Panthers defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton missed the final four games of the regular season with a hamstring injury, but Tuesday’s injury report brought good news about his chances of playing against the Rams this weekend.
Wharton was listed as a full participant in the team’s first on-field work of the week. Wharton started all nine games he played this season and had 36 tackles and two sacks in those appearances.
Defensive lineman Bobby Brown (concussion) was a limited participant after being injured in Week 18. Cornerback Robert Rochell (concussion) was also listed as limited.
Linebacker Claudin Cherelus (calf, ankle) joined Wharton as a full participant. Guards Robert Hunt (biceps) and Chandler Zavala (calf) were also full participants as they work their way back from injured reserve.
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The Panthers designated Robert Hunt for return from injured reserve last month and they have another guard who could potentially return to the lineup in the postseason.
The team announced that they have designated Chandler Zavala for return on Tuesday. Zavala went on the list on November 29 due to a calf injury,
Zavala also missed time on injured reserve with a knee injury earlier in the season. He returned to start three games before suffering the calf injury.
Damien Lewis and Austin Corbett started at guard for the Panthers in Week 18.
The Panthers currently have an open roster spot for either Hunt or Zavala, but would need to make another move to create space for both players ahead of Saturday’s game against the Rams.
The Panthers made a few changes to their roster ahead of Saturday’s playoff opener against the Rams.
Wide receiver David Moore has been activated from injured reserve. Moore has been out since injuring his elbow in Week Four.
Moore had one catch for five yards and one carry for 12 yards before his injury.
The Panthers waived wide receiver Hunter Renfrow in a corresponding move. Renfrow had 15 catches for 89 yards in the first six weeks of the season, but has been inactive for the last 11 games.
The Panthers also waived safety Demani Richardson. They could use his roster spot to activate guard Robert Hunt from injured reserve before facing the Rams.
The Panthers are 10.5-point underdogs against the Rams in Saturday’s playoff opener, and Carolina coach Dave Canales says that’s not on his mind.
Asked if he takes it as disrespect that his team is the weekend’s biggest underdog despite beating the Rams in the regular season, Canales said it doesn’t bother him.
“I don’t know how they come up with those numbers, but I’m sure they have algorithms,” Canales said. “We can’t worry about that. We’ve just got to worry about playing our best football.”
The Panthers are 8-9 and entering the playoffs off a loss in the regular-season finale, but Canales said he’s emphasizing to his team that it’s a whole new season.
“Every game is a championship opportunity,” Canales said. “Here it is, right in front of us.”
The Rams are getting some significant players back as they prepare to face the Panthers for the first game of the 2025 postseason.
Via multiple reporters, head coach Sean McVay said in his Monday news conference that receiver Davante Adams and safety Quentin Lake are expected to return for Saturday’s wild card matchup.
Adams has been sidelined since aggravating a hamstring injury in Los Angeles’ Dec. 14 victory over Detroit. Though he played just 14 games this season, Adams still finished with a league-leading 14 touchdowns, having caught 60 passes for 789 yards.
Lake has been out with an elbow injury suffered in the Nov. 16 win over the Seahawks. The Rams did not have Lake when they lost to the Panthers in Week 13, and he should provide a significant boost to the club’s defensive unit.
Additionally, McVay noted that the Rams should have tight end Terrance Ferguson back after the club held him out for Sunday’s win over the Cardinals due to a hamstring injury.
Guard Kevin Dotson (ankle) is less certain to return for Saturday, McVay noted.
The Rams’ first injury report of the week is due out on Tuesday.
Home-field advantage might not mean much in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
Of the six games in the wild card round, the road teams are favored in four.
The biggest favorites are the Rams, who are 9.5-point favorites to beat the Panthers in Carolina. But that might be just fine with the Panthers: The Rams were previously 10-point favorites at Carolina in the regular season, but the Panthers won 31-28.
The Packers are 1.5-point favorites on the road in Chicago. It will be the third meeting of the two teams in the last six weeks after they played twice in December. The Bears beat the Packers 22-16 in overtime in Chicago in the regular season, while the Packers beat the Bears 28-21 in Green Bay.
The Bills are 1.5-point favorites against the Jaguars at Jacksonville. The Jaguars lost twice at home in the regular season.
The Eagles are 3.5-point favorites at home against the 49ers. The Eagles lost twice at home in the regular season.
The Patriots are 3.5-point favorites at home against the Chargers. The Patriots went 14-3 this season, but all three losses were at home.
The Texans are 3-point favorites on the road against the Steelers. The Steelers lost at home three times in the regular season.
If the betting lines are to be believed, only two division winners, the No. 2 seed Eagles and Patriots, will advance to the divisional round.
The NFL has announced the wild-card weekend schedule for Jan. 10-12:
Saturday, Jan. 10
4:30 p.m. 5 Los Angeles Rams at 4 Carolina Panthers (FOX, FOX Deportes)
8 p.m. 7 Green Bay Packers at 2 Chicago Bears (Prime Video)
Sunday, Jan. 11
1 p.m. 6 Buffalo Bills at 3 Jacksonville Jaguars (CBS, Paramount+)
4:30 p.m. 6 San Francisco 49ers at 3 Philadelphia Eagles (FOX, FOX Deportes)
8 p.m. 7 Los Angeles Chargers at 2 New England Patriots (NBC, Peacock, Universo)
Monday, Jan. 12
8 p.m. 5 Houston Texans at 4 Baltimore/Pittsburgh (ESPN/ABC/ESPN+/ ESPN Deportes; ManningCast-ESPN2/ESPN+)
It wasn’t always pretty, but the Rams came away with a 37-20 victory over the Cardinals on Sunday to clinch the NFC’s No. 5 seed, setting up a rematch with the No. 4 Panthers next weekend.
Los Angeles had a 16-6 lead after a bit of a slow start on offense. But the Cardinals used a 14-point surge in the third quarter to go up 20-16 with 3:51 left in the period.
But the Rams responded well from there, with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Colby Parkinson giving L.A. a 23-20 advantage. Then Stafford hit Tight end Tyler Higbee for a 22-yard score early in the fourth quarter. The Rams scored a third straight touchdown when Stafford hit Parkinson again for a 1-yard score to go up by 17.
Seeking his first MVP award, Stafford finished 25-of-40 for 259 yards with four touchdowns — a nice bounce-back performance after Monday night’s loss to Atlanta. Stafford will finish as the NFL’s passing yards leader for the first time, as he overtook Dak Prescott to finish with 4,707.
Stafford also moved into No. 6 all-time in career completions and No. 7 all-time in career touchdown passes. He became the third player in league history to have multiple touchdown passes in 15 games in a single season.
Puka Nacua finished the game with 10 catches for 76 yards with a touchdown, giving him the league lead with 129 catches in 16 games. Cardinals tight end Trey McBride entered Week 18 tied atop the leaderboard in receptions with Nacua, but caught seven passes for 65 yards.
The Rams steadily pressured Cardinals QB Jacoby Brissett through the contest, finishing with six sacks. Brissett was 22-of-31 for 243 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
Los Angeles finishes the season 12-5, which puts the team at second place in the NFC West with a better common-games record than San Francisco and No. 5 in the conference. The Rams will be on the road to face the Panthers in the wild card round, as Carolina clinched the NFC South on Sunday with the Falcons’ win over the Saints.
The Cardinals end the 2025 season at 3-14 with plenty of questions surrounding their roster and coaching staff for the upcoming offseason.
The Falcons won their final game of the regular season and the Panthers did not, but the Panthers will be going to the playoffs as the NFC South champions.
Kirk Cousins threw a touchdown pass to Drake London in the first quarter and Zane Gonzalez made four field goals to propel the Falcons to a 19-17 home win over the Saints. That pushed them to 8-9 on the season and put them in a three-way tie with the Panthers and the Buccaneers at the top of the division.
The Panthers lost to the Bucs on Saturday, but prevailed in the three-way tiebreaker thanks to having the best record in games against the other two 8-9 teams.
Atlanta never trailed after London’s touchdown, but the Saints made it interesting in the final minutes. Rookie Tyler Shough made his last argument for the offensive rookie of the year award by hitting Ronnie Bell for a 16-yard touchdown with 1:11 left to play. The ensuing onside kick was recovered by the Falcons, however, and that was enough to send the Panthers on to the postseason.
Cousins was 18-of-32 for 180 yards and he also threw an interception during the win. His return to the lineup after Michael Penix’s injury ended with four straight wins and their were enough positives in the veteran’s play to think that he will have suitors in the offseason if the Falcons decide against moving forward with him as at least a contender for the starting role.
The Saints have no such questions. They fell short on Sunday, but won more than they lost after putting Shough in the lineup. He was 23-of-35 for 259 yards on Sunday and also ran three times for 34 yards and a touchdown in an outing that only solidified his spot as the quarterback of the present and future in New Orleans.
Every Sunday, NFL officiating spokesperson Walt Anderson gets a sliver of air time to talk about any/all controversial calls from the prior seven days. This week, Anderson’s small slice of real estate focused on one call — the controversial offensive pass interference penalty that wiped out 42 yards of field position in the Panthers-Buccaneers game.
We broke down the play, based on the relevant provision of the publicly-available rulebook, earlier this morning. Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan was flagged not for anything that happened while the ball was in the air, but for what he did to fight off a jam within the permissible five-yard chuck zone.
Initially, Anderson seemed to be providing the predictable, water-carrying position that McMillan veered from a permissible effort to knock the defender’s arms away and shoved the defender’s body or head. (Such subtleties don’t appear within the official rulebook.)
To his credit, Steve Mariucci then put Anderson on the spot: “What’s the correct call on this play?”
“It’s really, really close,” Anderson said. “It looks like he’s knocking the arm off, which would not be pass interference.”
Anderson added that the official who threw the flag apparently concluded that McMillan pushed the defensive back in the head.
Even if McMillan did, the topic is not expressly covered within the official rulebook. Before the pass is thrown, an offensive player may not “block” more than a yard beyond the line of scrimmage. There’s nothing in the rulebook about what an offensive player can and can’t do to get away from a defensive back who has five yards to hit the receiver in an effort to disrupt his route.
Again, it’s possible that there’s some separate provision in the “Approved Rulings” or other documentation that specifies what a receiver can or can’t do when fighting off a jam. But it’s not in the rulebook. When the ball has yet to be thrown, the rulebook only says the offensive player can’t “block” more than a yard from the line of scrimmage.
It seems like something sufficiently important to be added to the rulebook itself. We know the defensive back has a five-yard window to hit the receiver. The rulebook needs to say, with clarity, what the receiver can do beyond one yard to fend off the defender.
With all that said, and even if the separate rule Anderson cited is commonly applied, Anderson acknowledged that a mistake may have been made.
Meanwhile, the controversy from the Panthers-Bucs game regarding the blown handling of a backward pass was not addressed. The play entailed an error by the officials on the field, and a failure by the officials, the replay assistant, and the league office to properly administer the aftermath.
The Panthers should have been able to re-do the play, first and 10 from the Tampa Bay 34. Instead, the Panthers ended up with second and 17 from the 41 — in a drive that ended with a field-goal attempt that came up short.
So, yes, the Panthers and their fans have two reasons to be pissed off today. If the Saints beat the Falcons and the Bucs, not the Panthers, win the NFC South, that anger will only intensify.
