Panthers PFF grades: Adam Thielen & Bryce Young shine, offensive line does not

Reviewing Carolina's best and worst PFF grades on offense from an embarrassing Week 17 loss to Tampa.

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - DECEMBER 15: Adam Thielen #19 of the Carolina Panthers smiles before playing the Dallas Cowboys at Bank of America Stadium on December 15, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. / (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

Sometimes when NFL teams put in a truly heinous game the head coach decides to burn the tape and move on. Sunday's 34-point loss to Tampa for the Carolina Panthers was definitely a burn-the-tape type of performance, at least defensively.

With several key players out of the lineup due to injuries, an already not-great defensive unit had an all-time ugly outing. The Panthers allowed 551 total yards of offense on just nine drives for the Buccaneers, including 202 on the ground and 359 for Baker Mayfield, who was utterly unbothered in the pocket most reps and dropped five touchdowns on Carolina's D, which was depleted at all three levels.

In the spirit of turning the page towards a new year, we're going to burn the tape for the Panthers' defense this week and ignore their generally putrid Pro Football Focus grades. Let's focus exclusively what we can learn from their offensive grades, instead.

Adam Thielen takes gold again on offense

The gold medal this week goes to veteran wide receiver Adam Thielen, who's easily been the team's best player over the last month of the season. This time around Thielen caught five of six targets, totaling 110 yards and two touchdowns. For his efforts Thielen earned the highest grade on the Panthers this week at 82.1 overall. Thielen is now up to 43 catches, 571 yards and five touchdowns for the season despite only having played in nine games. Whatever else we don't know about this roster (a lot), it's clear Thielen should be leading the charge in the wide receiver room in 2025.

Bryce Young takes second place

The Dallas game was an exception, but otherwise Bryce Young has also been getting consistently strong grades from PFF since returning to the lineup Week 9. This game was no exception, as Young put up a 78.7 passing grade and an 80.3 overall mark, second-best on the team not counting wide receiver Dan Chisena, who played just three snaps.

Despite being under a ton of pressure (over 60% of his dropbacks) Young was aggressive and sharp against a tough Tampa defense. Young put up a line of 15/28 for 203 yards, two scores and a passer rating over 100. His QBR came out to 62.4. Over the last two weeks Young has played clean ball, racking up five total touchdowns with zero interceptions.

Offensive line struggles

After Young's 80.3 mark there's a huge drop down to the next-highest graded player (wide receiver David Moore put in a 66.0 in 15 snaps). Next up was center Cade Mayes, who earned a solid 74.0 in pass blocking and an average 60.7 in run blocking, putting his overall grade at 65.1. That was the best mark for Carolina's offensive line, which was otherwise pretty poor across the board.

The lowest grade for this unit went to right guard Robert Hunt, who PFF has not thought much of all season, at least in the pass blocking department. Hunt got a 23.7 grade in pass blocking this week, dragging down his overall grade to 42.9 overall, the worst of any starter for the Panthers on this side of the ball. Left tackle Ickey Ekwonu was next up from the bottom, coming in at a mediocre 51.4 overall. Left guard Damien Lewis was also on the lower end at 52.4 and Yosh Nijman - subbing in for an injured Taylor Moton - put up a 58.9 grade.

This unit deserves a bit of grace because they've played well the vast majority of the regular season. Still, it's a little concerning how they have dropped off in recent weeks - seemingly starting with the game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Hopefully they can rebound and finish the season on a strong note against Atlanta, where their pass rush is just as bad as Carolina's.

- Enjoy more free Panthers coverage with Carolina Panthers on SI - 

NFL power rankings: Panthers slip after beatdown from Buccaneers

Dave Canales calls out one key issue from 48-14 loss to Tampa

Bryce Young, Adam Thielen and a duck stood out in Week 17

Should Panthers consider coaching changes after 34-point loss?