

I don’t know what happens next. I can’t predict what Tepper is going to do anymore than I can say what Canales and Young will actually change in the coming weeks. All I can say is that I’m going to choose to keep watching this team because they are mine. It may be petty, but that feels better to me than having paid $2.275 billion to not be able to watch better football every fall.