Dave Canales discusses the possibility of playing starters vs. Buffalo Bills

Will the Carolina Panthers finally play their starters?

Schuyler Callihan | Aug 20, 2024

Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

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Carolina Panthers

For the first two preseason games, Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales opted to rest his starters to give more opportunities to the guys on the back half of the 90-man roster an opportunity to prove their worth.

That decision was also made with the overall health of the starting unit in mind, particularly the offense. Left guard Damien Lewis has been bothered by a shoulder injury and right guard Robert Hunt had a knee injury that popped up that the training staff wanted to be extremely careful with. If those two guys are ruled out, the ones you paid a combined $154 million to his offseason, there's no reason for Bryce Young to be out there running with the offensive line group that allowed a ton of interior leakage in 2023. It's just not worth it.

This week, though, Canales is considering rolling his ones out there although the Buffalo Bills have already announced that their starters will not play.

“I’m open to playing our guys this week. The same thing I told you after the game is true though. We have to look at what does that group look like if we put everybody out there? Are there enough of those guys to say this is valuable for us to get these reps? Once we start to get into the depth of different positions that kind of forces our hand sometimes on can we play guys? Today was a hard practice. Tomorrow is going to be another hard one. For me, I have to make sure we get through these two days, collect that information, and then I make the decision.”