Carolina Panthers midseason report card
By Luke Tucker
Special Teams: B+
Carolina originally signed kicker Joey Slye to be a “camp leg” and to give Graham Gano a chance to rest what was initially believed to be knee soreness. As camp went on and Gano wasn’t getting any better, Slye made the most of his preseason opportunity, and has carried that momentum into the regular season. Following a strong start, Slye has fallen off a bit lately, as he’s now made just 71% of his field goal attempts on the year. Still, he’s made four of seven kicks from 50+ yards, and has recorded the third-most touchbacks on kickoffs.
As far as punting goes, Michael Palardy been average in just about every category. The biggest concern for this unit though is that the return game has struggled to do much, and is already on its second return specialist of the season.