3) Backup running backs make some noise. Given the fact bubble players are inevitably going to steal snaps in the Hall of Fame Game, the sample size wasn\u2019t exactly massive for Zonovan \u201cBam\u201d Knight or A.J. Dillon, but both had their moments Thursday night. Knight saw more touches, receiving 12 carries and showing off plenty of wiggle (plus a little bit of juice) on his way to a 60-yard outing. With James Conner still working his way back from his season-ending injury suffered early in 2025 and Trey Benson battling a knee issue, there might be room on this roster for another back behind No. 3 overall pick Jeremiyah Love and veteran Tyler Allgeier. Knight showed enough burst and vision to intrigue those looking to fill the bottom of the depth chart, and at worst, he might catch the eye of a running back-needy team elsewhere with this tape. Dillon, meanwhile, made a glorified cameo early in the second quarter, receiving just three carries but making the most of it, catching a pass for an 18-yard gain to move deep into Arizona\u2019s red zone before barreling into the end zone from one yard out for Carolina\u2019s first score. Dillon ripped off a 13-yard run on the Panthers\u2019 next drive before Carolina leaned heavily on the pass with King at the controls, ending his appearance with a productive burst \u2013 the most he\u2019s shown since his final season in Green Bay in 2023. Injuries have plagued Dillon in recent years and he\u2019s buried on Carolina\u2019s depth chart, but it was nice to see him pop on an NFL field for the first time in a while.<\/p>\n
4) Panthers receiver battle gets interesting. There\u2019s plenty of reason to follow Carolina\u2019s receiving battle occurring beneath Tetairoa McMillan<\/a> and Jalen Coker<\/a>. Xavier Legette<\/a> still needs to find a role, and veteran David Moore<\/a> has made noise during camp. Unfortunately, none of those four dressed Thursday night, leaving the job to the guys who are truly sitting on the bubble: Jimmy Horn, John Metchie III<\/a>, Brycen Tremayne<\/a> and Ja’Seem Reed<\/a>. Each had their moments, for better and worse. Metchie made a couple of key catches in the first half as Carolina found an offensive rhythm. He helped the Panthers move into scoring range before finding the end zone for the first time, and finished as Carolina\u2019s leading receiver (three catches, 38 yards). Horn suddenly became important just before halftime, emerging as a favorite target of King \u2013 who didn\u2019t always find him accurately when targeting him \u2013 but also dropped a pass in the second half. Reed scored the first of King\u2019s two touchdown passes, slicing underneath coverage in play-action to catch an on-the-run throw from King before slipping into the end zone untouched. Tremayne\u2019s greatest moment was the result of a terrible defensive decision made by Arizona\u2019s Kei’Trel Clark<\/a>, who committed an awful defensive pass interference penalty to bail out a Pickett-led offense that was buried inside its own 1-yard line. None did enough to separate from the pack, but most showed glimpses of why they could end up filling the bottom of this depth chart. The pressure will only increase if Canales decides to play Legette and\/or Moore in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3) Backup running backs make some noise. Given the fact bubble players are inevitably going to steal snaps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[315,489,25648,8,9,317,32725,31879,7,31873],"class_list":["post-62304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-analysis","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-cardinals","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-no-minute","tag-panthers","tag-teams","tag-top-stories","tag-what-we-learned"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117053577238469779","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}