Editor’s note: This column is normally called ‘winners and losers’ in the preseason, but since the 53-man roster is set now and there’s not really much for individual players to win or lose, I’m changing the title to ‘stock up, stock down’ to more accurately reflect the tone of this series. The basic premise remains the same: stock up means the player(s) had a good game, and stock down means the player(s) had a bad game. You probably figured that out, though. -BS
The Carolina Panthers may have lost their Week 1 game against the Los Angeles Rams by the score of 30-27, and they may be 0-1 on a short week heading into a divisional game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night, but that doesn’t mean that the season is over or that the world is coming to an end. Sure, you might feel that way right now but trust me — this season is a long one, and just because the Panthers fell short in the season opener it doesn’t mean that all hope is lost.
Were there some potential problems in yesterday’s loss? Of course. Nobody’s perfect, after all. But despite the final score, the good probably outweighed the bad, so let’s take a deeper dive into the game and look at whose stock is up and whose stock is down following yesterday’s loss. To be able to say we ended this on a positive note, let’s look at the players whose stock dropped a bit first.
Stock down
Curtis Samuel: Under the ‘winners and losers’ format it would probably be a bit harsh to consider Samuel a loser since he didn’t really do anything wrong, but he only had three catches for 32 yards yesterday. That’s not terrible, but he has been hyped since OTAs as the Panthers’ prime breakout candidate for 2019 and he simply wasn’t that guy against the Rams. That doesn’t mean that I think he’s bad, and it doesn’t mean that I think he’s not going to have a breakout season. It just means that for a guy who was called the Training Camp MVP by everyone who pays attention to the Panthers, he was kinda disappointing. I’m sure he’ll be better going forward, but I expected to see more from him yesterday.
Daryl Williams: This could also potentially be unfair but Cam Newton was under pressure for most of the day and Dante Fowler was constantly in the Panthers backfield. As the left tackle it’s Williams’ job to protect Newton’s blind side, and there were several times when he failed to do that. Cam was only sacked three times yesterday, but some of that is because he was able to throw the ball away quick enough to avoid the sack (or tried to throw a sideways pass that was tipped and recovered by the defense... sigh). There was also one play where Williams left Christian McCaffrey on an island against Dante Fowler for some unexplained reason, and that went exactly like you think it went.* Hopefully this was just a one-game blip for Williams, but if he can’t give Newton the protection he needs it might be prudent to move him back to right tackle and give Taylor Moton the left tackle job.
* - To be fair to Williams, Paradis may have snapped the ball earlier than Williams expected him to, but still... that was a bad play.
Luke Kuechly: I know... you’re probably just as surprised as I am to see his name here. He wasn’t ‘bad’ per se, I mean he had eight tackles (four solo) and one pass defense, but he just wasn’t the dominating force that we’re used to seeing. He looked like he was a step too slow on a few plays, and there were some others where he was fooled by the play and was caught leaning in the wrong direction. Those are things that don’t happen to him very often, so when they do it stands out a lot more than it would for your average mortal linebacker. Luke’s still elite and he’ll be fine as the season goes on, but I just wanted to point out that he looked more human yesterday, and it was kinda weird to see.
I know you’re probably thinking that I’m being too harsh, and maybe I am. But, if you’re more interested in the positive stuff that happened yesterday, the next section is custom made just for you.
Stock up
Cam Newton: For the first time since around Week 10 of the 2018 season, Cam Newton looked like a healthy quarterback. His numbers probably won’t jump off the page, but he had a decent day. He was 25-of-38 with 239 yards and an interception, but his passes looked like they had that trademark zip to them and it didn’t look like Cam was laboring too much to throw the ball down field. He only had one attempted run (for no gain), but that probably had more to do with his sprained foot than anything else.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with what we saw from Cam yesterday. There were a few throws he made that he probably wishes he didn’t make, but for a guy coming off offseason shoulder surgery I can’t complain too much about the effort and production that we got from him. I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll see the old Cam again, which would be good for Carolina’s chances to make the playoffs this year.
Christian McCaffrey: Christian McCaffrey was a beast yesterday. He rushed for 128 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries and caught 10 balls for another 81 yards to show the NFL that last season was not a fluke and he is in fact one of the best dual-threat backs in the league and is here to make dynamite plays every time he touches the ball. I don’t know how the Panthers are going to pull this off, but they need to find a way to clone him so they can keep him fresh and healthy by simply rotating his clones in and out of the game as needed. My one concern with McCaffrey is when it’s time for him to get a new contract, because after seeing that Ezekiel Elliott got six-years, $90 million I’m afraid that CMC is going to be too expensive for the Panthers to keep. That’s not a concern for now, however, so I’m just going to enjoy watching CMC destroy defenses while I can.
Shaq Thompson: While Luke Kuechly looked more human yesterday than he normally does, Shaq Thompson looked like a superhero. He finished with eight tackles (seven solo!) and one pass defense, but he looked like the player we thought we were getting way back in 2015 when he was drafted in the first round. The one downside to Shaq breaking out is that he’s up for a contract extension, and if he continues to play like this another team could offer him more money than we can compete with. But hey, this piece is all about whose stock is up and whose stock is down, and it’s hard to argue that anyone’s stock is higher than Shaq’s is righ now. I hope we see more of this Shaq, even if it does mean that we won’t be able to keep him around after this season.
Brian Burns: The rookie edge rusher appears to be everything he was advertised to be and he showed yesterday that he has an explosive first step and is nearly impossible to slow down once he gets moving. He didn’t register a sack yesterday but he did pick up two quarterback hits and two tackles. He also forced Rams punter Johnny Hekker to shank a punt in the first quarter for seven yards (I still think Burns got a fingernail on it, but I’m not 100 percent sure), so if he can continue to do that the Panthers will have no regrets for picking him No. 16 overall in the draft last April.
James Bradberry: James ‘Goatberry’ Bradberry picked off Jared Goff yesterday and gave the Panthers a chance to tie the game or take the lead when they were down 23-20 with 13 minutes left in the game. The offense squandered that opportunity, but it’s not Bradberry’s fault that happened. The Panthers needed someone to make a play on defense, and Bradberry stepped up and did just that. I hope we see a lot more of that from Bradberry this season, but not too much because we don’t want him to get too expensive. (I’m kidding about that part — go get that money, James.)
Jermaine Carter and Reggie Bonnafon: Late in the fourth quarter the Panthers needed to make a play to spark a comeback attempt, and that play came when Jermaine Carter blocked a punt and Reggie Bonnafon recovered it on the Rams’ five-yard line. While it would have been a thousand times better if Bonnafon could have scooped and scored, the fact that he high-pointed the football, snagged it and held on to it is good enough to get kudos from me. If he continues to make plays on special teams he’ll have a spot on the roster as long as he desires, and right now I have no issue with that.
Overall, this game really doesn’t feel like a loss to me. I thought the Panthers played well in some spots, and played poorly in others. It felt like a classic Panthers game — they played well enough to win, but a few bad bounces here and there and some classic ‘missed opportunities’ prevented them from pulling off the upset against the cream of the crop in the NFC. I’m encouraged that the Panthers are back, and I’m confident that they’ll be in the playoff conversation this year... and you never know, we could shock the world this year. The Panthers have a divisional matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night and will have a chance to shake this loss off and learn from their mistakes, so let’s hope they do exactly that.