Dolphins vs Panthers: Previewing Carolina's Preseason Week 2 Matchup

On Saturday, the Carolina Panthers continue their preseason slate with a matchup against the Miami Dolphins.  After two days of joint practices, the teams will face off in Charlotte for a game that should see the starters get significant playing time.

When the joint training camp practices were first mentioned, coach Ron Rivera talked about why it was such an exciting opportunity to get to work with another team, via Max Henson of Panthers.com:

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It's a unique opportunity for us to have our guys practice for two days at a different tempo, at a different level against a different style. In all three phases it gives us an opportunity to look at different situations. In talking with (Dolphins head coach) Joe Philbin, we plan on doing situational football together. We'll use different ideas and combine the way they do things with the way we do things. It will benefit both teams mutually.

"

The opportunity, however, is not without its dangers.  Both the Dolphins and Panthers suffered major injuries in their first joint practice, with Kelvin Benjamin and Louis Delmas going down.  It’s not a fault of the joint practice—it could easily have happened in normal, team-on-team practices—but it certainly takes the shine off of the opportunity.

In last year’s second preseason game, the starters stayed in through nearly the entire first half, so we’ll get more of an opportunity to see how the Panthers’ starting lineup is actually shaping up.  In last week’s game, we hardly got to see starters like Luke Kuechly, Mike Tolbert or Thomas Davis, while Jonathan Stewart, Charles Johnson, Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short didn’t play at all.  In theory, at least, the first half of this week’s game will look more like the Panthers squad we’ll see during the regular season.

Will we see the debut of Shaq Thompson?  Will the defensive line be more intact?  Will Jonathan Stewart provide a spark in the running game?  These questions, and more, could be answered in this Saturday’s matchup.

Location: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, N.C.

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Local TV: Varies from city to city, with WCCB Charlotte being the flagship station.  For a complete list of stations, including the one in your area, check out the television page here.  Mick Mixon and Mike Rucker will have the call.

National Rebroadcast: NFL Network will rebroadcast the game at 4 a.m. ET Sunday.  As the game is in North Carolina, they should use Carolina’s announcing team.  Set your DVRs for this one if you’re not in the Southeast.

Last Week

Heather Ainsworth/Associated Press

The Panthers got to 1-0 with a late touchdown drive against the Buffalo Bills, winning 25-24.  The team’s performance was up-and-down at best, but each of the three quarterbacks led a scoring drive, with Cam Newton putting up an impressive 111.7 quarterback rating thanks to his final drive in the second quarter. 

The offensive line also looked significantly improved, with new left tackle Michael Oher and right tackle Mike Remmers each allowing only one quarterback hurry and rookie Daryl Williams putting up a clean sheet, per Pro Football Focus.  That’s an impressive performance against a very tough Bills defense.

The run game was less impressive, with the team having a total of just 73 yards on the ground.  The offensive line, for the most part, got very little push, and it wasn't helped by the absence of Jonathan Stewart.  For a team that is going to live and die with its run offense, that’s a bit concerning, and something they’ll look to improve on against a Dolphins defense that allowed 4.3 yards per carry last season but added Ndamukong Suh in the offseason.

The defense, thanks to the absence of three starters of the defensive line and the short cameos by their two all-world linebackers, struggled, especially against the second-team Bills offense.  As a unit, it allowed 206 yards rushing and an average of 4.6 yards per carry, which helped let the Bills control the ball for more than 37 minutes.  They’ll look to improve that performance this week.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, lost to the Chicago Bears 27-10 in their opener, though they had a 7-3 lead when most of the starters left the game.  They looked better than the Bears at the top of the depth charts, losing it late when backups were in the game.  Ryan Tannehill led the Dolphins on a 14-play, 85-yard touchdown drive, with Lamar Miller adding 32 yards on just three carries.

It wasn’t all wine and roses—none of the backups could match Miller’s 32 yards, and the third- and fourth-string quarterbacks threw a total of three interceptions late in the game.  Part of that was due to the poor play of the reserve offensive line, though again, its starters looked all right.

On defense, we only saw a brief cameo from all-world free agent Suh, but it was effective—he was disruptive and drew a double-team on every snap.  He’ll be another major test for the Panthers offensive line, especially as he provides more opportunities for Cameron Wake.  Wake had a sack on Jay Cutler in the Bears game, though it was called back due to a penalty.

Latest Injury News

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

The first Dolphins-Panthers practice was a costly one, in terms of injuries.

For the Panthers, that comes in terms of Kelvin Benjamin.  Benjamin was carted off the field on Wednesday, falling to the ground while attempting to make a cut, according to ESPN's David Newton.  There was no contact on the play—he simply crumpled.  Head coach Ron Rivera said Benjamin tore his ACL and will miss the entire 2015 season, via Newton.  That’s a major blow to an already inexperienced receiving corps.

To add insult to injury, Rivera said that Devin Funchess also went down with a hamstring issue and will likely be held out of Thursday’s practice, according to Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review (via Darin Gantt of Pro Football Talk).  It looks like that injury isn’t particularly serious, so there’s a good chance he could play on Saturday but also a good chance that he won’t play as Carolina tries to protect him.  The Panthers will need him with the loss of Benjamin.  It also may be time to page free agent Reggie Wayne to the white courtesy phone.

To make matters worse, Robert Lester was also taken off on a cart.  That’s probably the least impactful of the three Panthers injuries on Wednesday, but that’s still a horrible day.  And, atop of everything else, Mike Tolbert had a split and wrap on his left thumb, according to Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the practice?

The Panthers got out of their first preseason game relatively scratch-free in the injury department.  Teddy Williams suffered a concussion against the Bills, but he was back in pads by Tuesday.  Concussions are notoriously fickle things to recover from, so it wouldn’t be stunning if he hadn’t cleared all stages of the protocol by Saturday’s game, but it looks to be a short-term problem rather than a long-term issue.

Of course, Star Lotulelei is still out with his stress fracture, and Charles Johnson’s calf has flared up again, according to Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, so neither is likely to play on Saturday.  That should keep Kony Ealy and possibly Kyle Love in the starting lineup.  In better news, Kawann Short should play after not traveling to the Bills game, so the defensive line is gradually returning to health.

Amini Silatolu (calf) and Lou Young (hamstring) also didn’t make the trip to Buffalo, and both remain sidelined.  Even if they return to practice between now and Saturday, they’re unlikely to play in the game—they simply won’t have enough reps yet.  Similarly, tight end Brandon Williams is on track to come back from his groin surgery, but we’re talking next week rather than Saturday at this point.

Everyone else seems on track to play—including Shaq Thompson, who missed the Buffalo game as the staff remained wary of his hamstring injury.

While the Panthers brace for a potentially season-ending injury, the Dolphins have a full-on season-ending injury. Citing multiple sources, Pro Football Talk reported that safety Louis Delmas tore his ACL—the same one he tore last season.  Delmas is a good player, and his loss will hurt the Dolphins.  Walt Aikens, a second-year player out of Liberty, is his likely replacement.

Even besides that, the Dolphins are a little more banged up.  First-round pick DeVante Parker is still recovering from foot surgery and may not be back for the start of the regular season, much less this preseason matchup.  They also lost linebackers Jordan Tripp and Chris McCain to ankle injuries during their first preseason game; while McCain has since returned to practice, Tripp has not, per the Palm Beach Post.  Don’t expect Tripp to be back in time for Saturday’s game.

Wideout Kenny Stills returned to practice on Monday, and depending on how he performs in the joint practices, could see action on Saturday.  I’d expect the Dolphins to take it slowly with him and hold him out, but it wouldn’t be stunning to see him lining up with the starting offense come Saturday.

Starting tackle Branden Albert sat out last week’s preseason game as he recovers from a torn ACL, but he’s taking steps to come back.  He finally started doing some team drills earlier this week, per ESPN.  They’re not likely to rush such an important player back for a preseason game, so Jason Fox should get another start there.

The only other player who’s been sitting out for Miami is starting linebacker Koa Misi, who is nursing a calf injury, which should give Kelvin Sheppard another start in his place.

Key Matchups

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With starters likely to play a quarter and a half, we’ll see more first-team-on-first-team action this week.  That gives some of these matchups time to shine over more than one or two series.

DE Kony Ealy and Frank Alexander vs. OT Ja’Wuan James and Jason Fox

The battle for the starting defensive end position across from Charles Johnson started with a whimper last week, with neither of the lead contenders really impressing.  Ealy had a quarterback hit and a pressure, according to Pro Football Focus, but didn’t record a single stat on the official stat sheet—not a single tackle, which is problematic considering he had 35 snaps. 

Alexander had one less pressure and didn’t make a tackle either, though at least his QB hit was recorded by the NFL.  Either way, both were outperformed by rookie minicamp signing Rakim Cox.

It’s actually been Cox, not Alexander, who has been getting starting reps during practice, according to Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review.  They speculate it’s likely to signal disappointment toward Alexander’s performance, though it could just be different groups of linemen getting work.

Either way, Ealy and Alexander should still be considered the front-runners to be the starter when the season begins, but both need to improve on their performance from last week if they’re going to keep that status.  Fox and James combined to allow zero pressures on Ryan Tannehill last week, per PFF, so it will be up to Ealy and Alexander—and maybe Cox—to blemish their records.

OG Trai Turner vs. DT Ndamukong Suh

Suh’s a world-beater.  He’s been one of PFF’s top four defensive tackles in each of the last three seasons.  He dominates as both a run-stopper and pass-rusher, controlling the trenches with power and technique.  He’s the toughest assignment for any interior lineman in football today.

That’s a big task to handle for a second-year player with only nine regular-season starts under his belt.  While Turner was good last season and didn’t allow a pressure against a tough Bills defense last week, per PFF, this is still a matchup that’s going to favor Suh.

Turner won’t be asked to do it alone.  He should get plenty of help in double-teams from Ryan Kalil.  Still, Suh can make an impact on the game even when fighting through double-teams.  Cam Newton might have to do a bit of improvisation in the backfield to get away from Suh, and fighting for rushing yards up the middle will be a tall task as well.

WR Devin Funchess vs. CB Jamar Taylor

Brent Grimes is Miami’s top corner, but Taylor is ever-so-slightly taller, making him a better matchup against Funchess—that is, if Funchess plays at all.  We won’t know the severity of his hamstring injury for a day or two, and the Panthers might be gun-shy about letting him play days after losing Kelvin Benjamin.  His injury doesn’t appear to be nearly as bad, though, so let’s assume, for the sake of argument, he’ll be in the game.

Funchess flashed some promise in his debut with two receptions, including a 34-yard catch down the sideline at the beginning of the third quarter.  We haven’t actually seen him move with the ball in his hands yet, as he earned a whopping two yards after the catch against Buffalo.  Battling against the 2013 second-round pick, it will be interesting to see what Funchess can do if he gets the chance to catch and run at some point in this game.

X-Factor

Uncredited/Associated Press

Rakim Cox

Panthers X-Factor: DE Rakim Cox

Is it too soon to be getting excited about Rakim Cox?  The probable answer is yes; there’s a reason he wasn’t in the NFL last season and was available for a tryout in Carolina’s rookie minicamp.  Still, he had to turn heads against Buffalo.  Cox had a sack against Matt Simms and was in the backfield on multiple other occasions, even if it was in the last series of the first preseason game against players who won’t be on Buffalo’s 53-man roster.

Still, it impressed the team enough that Cox has been getting first-team snaps, according to ESPN.  Could he be the latest gem general manager Dave Gettleman has uncovered, filling the pass-rush gap left behind by Greg Hardy?

The answer is “probably not”, but you can’t ask for much of a better debut than Cox had.  It will be interesting to see how he does against tougher competition in this game—he’ll likely get in the game before the end of the fourth quarter this time.  Maybe it is just preseason hot air and he’ll disappear from view soon enough, but who knows?  Maybe he’s a diamond in the rough.  He’s worth keeping an eye on, at any rate.

Dolphins X-Factor: RG Billy Turner

The Dolphins had serious troubles on the interior line last season, with both Mike Pouncey and Daryn Colledge playing quite poorly.  Colledge is no longer with the team, Pouncey has moved to center and the guard position is something of an open question.

Billy Turner was a third-round pick last season and saw almost no action, getting into the Week 17 matchup toward the end but nothing more.  Now, all of a sudden, he’s leading a very open competition to be the starting right guard.

Turner was solid enough in the preseason opener, but he’s still very much an unknown quantity.  Better in the run game than as a pass protector at this point, Turner will have his hands full with Carolina’s defensive line.

What the Experts Are Saying

Chuck Burton/Associated Press

Mostly, the experts are talking about how Kelvin Benjamin's knee injury hurts the team.  Fortunately, the team doesn't revolve around just one player.

NFL.com: Cam Newton’s Looking Good

At this point last preseason, Cam Newton was generally banged up, recovering from an ankle surgery with cracked ribs to boot.  This year, though, he’s healthy, and looking good in practice, according to NFL.com’s Gil Brandt.

While Brandt acknowledged that Newton got off to a poor start in Friday’s preseason action, he noted that Newton showed very good accuracy in passing drills.  It is only drills in training camp, but if Newton can become a league-average passer in terms of accuracy, he’ll jump into the top 10 quarterbacks in the league.  PFF had Newton as the second-least-accurate passer last season, and Football Outsiders charted him as having the most overthrows in football last season.

Newton doesn’t need to become Drew Brees and have laser-precise accuracy on his passes to be a top-10 quarterback; his arm strength and mobility give him a great dynamic as an all-around player.  All he needs to do is be accurate on closer to three-quarters of his passes rather than two-thirds.  Looking good in practice is the first step to making that happen.

ESPN: Kawann Short Likes Panthers' DTs More Than Ndamukong Suh

The local beat reporters pressed Kawann Short about being on the same field as Suh in these upcoming practices, asking him who would be the best defensive tackle on the field when the Dolphins came to town.  Short had praise for Suh, per ESPN's David Newton, but backed up his teammates.

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I just think the Carolina defensive tackles are the best. [Suh’s] going to be good, as well. But we're going to have the best guys on the Panthers this year.

I'm not a big attention guy.  I don't do the stuff [Suh] does or want the stuff that he wants….He gets off and creates havoc back there. We do everything different, but at the same time we want the same success.

"

You certainly wouldn’t expect Short to throw his teammates under the bus—of course he’s going to say the Panthers’ tackles are better than any comparison you throw at them.  It’s a very good defensive line all the way through.  As a unit, he’s likely right that the Panthers are better—if Star Lotulelei were practicing, you could make a very strong argument that Short and Lotulelei outclass Suh and Earl Mitchell.

Of course, Lotulelei is not practicing yet.  Even if he were, while he and Short are high-quality players whom any team would love to have, Suh’s a superstar.  Short and Lotulelei are key pieces in a defensive design; Suh is a player you build a team around.

Suh’s more comparable to Luke Kuechly, in that their presence frees up other players, like Cameron Wake and Thomas Davis, to excel in other areas.  They’re single-handedly capable of changing the course of a game.  Short and Lotulelei, as good as they are, aren’t quite in the same league yet.

Charlotte Observer: Corey Brown Says Panthers are Deep at Deep Threat

The wide receiver position is one of the larger question marks for the Panthers this upcoming season—they lack any real proven solid players.  Kelvin Benjamin showed promise last season, but it was just one season—and now he’s out for the year.  Jerricho Cotchery is old and fading.  Devin Funchess is a rookie.  There’s potential, but very little past production to single out at this point.

Corey Brown, however, disagrees somewhat.  He seems to think there’s actually a glut at the position, at least it terms of deep threats.  When asked by the Charlotte Observer who the best deep threat on the team is, he was very clear and to the point:

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Everybody.  All the receivers equally. I feel like we have so many receivers that can do it…I’m being honest when it comes to that. There are that many guys who can do it in our (receivers’) room. If you were to ask me who’s the fastest guy on the team, I would say me.

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At least for now, Brown remains the listed starter across from Kelvin Benjamin.  With Benjamin’s injury, that just solidifies Brown’s position as a potential starter.  The former undrafted free agent is getting those reps ahead of second-round pick Funchess and former first-round pick—and fellow deep threat—Ted Ginn.  That’s a testament to his performance down the stretch last season.

It’s also indicative that Brown is a different type of player from the other top receiving options.  No matter what Brown says, the top two receivers on the team—Funchess and Benjamin—aren’t really traditional deep threats.  They’re huge bodies with large catch radiuses, not speedsters who are going to stretch the field. 

Brown is a different kind of receiver—small and fast, with the potential to take the top off opposing teams.  That, as much as anything else, gives him a good chance to be a regular contributor on offense in 2015, whether or not he’s specifically a "starter."

Prediction: Panthers 23, Dolphins 14

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

The Panthers are favored by just one point according to Odds Shark.  That small margin would imply that on a neutral field, Miami would be considered the better team.

Miami's certainly a trendy pick to reach the playoffs this season.  A Harvard study has them winning the AFC, and an early projection from Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders (h/t ESPN) had them taking the AFC East thanks to Tom Brady’s suspension.  If you buy into the hype, then yes, you would consider them a better team in general.

I’m not sure I buy that for a few reasons.  People were saying the same thing about the Dolphins last season, and of course they stumbled at the end and finished with an 8-8 record.  Yes, they improved with the additions of Ndamukong Suh and Kenny Stills, but I think this is a team still lacking in depth.  That lack of depth hurt them against Chicago last week, which is why they ended up losing that game quite badly.

It’s also counting a lot on Ryan Tannehill continuing his progression as a quarterback, and I’m not quite sure he’s ready to lead the team into the playoffs yet, even with the revamped receiving corps.  He looked good in his one series against Chicago, but color me a bit doubtful on his production in 2015.

The Dolphins’ depth will be on the field for at least half the game, which is enough right there for me to give the win to the Panthers.  I’m not so sure, however, that the Dolphins should be favored on a neutral field even if the starters were going the whole way. 

If the Panthers’ revamped offensive line pass protects like it did against Buffalo—a much tougher task than Miami, it should be noted—then Cam Newton should have time to get comfortable.  Jonathan Stewart returning to the lineup should improve the run game.

As for the defense, I see the Panthers disrupting Tannehill’s rhythm early on.  They need to stop Lamar Miller—they couldn’t stop the run game against the Bills—but having their starting linebackers actually playing should help that.

Whether or not they outplay the Dolphins when the starters are on the field, however, I think the Panthers win this one with by a decent margin.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the Carolina Panthers.  Follow him @BryKno on twitter.