Panthers vs. Bills: Previewing Carolina's Preseason Week 1 Matchup

The Carolina Panthers open up their preseason slate this Friday night, traveling to Buffalo to take on Rex Ryan’s new-look Bills. After months of speculation, draft previews, free-agency decisions, OTAs, workouts and training camps, we finally will get to see the Panthers actually take the field and play some football.

Of course, wins and losses mean very little in preseason. Often, good teams do poorly in the preseason thanks to resting their starters, while bad teams do well, as they’re forced to play their starters for longer periods of time to solve training camp battles.

While you’d rather see your team win than lose, there’s no sense in getting too excited over a 4-0 record or too disappointed over an 0-4 start.

That doesn’t at all mean preseason is meaningless. Not only is it a chance for the Panthers to finally hit someone wearing a different uniform—something that seems necessary, considering tempers boiled over earlier this week—but it’s also our first chance to see how the new pieces will work together in real game-like conditions.

Will Cam Newton and Devin Funchess work in the passing game? Can Michael Oher keep the pocket clean? Does Charles Tillman have anything left in the tank?

Starters won’t play for long, so it’s even more crucial to see how the backups and bottom-of-the-roster fodder shake out. Joe Webb’s performance last preseason, a 29-of-46, 387-yard showing, earned him the third quarterback slot while Newton recovered from injury, and Josh Norman’s interception and four passes defensed foreshadowed his emergence as a starter at cornerback by the end of the year. Someone is going to earn a key role in 2015 based on preseason play.

So, the final scoreboard is meaningless—quick, when was the last time the Panthers went undefeated in preseason play?—but the games themselves aren’t. If you look closely enough, you can find important information, even when the third-stringers are playing. Besides, it’s football! After a long offseason, nothing sounds better than that.

Location: Ralph Wilson Stadium, Orchard Park, New York

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 on tape delay on Saturday at 10 a.m. ET. It will use local announcers, but it’s unclear at this point if that will be Mixon and Rucker or the Bills team of Rob Stone and Steve Tasker.

Latest Injury News

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As teams aren’t specifically required to release injury reports leading up to preseason games, knowing who will be available for Friday’s game requires a bit of guesswork.

We know Star Lotulelei won’t play. The defensive tackle suffered a stress reaction in his right foot and was carted off the field. While it does not look like he’s in danger of missing the regular season, he’s not back at practice yet and will not suit up on Friday.

Charles Johnson will also miss the game after being carted off from a calf injury on Sunday. That injury is also not considered serious, but the team is going to be cautious and keep him out of action. That would likely give Dwan Edwards and Mario Addison starting reps on the defensive line in their absence.

Guard Amini Silatolu also tweaked his right calf on Friday and will not play, as Ron Rivera confirmed in an interview after Wednesday’s practice. That might mean more work for second-year player Andrew Norwell, who is slated to be the starter at left guard.

Two other players whose statuses are up in the air are Kawann Short, who only returned to practice on Sunday after dealing with a back issue, and Bene Benwikere, who has been gradually returning to practice after dealing with hamstring concerns.

Buffalo is significantly more dinged up than Carolina, though.

Cornerback Leodis McKelvin is still wearing a protective boot as he recovers from a broken ankle he suffered last year, leaving Ronald Darby slated to take snaps with the first unit. McKelvin is joined on NFI by kicker Dan Carpenter, recovering from a hamstring injury. Kickoff specialist and ex-Panther Jordan Gay should handle the field-goal duties on Friday.

Fred Jackson also has injured his hamstring and will miss a few weeks, and third-string running back Boobie Dixon is out with a calf injury. It’s unlikely the Bills run LeSean McCoy into the ground in the first preseason game, so that might mean plenty of Bryce Brown and Karlos Williams.

Guard Richie Incognito has an ankle injury and is questionable for Friday’s game, with veteran Kraig Urbik stepping up to replace him. Ross Cockrell, one of the Bills' depth corners, has a hamstring injury and will be out for a few more weeks as well.

Also banged up and sitting out of practice the past few days were defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, defensive tackle Kyle Williams, fullback John Conner, receiver Caleb Holley and tight end Chris Manhertz, according to Leo Roth of the Democrat and Chronicle. Dareus and Williams are starters, so both teams could be without multiple linemen for this game.

Key Matchups

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Without knowing who will be on the field and when, it’s hard to really focus on matchups for a preseason game. It will really depend, in large part, on when and how each team decides to rotate their starters.

Newton and most of Carolina’s first string will play for about a quarter, according to Ron Rivera, and it’s likely Buffalo will do the same on defense. You might see Buffalo’s starters stay out for longer on offense, because they’re in the midst of a three-way quarterback battle between Matt Cassel, Tyrod Taylor and EJ Manuel.

Still, without knowing precisely who will be where, we can still highlight some matchups, at least for the early going. Here are three to watch early on in the game.

WR Devin Funchess vs. CB Ronald Darby

It’s a battle of second-round draft picks, as Carolina’s new receiving option goes head-to-head with Buffalo’s new piece in the secondary.

Funchess has a significant height advantage, towering five inches over the 5’11” Darby, which should give Newton and Derek Anderson a tempting target. Don’t count out Darby if the two go head-to-head, however. Funchess should have trouble separating from the world-class speed of Darby. He’s going to have to use his power and size advantage to muscle his way past Darby to make his receptions.

Funchess was surprisingly listed as a third-string receiver on the initial depth chart, but it’s important to remember that the first chart is unofficial, put together by the PR staff rather than the coaching staff. Funchess has been working with the first team throughout training camp and should get a good, long look on Friday night.

Darby normally wouldn’t be starting. The Bills have a strong defense with excellent cornerbacks in Leodis McKelvin and Stephon Gilmore, as well as a solid nickelback in Nickell Robey. McKelvin’s continued recovery from injury, however, keeps Darby firmly in the limelight here.

Darby might be matched up more often against Carolina’s speedier players like Corey Brown and Ted Ginn, but hopefully we’ll get to see the two second-rounders go head-to-head a few times. One or both of them could be future stars in the league, and it would be nice to see them battling each other for the first time.

Carolina’s Offensive Tackles vs. Buffalo’s Edge-Rushers

Buffalo nearly made the playoffs last season on the back of its defense. The Bills led the NFL with 54 sacks last season, thanks to the play of Mario Williams, Jerry Hughes and Marcell Dareus—all of whom had double-digit sacks.

The Panthers, on the other hand, had significant issues keeping Newton and Anderson upright last season. They gave up 42 sacks—not the worst in the league, but firmly in the bottom half. Pro Football Focus collectively called the line the third-worst pass-blocking line in football, primarily due to the struggles of offensive tackles Byron Bell, Nate Chandler and David Foucault. This is what we call a matchup problem.

None of those three will be starting for the Panthers in 2015, so it’s up to the new guys to try to drag that performance up a few notches. They couldn’t have asked for a tougher first test.

On the left side, free-agent pickup Michael Oher and Chandler will find themselves tasked with stopping Hughes, Michael Buchanan and Manny Lawson, a difficult task by far. On the right side, last year’s surprise Mike Remmers and fourth-round pick Daryl Williams will have to contend with Mario Williams, the best edge-rusher on the team. Neither of these is a matchup that favors the Panthers.

Last season, this would have been a case of an unstoppable force against a highly moveable object, but the Panthers are hoping their new-look tackles are improved over last year.

Also helping will be the fact that teams play vanilla defense in preseason, so some of the trickier stunts and complex maneuvers defenses can run won’t be in place to contend with. Still, it’s a difficult first test for the tackles, and it's Oher’s first left-tackle start since 2012.

LB Shaq Thompson vs. TE MarQueis Gray

The Bills are in the midst of a full-on backup tight end battle behind Charles Clary. Gray is battling with rookie Nick O’Leary and Matthew Mulligan for the most reps at that second tight end position.

Normally, that’s not a big deal, but Buffalo’s new offensive coordinator Greg Roman uses his tight ends early and often. Roman’s offenses in San Francisco were best when Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker were both used as weapons. Thus, you’ll probably see Buffalo trying to figure out who complements Clay the best for its 2015 offense.

Enter first-round pick Shaq Thompson. Thompson was a hybrid linebacker and safety in college, so if there’s one thing he’s fully capable of doing, it's covering tight ends. He’s been limited during training camp thanks to a hamstring injury, but he’s back and looking good at the moment, according to the Charlotte Observer. 

If there are no significant setbacks between now and game time on Friday, we should see a lot of Thompson against Buffalo. After all, it’s not like the veteran Thomas Davis needs a lot of reps.

Buffalo should be going through its tight end battle early and often, which means Thompson will get tested immediately. It will be a chance for Panthers fans to see how their first-round pick handles what should be a decently heavy workload.

X-Factors

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With starters likely to play only a quarter, it’s much more likely it will be the backups and reserves who decide this matchup. Thus, the X-factors come not from the starters, but from those reserves who will have to keep up a good level of performance for multiple quarters if their team is going to win.

Panthers X-factor: Daryl Williams

Against the Bills’ sterling pass rush, Carolina’s offensive line will be hard-pressed to keep its quarterback upright. It will fall to the offensive tackles to keep Joe Webb and Derek Anderson from hitting the turf early and often.

Williams, one of the most intriguing draft picks the Panthers made this past year, will be charged with protecting the right side of the offensive line for most of the game—one would assume.

Though Mike Remmers will get the start and Tony Hills could get some work late in the fourth quarter, Williams should have more time at right tackle than any other player. How he performs in his first NFL game will go a long way to determining the outcome of this one.

Cameron Artis-Payne, likely to get a long look at running back in the second half, and Webb, the third-string quarterback, are also likely to play a major role. But considering the Bills’ ferocious pass rush, even coming off the bench, you have to focus on keeping the backfield clean, which leads to Williams.

Bills X-factor: Percy Harvin

What on earth can we expect out of Percy Harvin in 2015? The dangerous, all-around talent that made the Pro Bowl in Minnesota as a rookie in 2009, averaging nearly 1,000 yards from scrimmage in his four years in purple? The oft-injured player who played in only 10 games between 2012 and 2013? Or the discontent who wore out his welcome in Minnesota, Seattle and New York since the end of the 2012 season?

Don’t expect too many gadget plays from Harvin in the first week of preseason—it’s unlikely Buffalo will open its playbook that much. But Harvin’s getting a fresh start in Buffalo and, at age 27, it’s still firmly possible that he can return to the Pro Bowl-level of performance that made him a game-changer early on in his career.

The Panthers, like all opposing defenses, are going to need to account for him wherever he is on the field. That might fall to Bene Benwikere, but a lot of corners have looked foolish trying to keep up with Harvin.

What the Experts Are Saying

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ESPN.com: Josh Norman Amazed by Scrutiny of Scuffle with Cam Newton

The big story this week in training camp has been Newton and Norman’s scrap after Norman intercepted a wayward Newton pass on Monday. Considering other quarterback-teammate scraps this week have included Geno Smith getting his jaw broken, it’s perhaps not a big surprise that this has been a major storyline.

It is a surprise to Norman, however, who said any lingering issues were over and done with by the time practice ended.

"We're teammates. We're brothers," Norman said. "We watched a movie [last night]. We hung out. I don't know what else to say about it other than he's our quarterback. He's the franchise quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, and I'm glad to be on his team."

He’s backed up on this opinion by Newton, who downplayed the scuffle earlier this week, saying that there were no hard feelings between the two, and that they bring out the best in one another.

While it’s a bit naive for Norman to be surprised at the coverage of the million-dollar franchise quarterback getting into a fight at training camp, it’s not going to be a story that has anywhere to grow. There aren’t, as far as we know, any lingering resentments between the two, and it’s far from the first fight in a training camp.

It’s a product of competing against the same players day in and day out, without having an opponent as an outlet to tackle. It’s not a non-story, but it’s not going to have any sort of impact on the upcoming season.

Now, had Newton or Norman been hurt in the scuffle, we’d be talking about an entirely different situation, and that’s why these fights are bad in general.  In this case, however, it’s more of a “no harm, no foul, don’t do it again” sort of situation.

Charlotte Observer: Shaq Thompson Flashes Potential

While he’s been limited in practice due to a gimpy hamstring, now that Thompson is back on the field, he seems to be making up for lost time.

At least, that’s the read of the Charlotte Observer, noting that after missing rookie camp, OTAs and minicamp because of injuries and college obligations, Thompson was finally getting a chance to show his stuff on the practice field.

“It was good to have Shaq back on the field and practicing, doing things he’s capable of,” coach Ron Rivera said. “We’ve got to be smart with our guys right now, especially guys that are coming off hamstrings and lower-back tightness, just because it’s going to happen this time of the year."

It’s unfortunate that Thompson has missed so much time in his rookie season; obviously, rookies need training camp reps far more than veterans do. It places him a little behind the ideal learning curve, which, coupled with the presence of Thomas Davis, could limit his playing time in 2015.

However, Thompson’s athletic prowess is rare for the position, and he’s a fast learner. He’ll get an opportunity to strut his stuff on the field on Friday, so we can see that quickness, vision and athleticism actually translate into an NFL performance.

Thompson can’t do anything about the time he missed. All he can do is take the practice reps he’s getting now and get the most out of them.

Panthers.com: Kelvin Benjamin Coming into His Own

The Panthers’ team website has been hyping Kelvin Benjamin throughout training camp. The second-year player should have more assistance in the receiving corps this year, which should help him improve on a promising, if inconsistent, rookie campaign.

Equally as important to his production on the field is his role as leader of the young receiving corps. Jerricho Cotchery has called Benjamin the “lead dog.” As the top receiver on the team, his performance and energy could have a cascade effect down the depth chart, and Benjamin is aware of that:

"

I knew coming in I was going to be a leader, but Coach Ricky (Proehl) and all of them still gave me time to grow. They knew I was a young guy, and they surrounded me with older guys to teach me. Even last year J-Co was in my ear, telling me, ‘Be the spark. Be the spark.’ I just tried to set the tempo, and the guys feed off that energy.

"

It’s a youthful receiving corps in general. Cotchery and Ted Ginn are the two veterans on the roster, but the rest of the corps includes four rookies, three second-year players and two undrafted free agents from 2012. One of the young players needs to step up to take something of a leadership role, and Benjamin is in the best position to do that.

Whether he becomes that leader or not, it’s easy to see Benjamin topping 1,000 receiving yards for the second straight season, as all reports from camp have him looking fantastic.

The thing that might stop him is the success of other players on the team—Newton often had to force the ball in Benjamin’s general direction due to a lack of options elsewhere. If Funchess and Ginn can provide more options for Newton, he might not have to force the ball Benjamin’s way so often.

Prediction: Bills 20, Panthers 13

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The final score of a preseason game is more or less meaningless. It matters far more how your team looks, especially when the starters are in, than whether the third-string Bills outscore the third-string Panthers.

Were this a regular-season game, I’d say the teams were evenly matched. You have two teams, propelled by strong defenses, trying to get by despite worrisome issues on offense, with the Bills having no quarterback and the Panthers weak at offensive tackle.

A defensive slugfest should be expected, with the final result being determined by a handful of key plays. As a road game in Buffalo, it would be a tough matchup for Carolina to win, but certainly not one that was out of the question.

As a preseason game, though, there’s another factor that comes into play—how long the starters will actually be in the game.

The Panthers are pretty much set at most of their key starting positions on offense and defense. There’s only one or two spots for each platoon that are still up in the air. As such, most of their starters will play a quarter and then go and sit down.

The Bills aren’t going to play their starters the whole game or anything of that nature, but they have a serious quarterback competition going on, with Matt Cassel, Tyrod Taylor and EJ Manuel all listed as co-starters on the initial depth chart.

To get a real view of how each quarterback is doing, all three need to work under similar situations. That means they need to work with the same offensive line, the same receivers and the same running game.

While we won’t see all the starters stay in the game through Manuel’s stint at quarterback, we’re likely to see Buffalo’s offensive starters play more snaps than Carolina’s.

That’s likely enough to tip the scales toward Buffalo. Odds Shark currently lists the Bills as three-point favorites, essentially saying that the two teams are equal, with the Bills favored simply due to home-field advantage.

With two evenly matched teams, pick the one that’s likely to play its starters longer. Call it a touchdown victory in a game defined by defense.

Bryan Knowles is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the Carolina Panthers. Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.