The Carolina Panthers fell to 3-4 on the season after Thursday night’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, which has upped the urgency inside the building for real improvement to be made. And changes are coming over the next few days.

One big change was already made on Friday morning with the team parting ways with defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and promoting Todd Wash into the interim defensive coordinator role. That change should help things defensively.

On offense, the Panthers have clear issues up-front right now. The protection has been abysmal for quarterback Bryce Young and it was glaring under the bright lights on Thursday. As a result, the Panthers are considering personnel changes up-front with a long week ahead until the team’s next game on Nov. 8.

Things have gotten bad up-front for the Panthers, and changes rightfully need to be made

The Panthers have dealt with some issues up-front on the injury-front this season but four of the starting five that played on Thursday night were the team’s starters going into the season that gelled together throughout the entire summer. There’s no excuses for the way they played in that game, or the week before against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Over the last two games, quarterback Bryce Young has been sacked 11 times and the team has allowed 30 total pressures. Left tackle Rasheed Walker leads the team with 31 pressures allowed and four sacks. First-round rookie Monroe Freeling accounts for another 20 pressures and four sacks. Center Luke Fortner and right guard Robert Hunt, the other two mainstays up-front so far this season, have allowed 18 pressures each.

The one positive up-front was left guard Damien Lewis, who allowed seven pressures and one sack over his first five games. However, Lewis missed Thursday’s game with a knee injury along with reserve guard Torricelli Simpkins III who was dealing with an ankle injury. That left Corey Bullock to start at left guard until he exited the game with a quad injury, leaving practice squad call-up Jake Curhan as the next available option. Clearly, there’s a lot of moving parts at that position.

But, the issues at the other four spots have been even more concerning and it’s time for changes to be made.

What options do the Panthers have to explore potential changes on the offensive line

First off, let’s run through who is actually in the building and then we can dive into specific player situations, and then explore potential five-man options. So, here’s the full list of players the Panthers have to evaluate this week.

Tackle: Rasheed Walker, Monroe Freeling, Stone Forsythe
Guard: Damien Lewis (pending health), Rob Hunt, Torricelli Simpkins III (pending health)
Center: Luke Fortner, Sam Hecht
Multi-positional: Corey Bullock (pending health)
IR: Brady Christensen (OT/OG), Ikey Ekwonu (OT), Taylor Moton (OT, out for the season)
Practice Squad: Jake Curhan (OT/OG), Saahdiq Charles (OG),

The situation with Lewis, Simpkins, and Bullock is obviously something to watch going into Week 9 to see who’s available to play. As for Ekwonu and Christensen, both players have to be fully cleared and activated before being potential options. Canales did say on Friday that Christensen is in the mix to be in this conversation as well.

So, let’s get into some potential changes the Panthers could make up-front.

Option 1: Status Quo

• Rasheed Walker, Damien Lewis, Luke Fortner, Rob Hunt, Monroe Freeling

This isn’t the option fans want to see anymore, but it’s worth showing that the Panthers could simply roll out the same five an expect different results. Not the ideal move at this point, but it is an option here to consider.

Option 2: Move Monroe to his natural position

• Monroe Freeling, Damien Lewis, Luke Fortner, Rob Hunt, Stone Forsythe

This option involves moving Monroe Freeling back to his natural position at left tackle and benching Rasheed Walker. It takes your worst player off the field, but also puts Freeling in a tough spot having to revert back to playing on the opposite side of the offensive line. Plus, do we really know if Stone Forsythe will be much better?

Option 3: Multiple rookies involved

• Monroe Freeling, Damien Lewis, Sam Hecht, Rob Hunt, Stone Forsythe

This option is similar to #2 but we are replacing Luke Fortner at center with rookie Sam Hecht, who has been a healthy inactive the last two weeks. If Lewis and Bullock are both healthy, Bullock is also an option to replace Fortner at center.

Option 4: Maximum changes

• Monroe Freeling, Damien Lewis, Sam Hecht, Brady Christensen, Stone Forsythe

This would be the option that changes all four positions. The most notable difference is benching Rob Hunt, who is the third-highest paid player at his position. But, his struggles can’t be ignored just because of his price tag. Christensen is one of the options that could potentially replace him.

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Obviously, there are a ton of different combinations the Panthers could consider here and the coaches have a lot of moving pieces to figure out. One thing’s for sure, Option #1 is not good enough. Changes will be made in some capacity and we’ll see what those look like next Sunday.