For the Los Angeles Rams and their fans, “Revenge is a dish best served cold” is a call to arms, not a cheeky review of tailgate parties in the sunny southeast. This Saturday, L.A. takes its #5 seed and travels to Charlotte, North Carolina to open the NFL’s WildCard weekend against the NFC South champion Carolina Panthers.
The Rams are looking to turn the tables on the Panthers, angered and still-smarting from the stinging 31-28 loss inflicted on them by the Panthers back on November 30. While readers here at TST are well-versed on what the Rams are about, what about the Panthers? Here’a look at the Carolina players, coaches, and schemes. The numbers in parentheses are how many snaps the players have recorded over the last three weeks.
Offense
Dave Canales is the Panthers new coach and offensive play caller. He’s been under scrutiny by Carolina fans for some of the game calling and the offense’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde performances. His team is full of young talent on offense, a handful of early draft picks and a few well-paid free agents. But less the three explosives versus the Rams on 11/30, big pass plays have been a struggle. On the ground, they run outside/inside/mid zone about 50% and man/duo about 25%, The also mix in small amounts of power/gap and counter.
Quarterback
Bryce Young (100%)
Now in his third season, the former #1 overall draft pick has shown some incremental progress. He still runs hot to ice cold on a week-to-week basis. This playoff game is his crossroad, is he growing into a franchise QB or destined to be a game manager that might best serve as a backup? A plus is that Carolina coach Dave Canales is widely-respected as an offensive coach/teacher. One thing to watch out for, of Young’s 14 NFL wins, 12 have come on game winning drives.
Running backs
Rico Dowdle (58%), Chubba Hubbard (41%)
Two-man rotation with the primary route of attack between the tackles, Similar play styles, physical north/south runners that have good vision, enough speed to break outside when warranted, and can catch and block out of the backfield. Not really big play threats, more of a grinding style.
Wide receivers
Tet McMillan (86%), Xavier Legette (51%), Jalen Coker (82%), Jimmy Horn (27%)
The Panthers Top 3 are big, athletic, and young, all under 25. Rookie McMillan is living up to his #8 overall draft stake. Coker went undrafted, but proves again that superior balls skills and football IQ will get you plenty of work in the NFL. Although Legette is still finding his way, he’s an athletic freak and breakaway threat. Horn offers some balance as a quick-twitch slot receiver.
Tight ends
Tommy Tremble (70%), Mitchell Evans (44%)
With only 5-6 targets per game, it would seem that the tight ends could easily be lost with all the Panthers receiver talent. Maybe they should target them more. their catch rate is a stellar 79%, compared to 62% for the wide outs. Three good-looking young prospects in this room although Ja’Tavion Sanders broke his leg a couple of games ago and is out. The are used mostly on short routes underneath coverage and checkdowns but Tremble and Evans both have the scoots to get downfield.
Offensive line
Cade Mays (100%), G Austin Corbett (100%), G Damien Lewis (100%), T Ikem Ekwonu (100%), T Taylor Moton (100%)
10 different lineups have been used, most in the NFL. This group, together now for six consecutive weeks, is a mid-pack unit, maybe a step lower. Pro Football Focus rates them as the 20th best in 2025, while Computer Cowboy Ben Baldwin has them at #17 in his composite ratings. ESPN scores them 23rd in pass block win rate and 28th in run block win rate. Right tackle Tayler Moton is #19 on offensive tackle pass block win rate standings.
Special teams
K Ryan Fitzgerald, P Sam Martin, KR Trevor Etienne
Place kicker Fitzgerald is an 22 of 24 from 49 yards in, but only 2 of 5 at 50+ and he’s missed three extra points. 60 of his kickoffs have been returned for a 22.6 average (2nd lowest). On 56 punts, Martin averages 47.2 yards per punt and has net of 40.5 after 313 return yards. 48.2% of his punts have been downed inside the 20. Primary returner Etienne has an 8.2 average on 20 returned punts and 23.6 yards on 31 kickoffs.
Defense
Former Rams secondary coach Ejiro Evero is in his third season as the Panthers defensive coordinator. He’s installed a 3-4 base odd-man front base, but has experience in multiple schemes, working in the past with stellar defensive minds Dom Capers, Monte Kiffin, Vic Fangio, and Wade Phillips.
Evero’s defense will play a lot of umbrella zone coverage, over 80 percent and won’t do a lot of blitzing, around 20 percent. They have not been successful creating pass rush havoc with a pressure rate of 16.6% (31st in NFL) and only 30 sacks (t28th). ESPN rate them 24th in pass rush win rate. The run defense is in the bottom half of the league, allowing 123.3 yards per game at 4.4 per carry clip. ESPN scores them with the worst run stop win rate in the NFL. The Panthers have flipped 21 turnovers (12th), including 15 interceptions (t8th).
Defensive line
Derrick Brown (89%), A’Shawn Robinson (79%), Tershawn Wharton, Bobby Brown (41%)
Brown is the alpha and the Panthers align him up-and-down the front line, he leads the team in sacks, pressures, and has batted down six passes. Rams fans can remember what Robinson brought to the game, solid against the run and some occasional pass rush juice. Wharton is expected to be back after sitting out a few weeks with a bad hamstring, he put up good numbers in his nine starts. Brown is the same player he was in L.A, one stellar play sandwiched amongst a bunch of mediocre ones.
Edge
DJ Wonnum (68%), Nic Scourton (79%), Trevis Gipson (29%)
A lack of production from this unit, only 89 tackles, eight sacks, and 22 pressures combined from the two starters Scourton and Wonnum. These numbers, along with veteran Gipson’s non-descript production are probably why Carolina is subbing more four-man fronts for the five-man base fronts.
Off- ball linebackers
Christian Rozeboom (100%), Krys Barnes (12%), Claudin Cherelus (42%)
Former Ram and fan whipping boy Rozeboom is the Panthers leading tackler. He’s limited in his game but going all the way back to his college days, when given reps, he’s a tackling machine. In 2025, as it has been when he gets those reps, missed tackles (12.%) are a problem. After Boom, LB #2 has been unsettled since Trevin Wallace was lost for the season in Week 12. Krys Barnes came off the practice squad to replace Wallace but has been hobbled with a bad back, he returns for the playoffs. Cherelus was a small school undrafted free agent and has stepped in over the last three weeks, but was nicked up as well and realistically, has been a special teamer over his time i the NFL.
Safeties
Nick Scott (96%), Tre’Von Moehrig (100%)
A fifth starting ex-Ram, Scott has always been aggressive hitter over the middle and coming downhill versus the run. He tallied 11 tackles in the regular season. He’s a freaky athlete and a banger, but has always been at erratic in coverage. At free safety, Scott’s passer rating allowed over the last four seasons is 116.75. Moehrig has become a solid safety, very versatile with 35 percent of his snaps coming near the line of scrimmage at linebacker, overhang, and slot corner. When the Panthers blitz, there’s a good chance it’s Moehrig.
Cornerbacks
Michael Jackson (100%), Jaycee Horn (100%), Chau Smith-Wade (72%)
Likely because of the injury problems at linebacker, the Panthers use a lot of nickel and their Top 3 corners are solid. First rounder Horn would likely be a bigger factor with more man coverage, but like his draft projections, he’s very talented in any scheme or deployment. He had five interceptions, but according to Pro Football Reference has missed 27.5% of his tackle attempts. Ouch! Jackson is another big, long back, but his forte is zone coverage and using that length and big body to bully receivers underneath and supports in run game. He had four interceptions. Smith-Wade is on the small side, but is aggressive against the run (56 tackles in about little over 60% of snaps) and can use his oily hips to mirror darting slot receivers.
That’s why they play the game
On paper the Rams are a far superior team, yet only six weeks ago, the Panthers beat the Rams 31-28. It was a dreadful combination of Rams mistakes and exacting execution by Carolina. The Rams offense moved freely up and down the field, but were limited to eight total drives and 24 minutes of possession. The defense had no answers for Panthers run game while allowing three explosive play touchdowns. The Panthers not only won the turnover battle 3-0, but returned one of those for a touchdown and also converted three 4th downs that led to 17 points. In the second half, the Panthers were able to control over 20 of 30 possible minutes .
Can Carolina play a second perfect game? Or will the Rams roll them?
