CHARLOTTE — The Carolina Panthers might have come away from their 21-18 loss to the Browns banged up across the board, with injuries to monitor on both sides of the ball, but Dave Canales also saw, yet again, a quarterback who refused to succumb to his own discomfort during a game.

Bryce Young "took a cleat," as Canales explained both Sunday after the Week 3 loss and again on Monday. It meant the starter QB played the rest of the game sore, according to his coach, but "he battled through it. Able to finish."

Young will undergo imaging this week, just to confirm things are fine, but Canales is confident his team captain will be available for the Week 4 primetime matchup against the Lions.

"We're making sure that everything's right and we don't want to just assume that he's OK because he finished the game," said Canales. "So we're going to take a look at that, but I expect Bryce to be playing.

Young was hampered in the middle of the second quarter and even went to the medical tent, but was able to return by the next offensive drive and finish the game with 291 passing yards and a touchdown, a mark that has him leading the entire NFL with 939 passing yards.

Young, for his part, brushed off the injury as having anything to do with the loss.

"Nothing, it's football," he said after the game. "We're all dealing with stuff. It doesn't have any bearing on the game. A tough one, just didn't get it done. None of that stuff had anything to do (with it)."

Now, the Panthers turn their attention to the Lions and a Sunday Night Football matchup in which there is a litany of injuries to account for. But they expect their quarterback to be on the field, as he always seems to be, even when it requires extreme toughness.

"He's so important to what we're doing," Canales said. "Let's make sure we have all the information, and I'll give you kind of an update on that (Wednesday)."

Young's resilience shown in rest of the team

When Canales first arrived in early 2024, he was asked what stood out most about his quarterback. The two had spent limited time together, and most of what they knew came from watching tape of the other'ss games (played or called).

But there was a Young moment that Canales couldn't forget, and it came from one of the lowest moments in the passer's young NFL career. In the Week 17 game of the 2023 season, a game Carolina lost 26-0, Young was sacked six times. What his new coach noticed, though, was he kept getting back up.

"You watch a lot of tape when you look back; (things) you didn't see that when you were on the other side, just like courage," Canales said in February of 2024 of that game and what jumped out about Young. "Play before, he gets smoked. Next play, he stands in there and rips a 15-yard in-cut in the face of the rush. Just kind of just seeing that courage that he has, the short memory, going to that next play mentality, that's been really encouraging to me."

Now, in their third year together, Canales has seen that toughness and courage up close, not only in his quarterback but how it has filtered out to an entire team.

"He's going and checking with the wideouts, with the O-line," said Canales on Monday. "Making sure everyone's on the same page, getting back to the bench and connecting with (quarterback coach) Will (Harriger) and with (offensive coordinator) Brad (Idzik) for the next series coming up and so, that's the leadership that I love about what Bryce brings."

It showed itself during Sunday's Week 3 game against the Browns as well. The Panthers came up short, a 21-18 loss when a final rally fell short. Coaches have plenty to evaluate and address before a Sunday Night Football matchup against the Detroit Lions. But one thing Canales saw, yet again, was a quarterback toughing it out, and therefore encouraging his team to do the same.

"Battling and just tough," Canales said of Young. "Finding solutions and keeping the guys tight and really keeping them engaged on the sideline as we went through that early part of coming away with field goals, the three-and-outs, failing on fourth-down a couple of times and 'Just go to the next drive. Let's just solve the issues that are right in front of us.'"

His ability to push through a lower-body injury and throw to a receiving corps that was piecemealed together due to injuries before and throughout the game, while the Browns shifted a lot of attention to Tetairoa McMillan, showed yet again the resilience Canales wants to see in his whole team. And it starts with the quarterback.

"Bryce did an amazing job of that, and just finding ways to get Darren Waller the ball, Brycen Tremayne up the sideline, throwing a touchdown to John Metchie III. These are guys — the tight ends room really, coming to life for us. I was fired up about that.

"So a lot of positives, a lot of great things that came out of it for me, and at the same time, you know, there's a lot of areas that we still need to find that consistent play we're looking for."

That resilience will have to define this team as they prepare to take on the Lions in Week 4. With injuries to Jaycee Horn already confirmed and more to evaluate, Canales is asking his group to dig deep and decide who they want to be as a collective team.

"There's some really good football that we finished that game with, with the group of guys we're counting on for this week," said Canales. "So, that's the encouraging part about it, talking to the guys.

"The challenge to the whole group — coaches and players — is, OK, we got some stuff we're dealing with right now. Let's see how good we can be, and this is where the margins matter; the untimely penalties, the discipline, and just execution and different things- all of this stuff is really, really a crescendo; it comes to a head.

"So we all have to pull together, to continue to find really good football even if a couple of guys have to stay in there and finish the game like we did."

Devin Lloyd appears close to return

The Panthers were already without three starters in Sunday's game, but the news was mostly good as far as their conditions.

Canales said linebacker Devin Lloyd would be in uniform Sunday night against the Lions, after missing the Browns game with a calf issue.

Lloyd was the NFC defensive player of the week after intercepting two passes in Atlanta and returning one for a touchdown.

"I feel really confident that Devin will make it back this week," Canales said, and that degree of confidence from a coach this early in the week is generally meaningful.

Lloyd was even more emphatic on Monday, saying: "Yeah, I'm ready to roll."

Safety Nick Scott was out with a rib injury, and there was some conditional optimism there.

"We'll get him moving around out there," Canales said of Scott. "It seems to be a playable condition."

He was more measured when it came to wide receiver Xavier Legette, who was out with a knee injury suffered on the 55-yard reception at Atlanta.

"Xavier, we're going to have to see," Canales said. "We're going to have to take him day-to-day and just kind of see where he's at with the knee."