CHARLOTTE — One way or another, the Panthers are likely to use their seventh different combination of starting offensive linemen in their ninth game this week.

The amazing part is they all know each other already.

They know that Brady Christensen is lost for the season to a torn Achilles (he had surgery Wednesday), and head coach Dave Canales said that center Cade Mays is not expected to play this week. There's some uncertainty about right tackle Taylor Moton, and they didn't rule him out of playing against the Packers. If he can't, veteran Yosh Nijman would get the start there.

Either way, Austin Corbett figures to be back at center (as he was in the first two games of the year), and he could have Chandler Zavala beside him, since the guy who started Weeks 3 and 4 at right guard was back on the field Wednesday with a chance to be activated from IR this week.

"His progression was exactly as planned," head coach Dave Canales said of Zavala. "He was moving with high speeds, changing direction and all that, and he looked great out there today."

And even with the left side of Ikem Ekwonu and Damien Lewis intact, that'll be a new combination of familiar parts.

Corbett, in his eighth NFL season and on his third team, admitted that's a new experience for him.

"Not familiar at all," he said. "A lot of times when you start racking up injuries, you're signing guys off practice squads, right, making trades, kind of doing that thing. And so for pieces just be able to come in here that we've played with many games before. We have many reps together. It's tremendous and it's really just a credit to this front office of getting that done."

The Panthers kept their top nine blockers from last year intact, allowing them to survive as well as you can when you put a Pro Bowler like Robert Hunt on IR in Week 3, and have three others on that list by the end of Week 9 (counting Corbett, who returned, Zavala, who might, and Christensen).

"It's a brutal sport, especially being in the trenches, things happen," Corbett said. "And so to keep the same personnel, keep the same people, keep that communication alive just makes it easy. Unfortunately, we're in this situation of having to move pieces around, and so we're able to step in and just go get it done."

Other than last week's seven-sack outlier, when three linemen were unable to finish (and they nearly had to play a rookie tight end at tackle), the line hadn't given up more than three sacks in a game, and they still rank fifth in the league in rushing.

"It kind of times up well for us to have that help inside and to have Austin Corbett in here to be able to step in for Cade," Canales said. "It feels like we're going to be able to put our best group out there that we can, to give us a chance to win.

"It's a tribute to the guys working themselves to get back, the athletic training staff doing a great job, being smart about it, using all the information that we have at our disposal with the analytics. And also just the physical therapy and all the things that go into it. And then you know the coaches getting these guys prepared in a group that has been working together for a long time. So I do feel a lot of comfort knowing that we have these guys stepping back in who know what to do, know how to do it."

Dave Canales offers plenty of injury updates

Canales had plenty of injury updates to share after practice on Wednesday, considering a quarter of the roster was listed on the report.

As mentioned, Christensen is expected to go on IR soon with his torn Achilles. Canales said Mays is not expected to play this week with knee and ankle issues. But he was more hopeful about Moton's condition after the veteran right tackle left last week's game at halftime with a knee issue.

"Taylor got a good report, as good news as we could have," Canales said.

The news was not as good about rookie outside linebacker Princely Umanmielen, as Canales said, "looks like he'll be out right now."

Linebacker Trevin Wallace (shoulder) and safety Nick Scott (groin) were lumped in the day-to-day category, but neither practiced on Wednesday.

Backup quarterback Andy Dalton was also held out of practice Wednesday, after whacking his right thumb against a Bills defender early in last week's game, and Canales said they wanted to monitor his progress this week before making a decision.

Starter Bryce Young (ankle) also practiced fully on Wednesday, but the practice was a shorter one, and they modified some of what was expected of him.

A plan is set at running back, but will remain under wraps

For the past two weeks, there has been ample talk about the Panthers' running back rotation. With two 1,000-yard backs on the roster, how does a team share one ball? Furthermore, which is weighed more: the history of production or the current production?

Those are the conversations that have driven Dave Canales and his staff this week. He told reporters on Monday that he would respect what Chuba Hubbard has done and meant to this team, while acknowledging how Rico Dowdle seems to have the hot hand right now.

"It's a fair observation, and you know Chuba has meant a lot to this organization, certainly to the identity that we want to build our team on," Canales said on Monday. "And wanted to give Chuba the opportunity to go out there and to continue to impact our team in a positive way.

"We cannot ignore the fact that Rico has been exceptional in a couple of games and then in the opportunities he's had over the last two weeks."

While Hubbard was sidelined with a calf strain for Weeks 5 and 6, Dowdle stepped in and rushed for 389 yards over those two games. Over the past two weeks, the duo has split series, with Hubbard getting the start and a slightly larger share of the snaps (73 to Dowdle's 55), given how drives have gone. Dowdle has rushed for 133 yards on 25 carries during that time.

By Wednesday, Canales said the staff had spoken with both running backs to share the rotation plan for Sunday against the Packers. But for now, in the interest of gamesmanship, that plan is staying under wraps.

"We had a lot of conversations and we'll roll that out on Sunday," Canales told reporters. "I don't want to give any, you know, tips or tells about what we're doing, but trust both guys to do it, and we had a lot of conversations."

Panthers prepared early for a late bye

When the 2025 schedule was released in May, the Carolina Panthers began preparing for the grind that would come with a late Week 14 bye. The Panthers are one of four teams with a Week 14 bye, the latest in the league.

"Yeah, there's pros and cons to that," explained Canales this week. "So we're on a pretty regimented schedule. We play Sundays at 1 o'clock. That's what we do, and your body gets used to that. The preparation through the week, what your Friday, Saturday, Sunday looks like is pretty uniform, so there's a consistency there that I really enjoy."

Knowing that the bye week, which provides an opportunity to self-scout, would be so late in the season meant the Panthers built in those "breaks" and reflection days ahead of time. Utilizing the players' leadership council, Canales and crew, every four weeks, take Mondays to look back at the previous four games.

"With the late bye week, it's also important as we have our quarterly leadership council meetings to kind of let's regroup, let's (see) where are we at right now?

"OK, now let's take our next step. We have to make sure we build in those things because the gift of the bye week is, for the staff, at least we get to do self-scout —we get to dive deep into what we're doing, what's working, and what we might need to modify.

"So we've taken advantage of that and kind of had the foresight to plan that out quarterly so that we can dive back in and see what those things are, who are the guys that are performing for us, what are the concepts that are performing well for us, and take a dive into that. So I know there's pros and cons to that and we'll be looking forward to that when it comes."

Even knowing ahead of time that the bye week would be deep into the season this year and preparing as best as possible, injuries inevitably arise, bumps and bruises accumulate, and a sobering reality: the break is still five weeks away.

Said Canales, "But right now we have to just kind of modify little things, make some tweaks, make sure we're physically strong on Sundays as we just continue to go week after week."