Curtis Samuel’s injury not a major blow for the Carolina Panthers
By Jon Dove
The Carolina Panthers will be without one of their more explosive offensive weapons, Curtis Samuel, for the rest of the season.
Curtis Samuel’s ankle injury will cost him the rest of his rookie season, but it’s not a major blow to the Carolina Panthers playoff hopes. The truth is that Samuel has struggled to find a role within the offensive attack.
He has tallied only 15 catches on 26 targets for a total of 115 yards. Samuel has yet to score a touchdown and his biggest play from scrimmage was a 31-yard run. However, he has made some solid contributions as a return man.
The biggest problem this injury causes for the Panthers is depth at the wide receiver position. They were obviously hoping that Samuel would start producing more as the season progressed. His skills set is something that needed to be a game plan to maximize.
Carolina will now have a receiving corps lead by Devin Funchess, Russell Shepard and Kaelin Clay. Look for Christian McCaffrey to also continue to get a lot of targets in the passing game.
Something that will help the Panthers get over the loss of Samuel is the return of Greg Olsen. He is expected back in the next week or two. Olsen is Cam Newton’s favorite target and a major part of the team’s offensive game plan.
The Panthers aren’t as talented of a team with Samuel out of the lineup, but his loss doesn’t cause major problems for the offense. They will overcome this loss with the return of Olsen and by continuing to use McCaffrey as a pass catcher.