CHARLOTTE — The next 48 hours over the NFL are historically the hardest. Teams must cut their roster from 90 men to 53, a league wide cut of 1,184 players. Just over 500 will be brought back on practice squads, but that's still a lot of lives taking a turn, dreams realized and dreams ended, with one conversation.

Panthers head coach Dave Canales has made a reputation as a coach of connecting personally with his players, and he won't change his approach just to avoid the conversations that are coming over the next two days.

"It's always been a heavy time for me," Canales admitted Monday, while previewing roster cuts. "It should always hurt and if it doesn't, I'm not doing it right, I'm doing it wrong.

"The connection—go for it. Don't hold anything back for the sake of saying, you know, this guy may not be here. Just invest; invest in each other, enjoy every moment, enjoy every day, the challenge of the training camp."

Canales plans to speak with each player that is cut over the next two days. While general manager Dan Morgan will take the reins during cuts, Canales said he owes it to each guy to speak to him.

"What I hope to do is, all the guys that we end up cutting, I will speak to them and I will give them some honest feedback," Canales shared. "'Here's what you did well, here are the things that I think you need to improve upon that would have vetted well for you in terms of making this team.' And I just want to give them some good honest feedback. That's what I would have wanted.

"It's not a requirement, but I just felt like if I was in their position I would want to have something going forward to the next team to say, 'Ok, coach said I need to work on this and that, that gives me a real plan in terms of where I need to emphasize my improvement.'"

The bulk of these conversations will likely take place on Tuesday. Teams must be down to 53 players by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. But cuts can start right away, so Canales said the timeline might change after he speaks with Morgan.

Keeping an eye on the wire

The Panthers have first claim on the waiver wire until Week 4 of the season, something that will be a factor in their roster decisions.

"One thing I've learned over the years is we have to look at the entire NFL and we have to look at our depth chart and to see where the players that become available would fit in on our roster based on what the information we have on preseason and even on other seasons before and things that they've had," Canales said.

"So, it's just, it's a responsibility of ours to the organization, to this team, to our fan base to make sure we look at all the available people and see where they might fit in on our current roster."

As Canales went on to explain, the Panthers have a deep unit at wide receiver. For other teams, that may be a deep safety unit or an "embarrassment of wealth in the offensive line room." As such, the coach went on to say, the waiver wire is not something to ignore in terms of roster building, but rather embrace.

"We're looking at all that, we're looking at all these teams and saying, wow, this team has a really strong roster at this position. So I'm excited for that. I'm excited to see what there is out there."

Hard decisions ahead for wide receivers

How many receivers will the Panthers carry on the roster? It's possibly the hardest unit to pin down for the Panthers, as they came out of camp as what Canales called, "the strongest group that we have on this team."

Even with that in mind though, Canales doesn't want to necessarily hoard a bunch of receivers just for the sake of hoarding them, and doesn't want to share how many they're hoping to keep in the name of gamesmanship.

But, "there is a possibility that we could keep seven, there's a possibility we keep four and add two guys from other places that might upgrade those positions.

"So, we're wide open again, but what I will say, is that group showed up this camp—and they all to a man did something that got our attention…we have to definitely look at the whole roster and say, how many can we afford to keep in that position?"

One of those receivers up for evaluation is Ihmir Smith-Marsette. The speedy pass catcher left Saturday's game with an ankle injury, which has since been updated to foot. Canales told reporters on Monday that Smith-Marsette went through tests on Sunday and would see a specialist on Monday to gather information, and the team would know more on Monday afternoon.

"But I will say Ihmir did a fantastic job showing what he can do," Canales added. "Two great returns, a punt return and a kickoff return, and he was able to showcase the value that, you know, the extra value that he brings beyond just the wide receiver."

Smith-Marsette had two punt returns for a total of 27 yards, and a kick return of 46 yards.

Evaluating the injuries

Part of the Panthers decisions ahead of Tuesday afternoon will revolve around what they want to do with injured players.

Rookie running back Jonathon Brooks remains on the non-football injury list, and outside linebackers Amaré Barno and D.J. Wonnum remain on physically unable to perform.

"We have to look at the full group of running backs with Jonathan, without Jonathan," Canales said. "Without DJ Wonnum, with or without, you know, Barno's not coming back for a while, as we get, into his rehab.

"So that impacts us big time, you know. And again, just talking about just looking at the guys who have shown us stuff here through camp that can help us and then also just looking across the league to see who comes available, where would they fit in on this potential depth chart. So, open to all those possibilities right there."

The hard conversation around a third quarterback

Teams have to weigh whether to carry a third quarterback this season, since the rules do not allow for unlimited promotions from the practice squad for an emergency third.

Rookie passer Jack Plummer saw a lot of action this preseason, as starter Bryce Young was held out of the first two games, and Andy Dalton was recovering (groin) and then held out of the final game.

In Plummer's preseason finale, he went 21-29 for 278 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions.

"Jack really made a statement for himself last game," Canales said of the performance. In a catch-22, it's now also made the conversation around the third quarterback possibility that much more difficult.

"I value the emergency third quarterback, but again, that's a spot on the 53-man roster. So that becomes a real sticking point," Canales admitted. "It's based on depth and need in other positions. Can we afford to carry three quarterbacks on the 53?"

And yet, "We're right in the middle of that conversation. Jack made it harder by his performance in Buffalo. I love that. That's exactly the situation I want to be in. I want guys to force hard conversations and hard decisions by Dan and I."

A thing of beauty

One quarterback conversation that's not in debate is Bryce Young's performance on Saturday. The second-year passer had just one drive, but in it he went 6-8 for 70 yards, leading the offense on an 85-yard drive, capping with a touchdown and a 140.6 passer rating.

"Just the focus and growth of Bryce, in terms of just his owning the concepts and the timing and rhythm of it, the footwork stuff, all of the tedious drills…just that rote memory that pays off in games, his feet were ready in the ground, ripped the ball to Jordan Matthews for a touchdown because he trusted his feet.

"He was ready to throw at the right time on the concepts. And that was fantastic. And then again, just to kind of see him really extend some of those plays for us, especially the fourth down scramble throw to Diontae Johnson was a thing of beauty. That's been showing up all camp and showed up in the game."

One man show at kicker

The Panthers elected after the first preseason game to say goodbye to rookie kicker Harrison Mevis and roll just with Eddy Piñeiro through the remainder of the preseason. Piñiero had some tightness in his hamstring during Saturday's game, evident in a low kick (that was still good). Following the field goal, the Panthers had punter Johnny Hekker handle kickoffs the rest of the day, and Piñeiro rested. However, Canales said on Saturday that if it had been a regular season game and a kick was needed, Piñeiro would have been able to handle the duties.

With that in mind, Canales doesn't foresee the Panthers using a practice squad spot for an extra leg.

"I think we're good right now. And practice squad is too valuable, in terms of the other skill position, linemen and things like that, to carry an extra kicker. So, I don't think we'd do that."