Panthers Clips
The Rams were heavy favorites for Saturday’s wild card matchup with the Panthers.
So far, they look the part.
Matthew Stafford hit Puka Nacua for a 14-yard touchdown, giving Los Angeles an early 7-0 lead.
The Panthers received the opening kickoff and with an aggressive mindset, went for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 45-yard line. But But Carolina didn’t get it when Bryce Young’s pass short pass along the right sideline was broken up by Quentin Lake — who was out due to injury for the regular-season matchup between the two teams.
With a short field in front of them, the Rams faced little resistance getting down the field in just four plays. Nacua caught all three of Stafford’s targets for 40 yards on the possession, with Kyren Williams also taking a 5-yard carry.
The Rams did not face a third down on the possession.
The Rams will not have one of their young tight ends for Saturday’s wild card matchup against the Panthers.
Rookie Terrance Ferguson is officially inactive for the game after he was listed as questionable for the contest. Ferguson was listed as a non-participant on Tuesday and Wednesday before a limited session on Thursday.
Cornerback Josh Wallace (ankle) is also inactive for Los Angeles after he was listed as quesitonable.
Right guard Kevin Dotson (ankle) and receiver Jordan Whittington (knee) were previously ruled out.
The Panthers, however, have a healthy 53-man roster.
Los Angeles’ full list of inactives is: Ferguson, Dotson, Wallace, Whittington, cornerback Deion Kendrick, cornerback Darious Williams, and quarterback Stetson Bennett.
Carolina’s inactives are linebacker Krys Barnes, center Nick Samac, defensive tackle Jared Harrison-Hunte, receiver David Moore, and defensive end LaBryan Ray.
Kickoff between the Rams and Panthers is set for 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX.
Panthers wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan is expected to win the NFL’s offensive rookie of the year honor. But while he’s getting most of the attention, McMillan is far from the only rookie who will contribute to the Panthers today as they open the playoffs against the Rams.
In fact, Panthers coach Dave Canales said General Manager Dan Morgan had an exceptional hit rate in this year’s draft, as all eight players the Panthers selected contributed as rookies.
“Dan Morgan, amazing job he’s done evaluating talent, evaluating football character, personal character, and then the ability to help us from a football standpoint,” Canales said. “He and I have constant conversations about how can we get these guys involved because they’re going to have to help us at some point. That’s been true for all of them. They’ve all had to step up and help us.”
Among the rookies Canales mentioned were sixth-round wide receiver Jimmy Horn, second-round pass rusher Nic Scourton and fourth-round safety Lathan Ransom.
“Jimmy Horn’s role has continued to grow. Nic has been out there the whole time. Lathan Ransom growing into different roles and making impacts on special teams. I can go on and on, our entire rookie class,” Canales said.
Canales added that he and his assistant coaches believe in giving rookies opportunities, sometimes even knowing they’re going to make rookie mistakes, because of the long-term benefits of getting young players experience.
“It’s also a staff that’s committed to development, that’s committed to spending all the extra time they need to with these guy sto make sure they’re as ready as possible for game day,” Canales said. “We need them. We need them now, we’ve needed them down the stretch, and certainly in the future. Every mistake that a rookie makes for you early on is an investment in your future, and is an opportunity to learn and to grow and it does pay dividends.”
In addition to having all eight of their draft picks on the 53-player roster, the Panthers have three undrafted rookies as well. They’re loaded with rookies who will see their first playoff action today — and whom the Panthers hope are part of a team that plays in a whole lot of playoff games in the future.
The calendar says January. The weather forecast in Charlotte screams September.
Depending on which unreliable weather forecasting app you rely on (and they all sort of suck these days), there’s a threat of thunderstorms for Saturday’s Rams-Panthers wild-card contest. Which opens the door to the possibility of a delay, before or during the game.
And that could create potential chaos for the NFL.
Rams-Panthers is due to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET, on Fox. Packers-Bears streams on Prime Video at 8:00 p.m. ET. If lightning delays the early game, the NFL says it can slide the late-game kickoff by 10 minutes.
So there’s a chance of two playoff games going on at once, depending on whether and to what extent Rams-Panthers is delayed by Mother Nature. Which could prompt some to utter a different phrase that begins with “muther.”
Especially in Chicago and Milwaukee, where the Packers-Bears game is due to be televised on the Fox affiliate that will be broadcasting Rams-Panthers.
The 2025 Carolina Panthers are making history. And I don’t mean the good kind.
Via NBC Sports research, the Panthers are the fifth team in NFL history to make the playoffs with a losing record in a non-strike-shortened season.
Carolina won the NFC South, winning eight and losing nine. Atlanta’s Week 18 win over the Saints triggered a three-way tie between the Falcons, Panthers, and Buccaneers at 8-9. The Panthers won the tiebreaker with the best record in the six-game round-robin among the three teams.
Other teams to make the playoffs despite a losing record were the 2022 Buccaneers (8-9), the 2020 Washington Football Team (7-9), the 2014 Panthers (7-8-1), and the 2010 Seahawks (7-9). Those teams were 2-2 in the wild-card round; the 2010 Seahawks beat the Saints in the Beastquake game, and the 2014 Panthers beat the Cardinals.
The Panthers are 10.5-point underdogs at home on Saturday against the Rams. During the regular season, the Panthers beat the Rams in Charlotte, despite being 9.5-point underdogs.
The Panthers activated offensive guard Robert Hunt off injured reserve on Friday, the team announced.
Hunt has not played since tearing a biceps tendon in Week 2 against Arizona but has practiced the past two weeks.
“I feel good,” Hunt said earlier this week, via Darin Gantt of the team website. “If I get the opportunity, I’ll be ready.”
The Panthers have removed Hunt from the injury report after listing him as questionable on Thursday. So, he is expected to play in Saturday’s playoff game against the Rams.
His return will create the 12th different combination of starting lines this season.
The Panthers did rule out offensive guard Chandler Zavala, who is on injured reserve with a calf injury.
Panthers head coach Dave Canales knows Saturday’s playoff game against the Rams isn’t just another game. But he also doesn’t want his players to think of it as too big a game.
Canales said he thinks players who haven’t played in the playoffs before have benefited this week from the veteran players who have been to the playoffs talking about simultaneously recognizing it’s a big game and not going overboard.
“It is special, and it’s important that we recognize that, we lean into it and we feed off that energy,” Canales said. “At the same time, we’ve got to keep our head about us and execute on the most fundamental parts of it. Because if you get too excited and caught up in the moment, you can sacrifice technique, and sometimes you can go too far and that’s not what I want either.”
The Panthers haven’t been to the playoffs since 2017 and they haven’t won a playoff game since winning the NFC Championship Game after Cam Newton’s MVP season of 2015. This is not a Panthers team with much playoff experience, and Canales wants to ensure the many players on his team who have never been in a playoff game before are approaching Saturday the right way.
As the Rams head to Charlotte as 10.5-point favorites over the Panthers, quarterback Matthew Stafford has a chance to claim a slice of postseason history.
Via NBC Sports research, Stafford has thrown multiple touchdown passes in seven straight playoff games. If Stafford does it again on Saturday, he’ll tie Joe Flacco at eight — the second longest streak in NFL history.
And if the Rams win and Stafford does it again next week, Stafford will tie Aaron Rodgers for the record of nine straight playoff games with multiple touchdown passes.
Making that task a little easier will be the presence of Puka Nacua, who led the league with 129 catches, and the return from a hamstring injury of Davante Adams, who led the league with 14 touchdown catches in 14 games.
Obviously, the primary goal will be to win those games. Starting with making amends for the regular-season road loss to the Panthers. And, depending on how the rest of the wild-card round goes, a potential return to Seattle for a rematch of one of the best regular-season games in years.
The Rams are 10.5-point favorites at Carolina in Saturday’s playoff opener, but Sean McVay says his team knows it has a challenge on its hands. The Rams were 10-point favorites at Carolina in Week 13, but the Panthers won 31-28.
McVay said the Rams respect the Panthers, who taught them a hard lesson about what can happen when they make too many mistakes.
“They did a great job,” McVay said of the Panthers. “They made the plays to win the game and we came up short. We had our chances but there’s a lot of learning opps. There’s a lot of learning opps even when we’ve gotten the results we wanted in those 12 wins we had. But this was a good, humbling day. You don’t take away anything — they earned that win, but we do have a very clear understanding of what’s going to be required for us to be at our best, to do the things that are necessary first and foremost starting with ourselves, and then geared toward the opponent and the scheme. Our players have a lot of respect for these guys. We’ll be ready to go, but we know what a great challenge it’ll be.”
The betting line may not look like the Rams are in for a great challenge, but McVay isn’t going to let his team get overconfident against an opponent that just beat them six weeks ago.
The Falcons announced Thursday night that they have completed interviews with Brandt Tilis and Mike Disner for their newly created position of president of football operations.
Tilis is the Panthers’ executive vice president, and Disner is the Lions COO.
The team is expected to offer the job to former Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan.
Disner joined the Lions in 2019 after six seasons as the Cardinals’ director of football administration. He began his career in Detroit as the Lions’ vice president of football administration, with oversight of the team’s salary cap and player contract negotiations.
The Lions promoted him to Chief Operating Officer in May 2022.
He has spent 19 seasons in the NFL, starting as an intern for the Patriots for two summers in 2005-06 before a promotion to scouting assistant in 2007.
The Panthers hired Tilis in January 2024 to work with General Manager Dan Morgan on cap and salary negotiations.
He previously spent 14 seasons working in Kansas City, including the final three as vice president of football operations. Tilis also worked as director of football administration (2017-20) and director of salary cap and football operations analytics (2014-16) after originally joining the Chiefs in 2010 as a salary cap/contract analyst.
