Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu is listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game, according to Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales. Ekwonu, who underwent an appendectomy last Sunday, returned to limited practice on Friday for the first time since his surgery. His participation included individual drills and some light activity earlier in the week, but the team has kept his movement minimal during recovery.
Canales said that the decision about Ekwonu’s availability would be made based on his progress through Friday’s practice. “We’re going to have to just keep taking it day by day,” Canales said Friday. “We got him out there to do some stuff and just with just how short of a window we had, we really just like—every day he takes leaps, every day he he does a little bit more and it’s just, we got to just kind of go all the way. He’s doubtful right now, we just got to take it all the way (to Sunday).”
If Ekwonu is unable to play against Jacksonville, either Yosh Nijman or Brady Christensen will start at left tackle. Nijman has 25 career starts and played in 83 games overall; most of his starts came in 2022 with Green Bay. Last season for Carolina, Next Gen Stats reported that Nijman allowed three sacks on 118 pass blocking snaps—a sack rate of 2.5 percent.
Christensen has started 30 games for Carolina and appeared in 51 total contests. According to Next Gen Stats, he did not allow any sacks over 212 pass blocking snaps last season.
In other roster news, cornerback Damarri Mathis suffered a torn ACL during Wednesday’s practice and will miss the remainder of the season. Mathis joined Carolina after being claimed off waivers from Denver following initial roster cuts and previously worked with defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero while with the Broncos.
“Unfortunately, Damarri tore his ACL,” Canales said. “So he’s here right now, and it’s getting some preliminary rehab, and he’ll be traveling to get operated on, and we’ll be a part of his recovery process. I was really excited about having him here, a guy that really brings a couple of things: a big, strong corner with great physical ability, looked really good moving around with that size, and also just his ability to play on special teams.
“So I was really excited to kind of bring him along and see where he fit in our schemes. So you know my heart goes out to Damarri for sure, especially this quickly changing scenery coming over from Denver, and then to get here and have that injury. Just really unfortunate.”
Sunday’s matchup features two coaches whose careers have followed similar paths recently: Dave Canales for Carolina and Liam Coen for Jacksonville. Both were offensive coordinators for Tampa Bay before earning their first head coaching positions after one year calling plays there.
Canales described following Coen’s career closely: “I’ve had a couple of connections with him over the years,” Canales shared Friday. “I would say probably for about the past five years… He kind of had this cool combination of the pro game and the college game… And then I saw him translate… when he took over in Tampa I saw him really translate the marriage of a couple of systems… so I got a lot of respect for Liam.”
“I think you know for us as as offensive coaches we all kind of look at each other’s offenses and see if there’s something that they’re doing within a scheme that we might be able to incorporate you know so he’s one of those guys that I just I love watching what they do.”
Canales added perspective on being an early-career head coach: “I take a lot of responsibility… as a young head coach… growing this game… It’s our charge to continue to advance it… but really just being able to take what the colleges are doing… so I think Liam’s one of those guys as well— how can we advance this game…”
