Monroe Freeling held up well in his first NFL game, a solid first step

Freeling gave up a sack to Bears pass-rusher Montez Sweat (who had 10.0 sacks last year, and 58.0 in eight seasons), but had a solid day.

According to NextGen Stats, Freeling allowed three pressures and the sack in 41 pass-blocking snaps, with 29 of those one-on-one situations. And in a game that went the way it went, the Panthers weren’t in the favorable phase of running that they’d prefer.

But to Canales’ point, Freeling was able to manage a bit of a smile afterward.

“I’m just glad to be playing football,” the rookie said. “It wasn’t the result we wanted, but I’m just glad to be out there playing football.”

And when he heard that Hunt, the mammoth guard next to him, was proud of him, Freeling’s grin only grew.

“No, it’s good to hear,” he said. “I think it’s a trust thing. So him being proud of me, and I think that we’re going to go in the film room and see what we got to get better at, but it’s going to be important to grow trust, especially going over the season.

“I think the thing about film is that it’s never as good or as bad as you think, so we’re going to get in the film room probably tonight, right after it gets uploaded, and we’re going to see.”