Who will start at left tackle for Panthers with Ikem Ekwonu doubtful for Week 1?

Ikem Ekwonu has not quite lived up to his draft billing, but he's hardly ever been a negative player for the Panthers, and he's mostly been healthy. Sadly, he won't be available on Sunday, testing this line's depth.

The immediate backup, per the depth chart, is Brady Christensen. However, backup right tackle Yosh Nijman seemed to get most of the left tackle reps with Ekwonu on the mend, so he's probably in line to start.

Those are the two primary options, but the Panthers do have some flexibility. Backup center Cade Mays has played a ton of guard and in college was a tackle as well, so he could take the spot if need be.

Austin Corbett, the starting center, is similarly versatile, so the Panthers could shift him over and use Mays as the center instead. That would probably be viewed as a last-ditch effort if things went wrong since both Christensen and Nijman are actual NFL tackles.

Chandler Zavala is also on the bench, so the Panthers do have some options to shuffle things around. Sadly, none of them are terribly ideal. The left tackle, whomever it ends up being, is going to have to block Josh Allen.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had a pretty bad pass rush last year, but Allen is the standout. He's the one that will mostly be matched up on the weakest tackle, which will be whoever plays left tackle.

Carolina may have to get creative with double teams or use one of the tight ends (Mitchell Evans, perhaps) as a chip or extra blocker to prevent Allen from winning against a backup tackle.