In his first preseason game, Bryce Young took a beating. Then, backup Matt Corral replaced him and also took a beating behind the Carolina Panthers offensive line, which simply couldn’t compete with the New York Jets pass rush.
Carolina’s offensive line knows that too and had a private meeting following the loss to deal with their performance. David Newton reported that the offensive line met in a separate room and came into the locker room later than the rest of the team for this meeting.
Included in the meeting was offensive line coach James Campen.
In total, Carolina allowed eight quarterback hits and five sacks during the loss to New York. The Jets, admittedly, have an excellent defense and pass rush but this was still a poor performance. In particular, letting Young take as many hits as he did in just three series kept him from being able to play to his potential.
Bryce Young shared his thoughts on the offensive line’s meeting, saying it’s about accountability.
And yeah, I think that speaks to the accountability. That’s them, on their own, going out and trying to establish the standard and talk about things. All of us—we’re in the locker room and no one’s thinking, ‘Oh, it’s okay. What we put out is whatever.’ That’s not who we wanna be, who we need to be.”
After the game, offensive lineman Ickey Ekwonu admitted he was frustrated with the offensive line’s play, consistently letting Bryce Young get hit.
“Just disappointed. Not what we’re looking for at all,” Ekwonu said. “He shouldn’t be getting hit at all. That’s on us. We just weren’t good enough today. We’ve got to just attack it. A lot of things on tape we’ve got to fix. So that’s the goal going into next week.”
Following the game, Young made it clear that he felt fine despite getting hit early and often. However, Carolina clearly needs to protect him better throughout the season.
Panthers OL Cameron Erving slams line play in preseason opener
Ickey Ekwonu wasn’t the only Carolina offensive lineman frustrated with their play. Cameron Erving also slammed the unit’s performance.
“Camp called us in, and we just talked. We had to keep it real with each other; the s— wasn’t good enough. Top to bottom, it doesn’t matter if it was preseason, regular season, or offseason. The s— was not good enough at any level, from any position, myself included, especially myself. All we can do is come back, try to regroup, and f—ing fix it,” Erving said.
“We know we did not play to our standard. So all that needed to be said was that s—‘s not good enough. It’s not about who’s in it or who’s called it; it just needed to be said and was said. … We’ve got to just attack it. A lot of things on tape we’ve got to fix. So that’s the goal going into next week.”
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