CHARLOTTE — The first thing the Panthers have to manage is the human shock of potentially losing one of their best players a day after a 47-10 loss in the opener.

And there's no minimizing the potential loss of star defensive tackle Derrick Brown — who is getting a second opinion on a meniscus tear in his knee — but Panthers coach Dave Canales is trying to emphasize the path forward for his team.

"Definitely a huge loss, right? He's one of our best players. That's big shoes to fill," Canales said. "But at the same time, we've got players in there, I want them to know and be encouraged. If you go in, you play with great technique, and you just do your job, we don't need you to make the special plays that Derrick makes.

"Just do your job, help the guys on either side of you and that's the truth of it. If you can play team football with a bunch of guys, you can have success."

That's the kind of thing a coach has to say, but Canales didn't shy away from the reality that losing Brown is not just another player becoming unavailable. They gave him a contract extension in April to make him part of the foundation of this place, and he continued to work the way he always has, leading the team through yet another offseason of change.

"For a guy who means so much to that team," Canales began. "Especially for a guy like Derrick, who really embodies what we want to become as a team. The effort, the way he comes to work, how hard he tries at practice to get himself ready, how much he cares, how he plays through the end of a game, all the way through in every phase whenever he's asked to be on the field.

"He still gives me a great example to point the other guys to, to say, guys, this is what we want to be like, this is our team, this is how we finish. And the guys definitely take that personally, and I have to just encourage them to say, OK, now whoever goes in next, follow that lead, play hard as long as you're on the field with great effort, chase it down no matter what the score is."

Beyond the Brown news, the simple act of dealing with a loss the magnitude of Sunday's was a challenge. But at least on Monday, Canales could turn on the film and point to concrete examples of mistakes, beginning with a number of coaching points that he said fell on himself.

The problems were multiple, happening in every phase of the game (they also allowed the Saints to score on their first nine possessions, giving up 180 rushing yards and getting a punt blocked). So when Canales talked about going into his team meeting on Monday and discussing the "accountability" portion, he had specific examples across the board for everyone.

"It was playing proper technique throughout the game," he said. "It was here, and it was there, and it was all over the place. Again, the guys were great about it. They were accountable with it."

Asked again about the lack of preseason playing time (the starters played one series each in just the third game), Canales said he felt like the initial plan was sound based on workloads but vowed to look back over everything.

"My responsibility as the head coach is to say, OK, let's look at all the processes, and we had a plan," he said. "We went into training camp into the preseason with a plan in mind, the ramp up as we got closer to the season and felt good about the rep counts and all that. But I've got to look at everything. To come out and in all phases have that much to fix. It starts with me, it starts with the process and it starts with us combing through all of it to see. There's nothing you can do about it now about the past, but looking forward as you circle back around is, is there a way that we could have helped more?"

And as a part of that accountability function that comes on Mondays, Canales said there's also a responsibility to learn from it and move on.

"Fortunately, for me as the head coach of this team, I have to be concerned about the coaches and the players first and foremost and making sure we take the next step fundamentally," he said. "And hopefully everybody can understand the discipline that is required to be in the moment to be present in this week.

"You know, the gift we have of as of 30 minutes ago, that game's over with, and now we have to move on, and we've got the Chargers coming in on Sunday. And so that discipline is huge, and it's a practice, and it's intentionality, and it's something that I have to be really, really strict about with our group is now, let's take the next step. We are here. That was us yesterday. We are here today and we're looking forward to this next challenge and this next opportunity to take the next step. So, I have to be focused that way."

Canales mentioned they "lost in all of the critical areas," mentioning a few by name. They turned it over three times, and the muffed punt they got on late was after the game was well-decided, "so I can't even count that one towards our turnover ratio." He also mentioned allowing 12 explosive plays and having just four of their own ("and two of them happened late in the game") and losing by considerable margins in both third and fourth down conversations.

"If you just win one of these critical areas, you've got a really good chance of winning," he said. "We lost all four, and that's when it gets lopsided, and the victory and the loss margin ends up that way because of that. So that's our focus."

Rookie J.T. Sanders shares the reality check from his first game

Tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders had known for days he'd be starting for the Carolina Panthers in their Week 1 game. There was excitement and some nerves, but also a bit of naivety that only comes with playing in your first game as a rookie in the league.

"We had a run play and Chase Young, just ran straight through my face. That was my real wake up call to the NFL," Sanders admitted on Monday. "I thought, I ain't letting that (expletive) happen again."

Sanders was drafted from Texas as a pass-catching tight end. The position still calls for extensive blocking however, and for Sanders there was a reality check in seeing the jump from college to the league, and camp to live game speed. It taught a valuable lesson to someone who looks to be a large factor in the offensive plan for the Panthers this season.

"Just knowing that you can't outmuscle every guy, that these are all grown ass men and they all strong as hell. So just trying to get stronger and better every day," Sanders said of what he took away from the game, adding he'll now focus more on, "Definitely technique."

"Just playing my first game, I truly understand or starting to understand more, that technique is really going to help because you're not going to be able to block – like those guys get paid millions of dollars to do what they do. So, it's not going to be easy and when you take effort and technique and combine it, it only means good things for you."

Dave Canales has made it clear he's comfortable playing young guys and taking "the lumps" early on, with the plan for the experience to pay dividends down the line. As Sanders reassesses after his first game in the NFL, with a notebook of lessons and a game plan of things to work on, he echoed his coach, promising positive results from the performance.

"It's only going to make me better, trying to block guys like Cam Jordan and Chase Young," Sanders said. "It's only going to make me better in the long run."

The turnover battle to receive extra emphasis this week

There's a stat that the Panthers have been reminded of all offseason. Teams that win the turnover margin, even if only by plus one, win the game 70 percent of the time. Week 1 in the 2024 season kept in line with this stat, as the 10 teams that were plus one or more in that category, went 9-1 overall.

The Panthers, however, found themselves minus two in the turnover margin following their 47-10 loss to the Saints. And even then, Dave Canales knows that stat isn't the whole story.

"We turned the ball over three times. They turned it over once. The game was gone by then, when we recovered that punt, so I can't even count that one towards our turnover ratio," Canales said Monday. "We ended up minus three really in my mind in significant time, that alone is enough (to lose)."

So, when players arrived for team and position meetings on Monday, the stat, the mantra and the focus was reiterated in every room.

"As a team we got to just do a better job obviously, like, we got to take the ball. The ball is everything and that's never just on one person. It's on the whole unit," tight end Jordan Matthews said Monday afternoon.

There are multiple factors that each unit could handle better, Matthews added, but, "more than anything, the ball, the ball, the ball and I know that Dave's going to continue to harp on that. Offensive coordinator Brad (Idzik) mentioned in meetings and that's where we want to go forward."

On offense, that means ball security. Bryce Young threw two interceptions and Jonathan Mingo fumbled a ball, which the Saints recovered.

"So I think we're looking at something obviously that we're going to hone in on this week just to get on the right side of where we want to be in the win column, it's probably going to be ball security and then we'll continue to patch up everything else," Matthews explained.

On defense, it means creating more takeaways. The Panthers and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero have been big on that idea this offseason, pointing to the number of attempts, around 60-plus, defenses have on the ball during games in which they often win. That point of emphasis will become a primary focus of practice this week.

"Let's hone in on these focuses," Canales said. "We've been crazy about the ball. We're going to take it up another notch. We're going to have drills. We're going to make sure that we emphasize it more in our meetings.

"How much more can we emphasize it? I don't know. But let's find out, let's find a way to do it."