CHARLOTTE— Austin Corbett walked through the locker room with a smile, throwing over his shoulder, "feels like a breeze coming through here. That window is open."

There are no windows in the Panthers locker room, but there is one for Corbett, who's 21-day window to practice will be opened on Wednesday in an effort to come off injured reserve. He's been on IR since his Week 2 left knee injury.

"His window will open this week to see where he's at physically and again this is proving that we can handle the physical load, from a football standpoint," Canales explained of the Corbett decision.

It's a chance for the offensive lineman to take a crucial step in his return to play process, and get back on the field.

"We've kind of monitored over these last couple of weeks, making sure and letting all that kind of take care of itself, body do its thing and it's been a good four weeks," Corbett shared on Monday, recapping his last month of rehab. "Progressed really well to be able to open the window and you know we can only do so much on the side of practice. When we have a 200 pound strength coach whatever trying to push against me, can only take you so far, right?"

This is the third time Corbett has gone through a round of surgeries and rehab on his left knee. Previously he had an ACL tear in 2022 and a MCL strain in 2023. This was a re-injuring of the MCL, but at a much less severe rate.

"Much shorter time and rehab that I'm used to," joked Corbett.

Still, Wednesday will be a telling day for the guard, and a way to reassess where he is in his progress.

"Actually hitting a strength coach and hitting Derrick Brown are two different things. So seeing how the body responds from that, we'll take it," said Corbett. "I don't know how my body is going to do, right? Previous surgeries in there, everything's looked good, everything's progressed great at least four weeks, weight room's doing great. Like everything's fine, right, but get out there and play football and see what happens from there and then evaluate."

Furthermore, the Panthers have been finding a groove on offense, with back-to-back performances of 400-plus yards. And now, the group could be adding even more weapons back to the lineup.

Dave Canales shared on Monday that the Panthers could be getting back Jalen Coker and Chuba Hubbard, in addition to Corbett, soon.

The team opened up the window for Coker last week. The receiver, who injured his quad during training camp and started the season in IR, spent most of last week working with the scout team as he tested his endurance. Canales had been cautiously hopeful that he'd be ready for the Cowboys game. In the end, he was not. This week could be different though, according to the coach.

"Well, he's really close. He looks great," Canales said. "We'll give you the full report on Wednesday, but you know, this week is going to be a big week for him, to really prove physically, to prove that he can do it and handle the load that we're expecting."

Hubbard has missed the last two games, recovering from a calf injury. In his place, Rico Dowdle put up back-to-back games of 200-plus yards from scrimmage.

Before getting injured, Hubbard had 53 carries for 217 yards (averaging 4.1 yards per carry).

Returning him will mean the Panthers two 1,000-yard rushers (both passed the mark in the 2024 season) are back on the field together, an exciting possibility for the Panthers, who are strengthening their run game all around.

"I'm super confident," Bryce Young said Sunday afternoon after the Cowboys win, of having both guys available. "The great thing is those are two guys that want to win. Chuba is a leader on this team. He's huge for us. He always will be same. Rico does a great job of doing all the things you've seen.

"So at the end of the day we want to win. We want to do whatever it takes to win, and they're always—they're close, they're always supporting each other, they're always having each other's back and, whatever it takes for us to win, I know we'll all do."

Additionally, Ja'Tavion Sanders is a candidate to return this week, and the defense could possibly see the return of defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton (toe) who has missed the last two games. He was among those Canales listed as possibly being back on the practice field this week.

Canales has been admiring Rico Dowdle for years

Everyone is marveling at the recent heater Dowdle is on, and highly so.

Among the superlatives from Sunday was his franchise record 239 yards from scrimmage, but at a certain point, the stats begin to blur.

And Canales has been an admirer for years, going back to his time with Tampa Bay. The Bucs running backs coach was Skip Peete, who coached Dowdle when he was a practice squader in Dallas, and suggested they should bring him in if they ever had the chance.

"He said a guy we need to take a look at is Rico Dowdle. We love this game," Canales recalled of that conversation with Peete. "He's aggressive, he's smart, he's really into it. He's a little bit quiet, a little serious, but he loves the game, plays the game with passion.

"We didn't end up acquiring him at the time, but Skip was right, he's all those things. He's an aggressive runner, and he's tough, and he cares, and he's focused. And all the things you love in a teammate and a player."

Taking a look at their process on the road

The Panthers have lost all three road games this year heading into Sunday's trip to see the New York Jets, and were 1-7 on the road last year (their win in Germany was technically a home game).

Aside from all the football considerations he goes through with his coaching staff, he said he's discussed things with vice president of football operations Jeff Brown regarding travel arrangements and schedules and every detail.

"I think it's important for the Panthers to show that we can take this on the road and play good football, stop the run, run the ball, be balanced and complementary," Canales said. "This is a big deal for us. We have to find a way to play well on the road. We're looking at all the things, we're looking at all the scheduling, we're looking at how we go to the hotel, how we travel, how we practice going into it. I'm scrutinizing all of it just to try to find an edge to see if we can help our team perform better from start to finish on the road."

In addition to Brown and the team's operations staff, he's also leaning on veteran coaches on staff, including Jim Caldwell, Dom Capers, Harold Goodwin, and others, to look at every aspect of the process.

"It's not always the same," Canales said. "What worked for us in Seattle doesn't necessarily work for us in Tampa. It doesn't necessarily work for us here. I'm trying to find that mix so I can do my part to make sure that the structure of it is right."

Canales loves Jaycee Horn's fire

Canales said he wasn't going to get too deep into the decision to move cornerback Jaycee Horn onto Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens for the final series in the fourth quarter (when they forced the Cowboys into a three-and-out and never gave them the ball back), which Horn said he asked for.

"I love that about Jaycee," Canales said Monday. "I'm not going to get into the conversations about what happened. ... But Jaycee, love the competitiveness, he's like put me out there, he's got that pit bull mentality."

Canales has always talked about becoming a player-led team, and he said he liked the fact that Horn felt strongly enough to ask for the assignment.

"I want feedback from the players, and it's up to us to be responsible with that information," Canales said. "We know just because the player asks for something doesn't always mean we do it, it has to fit within the nature of the full game plan and the opponent that we're playing, but these are really important things because it's about ownership at the end of the day. If something is yours, you do whatever you can in your power to protect to do whatever in your power to make sure that it's successful. And as I see that ownership happening throughout this group, whether it's Rico asking for a specific run, or whether it's Jaycee saying, hey, let me go cover this guy. I love that type of ownership because they are the ones out there at the end of the day on the field that get to execute this game to see."