6 brief notes from Monday at Bank of America Stadium.

 

1.) Safety Shuffle

 

It wasn’t a good omen when the Panthers started Colin Jones at safety Sunday in Atlanta. Jones is great special teams player, but he’s a liability in the secondary. Still, Carolina’s coaches were so unimpressed with Tre Boston in the first three weeks, they felt a change was necessary.

“Colin is an athletic guy that runs around very fast and hits people. We wanted to give him an opportunity,” coach Ron Rivera said.

“The hard thing for Tre is this is his opportunity, this is his chance, and there are a lot of things going on, and he’s learning. With those young corners and Tre out there it’s a lot of young guys. We’re trying to find some veteran guys we can mix in.”

Signed just last week, 10-year veteran Michael Griffin led the timeshare with 34 snaps. Boston played 23 while Jones saw just 10.

 

2.) QB Quandary

 

Rivera may have “no idea” if QB Cam Newton will clear the NFL’s concussion protocol in time to face the Bucs, but offensive coordinator Mike Shula has to begin formulating a game plan. So even if backup Derek Anderson went 2-for-2 in a couple relief appearances against Tampa Bay in 2014, Shula’s starting the week planning to have the league’s reigning MVP back in the lineup for Monday Night Football.

“The extra day, it’s definitely going to help,” Shula said. “We’re going to be monitoring it all along, keeping it in mind as we game plan, so it won’t be an issue for us as far as, ‘Oh man, we need to have two different game plans.’

“We’re just going to go like he’s the quarterback, and if we need to tweak it for DA, then that’ll be an easy tweak.”

3.) Another Slow Start

 

Panthers’ record after four games in the Rivera/Newton era:

• 2011 — 1-3
• 2012 — 1-3
• 2013 — 1-3
• 2014 — 2-2
• 2015 — 4-0
• 2016 — 1-3

 

So Rivera’s not wrong when he says, “We’ve been in this situation before.”

But are there similarities to his three other 1-3 starts?

“Nope. This one’s different because I think we should be better than we are.”