Panthers looking at putting McMillan in better position after Browns switched up defense

The pressure Waller mentioned meant quarterback Bryce Young was pressured on 51 percent of his dropbacks, forcing him to get rid of the ball quickly.

“Some of the times we’re trying to go to (TMac), it’s like they got pressure, they rotated the coverage in a new way that we hadn’t seen on tape before,” continued Waller. “So those are the kind of things that happen early on in the season, and you got to (take) hats off to them defensively.

Making matters more difficult, the Panthers lost receiver Jalen Coker just after halftime to a quad injury. Without his presence to pull the defense away from McMillan, it was easy to lock in on one guy with a zone scheme that kept him bracketed.

“I think they probably heard everybody talking about them playing man, and I’m sure that they were the ones leading that narrative,” noted receiver John Metchie III. “So, just making a lot of things look like man early on and dropping out of it, whether they were getting into their cover two and stuff. It was a lot of that at the beginning of the game, on 3rd downs. But just normal downs, making a lot of things look like man matchups and just dropping out of it, maybe to try and throw a switch up, you know.”

With Coker and Xavier Legette out (ruled inactive before the game with a knee injury), and McMillan drawing tons of attention, the Panthers turned to guys like Tremayne, who finished as the leading receiver with four receptions for 83 yards, Waller, who had five catches for 51 yards, and Metchie, who caught the day’s only touchdown.

But the Panthers have been very transparent that their offense runs through McMillan. Without the ability to scheme or throw him open more, so many things stalled.