CHARLOTTE — The Panthers have continuity on the offensive line in that 30,000-foot view kind of way.

Down here on the ground, things look a little different at the moment.

After Thursday's practice, their final one before their last weekend off until the bye, the Panthers have a number of issues to deal with up front.

Their left tackle's back in the building, days after his emergency appendectomy. They have a couple of options to replace him — if he needs replacing — but they haven't settled on one yet.

Then their left guard is only beginning to graduate out of a red non-contact jersey, so they're unsure about his status for the Sept. 7 opener against Jacksonville.

Other than that, everything's cool.

"I think the benefit, like everybody's asked and talked about this year is, is the same group from last year," center Austin Corbett said. "So it makes it easy for whoever's in there at that moment we just get to keep rolling, and pick up right where you left off."

Yes, that.

The Panthers do have their top nine linemen in snaps played back this year, and on the current roster.

So when left guard Damien Lewis suffered a shoulder injury during the joint workouts with the Browns, Cade Mays was able to slide right in for him.

And when Ikem Ekwonu needed to have surgery on Sunday, they have choices between Yosh Nijman and Brady Christensen, and head coach Dave Canales said both worked with the ones Thursday.

"We're going to make a decision on who that is by Wednesday as we go into practice, in fairness for the guy to get those reps," Canales said. "We're not 100 percent sure who we're going to put out there right now, but they both got really significant snaps today, and so we'll we'll look at the film and we'll make the best decision for the whole group."

Part of that has to do with Christensen's ability to play all five positions, and needing him available to play guard (or center) if need be.

Part of it has to do with not knowing whether Ekwonu is even going to miss time.

Other players have come back to play in less time after similar procedures (then-Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick only missed eight days before returning to the field after his appendectomy in 2022), and Canales said he remained "super-hopeful" that Ekwonu might be able to play against the Jaguars and make all this a moot point.

"I'm going to remain hopeful all the way through next week to try to get him out there, move around and see what he can do," Canales said of Ekwonu. "But we just have to have a contingency plan."

Ekwonu was back in the building for the first time Thursday.

Corbett said he gathered that something was bothering him when the linemen went out for Robert Hunt's birthday last Saturday night. Then the next morning, Ekwonu dropped a note in the group text saying he was heading into surgery.

"He was complaining, he was like it's an upset stomach, wasn't eating," Corbett said. "And then he texted the group chat Sunday he's like, hey boys, I'm going in, getting an appendectomy right now.

"It was like, oh, shoot. So we didn't know if it burst, if it didn't, whatever the story was. Finally saw him today, he's doing good, just, it's brutal."

Given the personalities of these linemen and the jokes they play to keep things light, Corbett was asked if they realized it was a serious message at the time.

"There's definitely a lot of banter going on in there for sure," Corbett said. "But this one, there was no talk going on in the moment, so it came through cold. So I was like, oh shoot, all right, here we go. So it was scary. We're all praying for him, doing everything, keeping thoughts with them, and it's just good to see him back in the building today."

With Lewis, it's at least a normal football injury and not the internal organ kind.

Canales has expressed confidence in his right guard since he left the joint practice against the Browns, since he's a tough and durable player (he's only missed seven games in five NFL seasons). So they let him work fully through the individual period Thursday to monitor him.

"We had him just full go in individual so he could body up and really stress himself, see where he's at, but he was still on that pitch count where he didn't take team reps," Canales said. " But, he's right on schedule with the progression that we thought, . . . to start hitting stuff in front of him so he got some really good contact.

"He's getting great work, and we expect him to be able to practice full next week."

That would solve one problem.

But Ekwonu's status, and who might replace him, remains an open question, one they haven't answered yet.

Going into the opener, that's not ideal, even if they take comfort in having options.