FOXBOROUGH, Mass.— Consider this a soft opening for the Dave Canales era, as the Carolina Panthers kick off their first pre-season game Thursday night. Here in Foxborough, it's a new era as well, with questions of their own around the offense and what's next for the franchise.

Kickoff is set for 7pm EST. Find out more information on how to watch here.

Here are five things to watch for during the game:

Head coaches getting their reps as well

Both the Panthers and the Patriots boast new—and first-time—head coaches, in Canales and Jerod Mayo. These are two guys who have been around the sport for decades and know what goes into making a team. But they're also being handed a new set of responsibilities for the first time ever.

"Calling the plays, handling the exchanges with the officials; 'Do we decline this penalty? Do we not?' I'm excited about all those things," Canales listed earlier this week.

"These are new things that I've observed, but it's going to be really cool to be right at the center of making those calls."

The Panthers have two former head coaches on staff, Jim Caldwell and Dom Capers, that can lend a hand and expertise to Canales. But as both Canales and Mayo navigate the extra work that comes with being a head coach, procedural hiccups could be expected. Don't forget, coaches need reps too.

The fight for a quarterback spot

With Bryce Young not playing and Andy Dalton still nursing an injury, the quarterback duties will fall to Jack Plummer and Jake Luton. The former has been around since signing as an undrafted free agent in April. He's gone through voluntary minicamp, OTAs, all of training camp; he has been immersed in the offense.

The latter spent some time, albeit brief, with the Canales offense in Seattle. He also has four years of experience under his belt in the league.

Which pays off more in a game, even preseason? That's what we've yet to learn.

The two will duke it out in this game to earn a potential quarterback spot here, made all the more important by a new league rule allowing teams to carry an emergency third quarterback from the practice squad on a game day roster.

Running backs with a chance to impress

Since arriving, Canales has preached the importance of running the ball, and the need for a deep running back stable on the team. There are currently seven running backs on the active training camp roster (plus rookie Jonathon Brooks, who remains on the active/NFI list as he recovers from last year's knee injury), and despite splitting reps amongst a large group, each have found a moment or two or multiple, to flash the skill set that makes them unique and valuable.

With the plan to keep this unit chugging all season long, the staff will need some workhorses. Those fighting for the bubble spots have a chance to start solidifying their role against the Patriots.

The kicker competition continues

As training camp has progressed, Eddy Piñeiro and Harrison Mevis have split days or periods, kicking for drills and on their own. Both have had strings of makes, spots of misses and long field goals. It's creating a competition that will kick up a notch versus the Patriots.

Piñeiro comes into the preseason with a career average of 89 percent on field goals, and a 91 percent average on points after. The rookie Mevis now gets his shot in a game to prove he's NFL ready.

"(Special teams coordinator) Tracy Smith, he's got a plan for the rotation of the kickers. But we certainly have seen Eddy, and we know what he can do," Canales said.

"He's a fantastic kicker and we want to give Harrison a chance to show us what he can do. He's got a really live leg and it'd be cool to see a pretty long-range field goal at some point where you might go for it or you might punt in that situation. Let's maybe just take a shot here and see if he can showcase his talent."

Polishing the pre-snap

Following Fan Fest in Clemson last week, Canales was vocal about the need to clean up pre-snap penalties. After watching the tape, the coach modified, reminding it's never as good as it seems, it's never as bad as it seems. Still, there were issues that couldn't be ignored, and there was an extra focus in the past few practices to address them.

While Young and other starters won't be playing against the Patriots, the discipline that comes with practicing pre-snap flow and execution can be applied to the whole roster. How does that area of the game show itself for the Panthers?