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Panthers place starting guard Brady Christensen on injured reserve

PeterWarrenPhoto2by: Peter Warren09/13/23thepeterwarren
NFL: Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
(Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports)

The Carolina Panthers have placed starting guard Brady Christensen on injured reserve, the team announced Wednesday. He is dealing with a biceps injury.

He had played every snap in the season opener as the starting left guard.

Christensen played and started in all 17 games a season ago.

Christensen was the No. 70 overall selection in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He played in 16 games as a rookie in 2021 before earning a full-time starting role in 2022.

The backup left guard listed on the depth chart is Nash Jensen. The starting right guard, Chandler Zavala, did play left guard in college at NC State.

The team is also without its expected starting right guard Austin Corbett, who is recovering from a torn ACL. He suffered the injury in the final game of the 2022 season and is currently on the Physically Unable to Perform list.

The loss of Christensen is not a welcome sight for rookie quarterback and No. 1 pick Bryce Young. Young was 20-for-38 passing for 146 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. The Panthers lost the season opener to the Atlanta Falcons, 24-10.

“He’s a team-first person. He’ll be hard on himself and each of us should be,” Carolina head coach Reich said of Young after the game. “That’s kind of the message that we talked about in there. Every one of us, players and coaches, should be hard on himself in the next 24 hours. It should not taste good and we need to eat every bit of it. Otherwise, you don’t learn and get better from it.”

Young said his performance was not up to the standard needed of an NFL starting quarterback to win a game.

He did throw his first touchdown pass of his career in the second quarter to tie the game at 7. But after an initial field goal after halftime, Carolina went scoreless the rest of the game as Atlanta tacked on 17 unanswered points to pick up a Week 1 divisional win.

“Not good; not good enough to win,” Young said, via Panthers.com. “Made crucial turnovers, which (I) can’t do, especially where they happened. We didn’t score enough to win, and again, that falls on me. That falls on my shoulders. So I need to improve. I need to be better. Going to learn from it.”