So, what should we expect from the Carolina Panthers in their very first preseason game of the Dave Canales era?
Well, the first-year head coach was asked exactly that following Sunday's outing of training camp.
"Great effort, great enthusiasm—I hope the guys that are all cheering each other on, even especially when they're not on," he replied. "Great toughness—I wanna see big hits, I wanna see physical blocks, I wanna see the running backs finish with aggression and the tight ends. I wanna see great, smart plays in situations—making great decisions in third-down situations, end-of-half two-minutes, end-of-game two-minutes, those types of things. And above all, I wanna see us finish the fourth quarter like we started the game—with that intensity, with all those things.
"That's what I'm looking for. So it's kinda the formula of what we're trying to do here, and I wanna see it come to life in a game setting."
Carolina begins their preseason action this upcoming week, when they travel to Foxboro to take on the New England Patriots . The exhibition is set to kick off on Thursday, Aug. 8 at 7:00 p.m. ET.
But will we see the team's top players come Thursday night?
"We're still working through that," Canales replied when asked about the availability of his starters. "I think the ability to do that all depends on how healthy our groups are. So we'll have to evaluate what the numbers look like knowing we'll have to play four quarters."
This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers HC Dave Canales lists expectations for 2024 preseason opener
