CHARLOTTE — There's no disputing the fact that Xavier Legette hasn't had the start to the season he or anyone has wanted.

But Panthers head coach Dave Canales was firmly in his corner on Monday when asked about Legette's slow start.

The 2024 first-rounder has four catches for 10 yards this season, and had just one catch for minus-2 yards in Sunday's loss to the Cardinals. He had 49 catches for 497 yards and four touchdowns last year.

"I believe in Xavier," Canales replied when asked if he considered benching him. "This is a guy that I truly believe because of the way he's wired, the way that he works. The way that he continues to train. He had a great week of practice; he played better. He had some opportunities on the field where the ball didn't go his way. I tried to get him a few early touches. They didn't amount to much, but as the game kind of went on, a few of the other targets, they were close plays. He didn't make them, but I think it's a matter of just finding opportunities.

"I believe in him. I believe that he's approached this the right way and just continues to work. So I'm going to continue to encourage him and be in his corner and push him to keep striving for that, and keep working on his chemistry with Bryce, because he's got the talent. I think at times he can be hard on himself, and he can be really critical of himself, and I wanted to make sure that he knows he's supported, that we've got to play ball, let's go. And there's that balance of pushing him, and there's that balance of also saying, you got this, remember who you are."

Legette's snap counts have been consistent, as he and fellow starter Tetairoa McMillan are on the field for right at 80 percent of the plays.

Canales was asked about a clip that showed Legette walking back to the line of scrimmage when they were in a hurry-up mode, and Canales said that, because of the high volume of plays they had (85 total offensive snaps), there was some fatigue.

"We subbed TMac and Xavier out quite a bit in that second half because we were in tempo with the lead that the Cardinals had, and so both guys were pretty gassed during that time," he said. "But that's something in general we talked to his defense, offense, whoever that is, like we want guys to be hustling, we want guys to show up and do their job with urgency."

Canales said he had no plans to change the lineup. Jalen Coker's on injured reserve at the moment, and there are at least two weeks before he could return to practice after going on IR with a quad injury during Week 1.

Canales examining both truths from the second half rally and last drive

On this "Tell the Truth Monday," Canales is looking back at the tape from the Panthers' 27-22 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, and uncovering both encouraging and sobering truths.

For starters, the encouraging. The Panthers fought back from a 27-3 second-half deficit. The offense scored three unanswered touchdowns, while the defense picked off Kyler Murray to get the ball back, and special teams recovered an onside kick—a rare feat since the new rules went into effect last season.

It was a full team rally, featuring all three phases of the game, and spearheaded by the quarterback.

"I think it's just a collective thing. I think it's—you know, Bryce Young represents kind of the belief of the whole team, that we'll finish. We're going to finish. We're not going to quit. We're going to keep fighting and scrapping," praised Canales of his team on Monday.

"And I look at that second half and and I see three phases of the team playing really good football, outside of really one drive for the opening drive of the second half for the defense, and I saw a full team play together in all three phases, and it took all three to fight us back to give us a chance to win the game there at the last drive."

The last drive fell short, something that will be examined below. But the fight to get to that point is what the Panthers know they can carry forward.

"I'd love to see that drive be finished as well, but with all the challenges of the day, you know, it was just Bryce coming back to me, we're checking in. OK, I got these next couple things I'm thinking about right before the series, and he's got the same look in his face and he's ready to go attack, and that's what I love about him."

Now, the sobering truth. That last drive didn't finish in a touchdown. A bevy of penalties on both Carolina and Arizona kept the pendulum swinging back and forth until the Panthers were facing a fourth-and-15 from the Cardinals' 38-yard line. With 0:33 to play, it was the last play for Carolina.

Calais Campbell broke through, sacking Young and ensuring a win for Arizona. The entire drive, though, from counteracting the Cardinals' coverage, to being forced to go away from the run game in that situation, and more, will be something Canales admits he'll be rethinking the rest of the day.

"I thought they had some nice rushes. I, of course, I've watched it now three times and just looking at what I could have called here, what I could have called there when they did this coverage, and I'm standing in the back kind of trying to evaluate the coverage live and get us to the best possible plays there. I'll be rethinking that drive, at least for today, a couple more times," said Canales.

"But, you know, I think execution all across the board, calling the right plays for the group, the protection, you know, making the plays that we had so we can matriculate the ball down there. I thought I was a little bit aggressive on some of those opportunities there, but once it got into like the third-and-15/14 world, we had to kind of chunk it down. We try to chunk it down a little bit."

Missing leadership with Austin Corbett and Robert Hunt on IR

The Panthers will put starting center Austin Corbett and right guard Robert Hunt on injured reserve this week after their injuries during the Cardinals game, and Canales said they'll miss more than just their presence on the field.

"So, two studs, two guys that we count on in the locker room, on the field, their leadership, their positivity, their hard work, all those things, we're certainly going to miss those guys being out there," he said. "They'll be around us, and I kind of hit them right afterwards and just be like, hey, we're going to need you. We're going to need all of you to just be around here and continue to encourage the guys. . . .

"Oh yeah, definitely, we're going to miss those guys. They'll be with us. They'll be around here, you know, but we'll miss them on the field."