We’re counting down the days until the Panthers kick off the 2024 season.
We’re officially 6 days away from the Carolina Panthers kicking off the 2024 NFL season and it’s time for our annual roster countdown to highlight the players on the Panthers’ roster. Today, we’re taking a closer look at No. 6 — running back Miles Sanders.
Well, where to begin?
If any player on the Panthers 2023 roster embodied the team’s season of frustration and futility from last year, it’s definitely Miles Sanders.
Before signing a 4-year, $25.4 million deal with the Panthers last year, the former 2019 second round pick had four extremely productive seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. When I say “extremely productive”, that’s not hyperbole. It’s fact. In four seasons with the Eagles he rushed for 4,140 yards averaging an impressive 5.0 yards per carry. His 2022 Pro Bowl season was downright awesome as he rushed for 1,269 yards and 11 touchdowns while averaging 4.9 yards per carry. Running backs don’t just luck their way into averaging five yards per carry over four seasons, even if they are playing behind a great offensive line with a good complimentary passing game, which Sanders enjoyed in Philly.
But he wasn’t just a “system guy” with the Eagles. Again, he was pretty awesome.
His first season in Carolina?
Not so awesome.
Panthers fans are already well aware of Sanders’ inability to find his footing in the Queen City. He rushed for a paltry 432 yards and one touchdown in 16 games. His yards per carry fell from 5.0 in Philly to just 3.3 in Carolina. Healthy 26-year-old running backs don’t regress from Pro Bowler one year to “he looks kinda like a practice squad guy” the next year. Miles Sanders didn’t encounter the Men in Black arresting an extraterrestrial only to have them whip out their neuralyzers and erase his memory of how to run a football.
Or maybe he did. Almost nothing else can explain his precipitous drop in year-to-year productivity. Well, perhaps the Panthers changing head coaches and offensive coordinators mid-season had something to do with it. Oh, the patchwork offensive line might have contributed, too. And let’s not forget a completely inept passing game that allowed opposing defenses to stack the box and just dare the Panthers to pass it on 3rd-and-3.
That said, fellow running back Chuba Hubbard faced the same obstacles as Miles Sanders did last year and Hubbard churned out 902 yards. Hubbard’s 3.8 yards per carry was half a yard better than Sanders’ 3.3 YPC. It’s more than concerning to see a third-year role player (Hubbard) outperform a big-dollar free agent coming off a Pro Bowl campaign (Sanders), but that’s what happened.
Now, there’s reason for Panthers fans to be optimistic that Miles Sanders can get his groove back in a 2024 “reset” season. New head coach Dave Canales has a history of coaxing average running backs to produce at above average levels. Sanders has Pro Bowl upside that Canales can mold into his system. Carolina’s offensive line has been massively upgraded and the wide receiver room has added talent with Diontae Johnson and rookie Xavier Legette. The blocking in front of Miles Sanders and the passing game behind him should be improved over a season ago.
If Miles Sanders was the embodiment of last year’s frustrations, perhaps this year he can be the symbol of the team’s resurgence.