The Panthers got their top wide receiver back on the practice field on Thursday.
Rookie Tetairoa McMillan was a full participant as the team moved closer to Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers. McMillian was listed as out of practice on Wednesday due to foot and ankle injuries.
Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu (knee) was out of practice for the second straight day. Defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (hamstring) was the only other player out.
Left guard Damien Lewis (illness), right tackle Taylor Moten (back), and linebacker Trevin Wallace (shoulder) were limited participants. Cornerback Jaycee Horn (rest) and wide receiver David Moore (elbow) joined McMillan as full participants.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles didn’t mince words when he addressed his team’s loss to the Falcons last Thursday.
After being asked about his message to the team after they blew a 14-point lead en route to a 29-28 loss, Bowles called the team’s performance “inexcusable” during a profanity-laced answer that ended with a call for the team to “look in the f—ing mirror.” On Wednesday, Bowles said the team talked about “accountability” in meetings and “got it our of our system” in a way that left him confident that the message was received.
“They got the message,” Bowles said, via Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press. “It’s football, guys. I don’t know. There have probably been a billion stories written when coaches have lost that got [ticked] off and said something to their guys. It’s not an issue. We’re fine.”
The impact of the messaging will be put to the test against the Panthers this Sunday. While a win won’t clinch the NFC South, it will show that the Bucs, who have gone 1-5 since their bye, are still capable of playing the kind of football needed to make it to the postseason.
No team has pulled off more upsets than the Panthers this season. And they’re going to need to keep pulling off upsets to win the NFC South.
Carolina has won six games this season in which it was the betting underdog, the most upsets of any team in the NFL in 2025. No other team has even pulled off five upsets this season.
On Sunday, the 7-7 Panthers play at home against the 7-7 Buccaneers with first place in the NFC South on the line. The Buccaneers are three-point favorites.
If the Panthers pull the upset, they’ll move into first place, but they’d likely have to win at least one more upset to win the division: They play the Seahawks in Week 17 and then have a rematch against the Buccaneers in Tampa in Week 18. The Panthers will likely be underdogs in both of those games as well.
The Panthers won the two biggest upsets in the NFL this season, beating the Packers in Week 9 as 13-point underdogs and beating the Rams in Week 13 as 10-point underdogs. They’re comfortable with the underdog role, which they’re going to continue to have down the stretch as they fight to win the NFC South.
Buccaneers cornerback Zyon McCollum will miss the rest of the regular season.
The Buccaneers announced on Monday that McCollum has been placed on injured reserve. He injured his hip in last Thursday’s loss to the Falcons and he will be eligible to return if the Bucs should advance to a second playoff game.
McCollum started all 13 games he played this season. He had 65 tackles and an interception in those appearances.
The Bucs filled his roster spot by signing linebacker Anthony Walker off of the Colts’ practice squad. He has not appeared in any games this season, but has played in 99 games for the Dolphins, Browns, and Colts over the last eight seasons.
The Panthers went into Sunday’s game in New Orleans with a clear path to the NFC South title.
A win over the Saints would allow them to clinch the division by beating the Buccaneers at home in Week 16 and it looked like they were on their way to getting that win when they went up by 10 points in the third quarter. The Saints scored the next 13 points, however, and Charlie Smyth’s field goal with seconds to play handed the Panthers a 20-17 loss.
It was a painful way to end a game, but the Panthers still play the Bucs twice in the final three weeks and defensive lineman Derrick Brown noted that leaves the team with a chance to make a happier ending to the season.
“It’s great to still have everything in front of us, right? Like you’ve got to put this s--t behind us and get back to work,” Brown said, via the team’s website. “You can’t sit here and suck on this because you’ve got to go back to work and get ready for tomorrow and get ready to play Tampa Bay next weekend. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. I mean, we’ve got to go out here and we got to get it now. I mean, it is what it is. It’s been that way since Day 1, right? We started off 1-3, and you know it’s the same mentality, right? Nothing has come easy for us this season. So I mean now we’ve got to go back and go to work.”
The Panthers have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games and that’s kept the division up for grabs while the Bucs have struggled. Continuing that trend will get them into the playoffs, but no one around the team would mind a winning streak to close out the regular season.
