Dave Canales brushes aside one major question surrounding Panthers upcoming matchup against the Falcons in Week 2
The Atlanta Falcons’ uncertain quarterback situation could cause a frustrating situation from a preparation standpoint, but the Carolina Panthers aren’t concerned about that being an issue.
The Carolina Panthers have a lot of questions to answer on the defensive side of the ball after the showing the unit had in Week 1 against the Chicago Bears.
Ejiro Evero’s defense not only allowed 59 points and over 550 yards of offense, but things looked even worse on Wednesday when Bears running back D’Andre Swift was named as the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Week and Bears quarterback Caleb Williams as named as one of the two FedEx Air and Ground Player of the Week.
It was an embarrassing showing by Carolina’s defense, fortunately the team will face a better matchup in Week 2, at least at the quarterback position. However, it’s easy to see how the way the Atlanta Falcons are handling the situation could make things difficult.
Carolina Panthers aren’t concerned about the Atlanta Falcons’ uncertainty at the quarterback situation
In Week 1, injuries forced the Falcons to rule out Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa, leaving Cooper Rush to start at quarterback. Heading into Week 2, the Falcons now have injury concerns with all three quarterbacks to the point where no one knows who could end up starting under center on Sunday.
“I’m not trying to be coy,” Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said when asked about his QB position. “I’m just not ruling anybody out. Continue to work through it. We’re all on the same page between myself, the medical team. We’ll work through all those things.”
During Wednesday’s practice, both Penix (knee) and Rush (back) were full participants and split first-team reps while Tagovailoa (oblique) did not practice. After Wednesday’s practice, Penix said he is getting “close” to being able to play but this is still going to be a situation to monitor all week long.
Normally, this type of situation would be frustrating from a preparation standpoint for the other team. However, it’s not something Panthers head coach Dave Canales is overly concerned about given the play-styles of the three quarterbacks.
“The good part is, no singular quarterback that they have is a standout in terms of being a runner,” Canales told reporters. “When you have pocket passers – and these are all quarterbacks I think are good quarterbacks – these are all guys that can operate, as a former quarterbacks coach, I value what they can do. But, there isn’t a dynamic of the zone-read type of element, a guy that creates that extra special element. So, we can really treat the system and the offense to the integrity of what Coach Stefanksi is trying to get done.”
Regardless of who plays quarterback for the Falcons, it’ll be a much easier matchup than what the team faced last week against one of the top dual-threats in the league in Caleb Williams. Defending the quarterback shouldn’t be an issue for the Panthers this week. Defending running back Bijan Robinson, however, is a different story.
“We gotta have radars up. We have to know where 7 is at at all times,” Canales said. “This is a guy that can run a slant-and-go on the outside, the perimeter screens, the run game, the whole thing. He’s got it all. We got to be cognizant of that.”
