Uncertainty with Jets Presents Panthers Staff with Challenge

New York has a lot of inexperience on the field and on the sideline. This is a week for the Panthers to focus on themselves.

Season openers are always challenging for coaching staffs because you really don't have much of an idea of what you do well and what areas need improvement. Sure, the preseason games give you a small glimpse of that but teams are running their base playbooks and are giving their twos and threes a ton of playing time.

For the Panthers, there's some good and bad that comes with their season-opening opponent, the New York Jets. The advantage is that you're playing a first-year head coach and a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start. That said, the disadvantage is that you have no idea what to prepare for. Zach Wilson saw roughly 40 snaps in the preseason which doesn't give defensive coordinator Phil Snow a ton to go off of. Even with limited game film, Snow and the Panthers know the kind of talent Wilson is and understand he can pose some issues.

"If you're a rookie in this league at quarterback, left tackle, and corner, they're probably the toughest three positions to play. He's a rookie quarterback but he's really a talented rookie," Snow said. "We're not underestimating anything he can or can't do. I think we have to do what we do real well and then, whatever happens, happens. It's just hard for a rookie. They're seeing a lot of looks that they don't normally see in college. We're expecting him to be at his best."

Snow also stated that they're going into this game preparing for more things than they normally would because of all the uncertainty. Head coach Matt Rhule believes the best thing for his defense to do in week one is to just focus on themselves. 

"There's just so many unknowns in terms of preparation so what you end up doing is preparing for a lot as opposed to really honing in. I think the biggest thing is we know Coach Saleh is a great coach, we know that Zach [Wilson] is a great quarterback - he's been really impressive in the preseason. I think the focus has to be on us and playing to our standard. Every week you're going to get something thrown at you that you're not prepared for so we have to do a good job of our coaches anticipating and showing as many things as possible. At the same time, our guys have to go back to the old things playing hard, tackling, blocking, making catches, affecting the ball, those are things that win football games."

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