Panthers at Falcons, Week 2: how to watch, who is available and what to look for

Carolina opened its season by scoring 37 points, setting franchise records for a season opener in both points and total yards, drawing level three separate times at 21, at 24 and at 31, and losing anyway. The Chicago Bears won 59-37, and the two teams combined for the highest-scoring season opener in NFL history. The Panthers are 0-1.

Atlanta had the opposite kind of Sunday and got the same result, losing 20-13 at Pittsburgh. Both teams come in 0-1, and so does everyone else in the NFC South: the Falcons, the Panthers, the Buccaneers and the Saints all lost in Week 1, which means Sunday's winner takes the division's first victory of the season.

Kickoff is 1 p.m. Eastern at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It is Carolina's first road game.

Bryce Young has owned this opponent

Carolina's quarterback is 4-1 in his career against Atlanta, with seven touchdown passes, and three of the 12 game-winning drives of his career have come against this one team. In the last meeting, Week 11 of the 2025 season, he threw for 448 yards, a franchise record, and Carolina won 30-27 in overtime. Kicker Ryan Fitzgerald ended it from 28 yards, set up by a 54-yard catch by tight end Tommy Tremble, the longest overtime play the franchise has recorded.

That win took both games from Atlanta that season, something Carolina had managed only twice before, in 1997 and 2013.

The question this game asks

The shape of the opener is the whole story of this team right now. Carolina gained 478 yards and gave up 291 on the ground in the same afternoon. No defense in the league surrendered more rushing yards that weekend, according to the league's own Week 1 figures.

Atlanta ran for 120 yards in its opener, which ranked 15th, and allowed 264, which ranked eighth. Carolina's 478 trailed only two teams.

Every one of those numbers comes from a single game, so they are a starting point rather than a description of either team. Whether one bad afternoon against the Bears says something lasting about this run defense is the thing Sunday should begin to answer.

Who is available

Defensive tackle Bobby Brown III is out with a back injury, having not practiced Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Outside linebacker Pat Jones II, also with a back injury, is listed as questionable, the league's designation for a player whose availability is genuinely uncertain. He practiced on a limited basis all three days.

Two other players on the injury report are expected to play. Wide receiver Jalen Coker, who had an ankle injury, practiced fully on Friday. Tight end Darren Waller was given Wednesday off for rest rather than injury and practiced fully the rest of the week. Neither carries a designation for Sunday.

Carolina also elevated two players from its practice squad for this game, announced Saturday: outside linebacker Jeremiah Moon and safety Isaiah Simmons. Practice-squad players train with the team but are not on the 53-man active roster, and a club can promote a small number of them for a single game without signing them permanently.

Each team's list of inactive players, the ones ruled out for the day, comes out about 90 minutes before kickoff. That is when Jones's status will be settled.

How to watch

FOX carries the game, with Tim Brando and Matt Millen calling it and Sarah Kustok reporting. The Panthers radio broadcast is on WRFX 99.7 FM in Charlotte.

Where the series stands

Carolina and Atlanta have met 62 times in the regular season and the Falcons lead 37-25. The Panthers have won the last three, going back to the final week of the 2024 season, which matches the longest run either side has put together in the series. A win Sunday would be Carolina's third straight in Atlanta and would tie its longest road streak there, matching three consecutive wins in 2006 and 2007.

What else happened in Week 1

Young threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns against Chicago and ran for another. Wide receiver Jalen Coker caught eight passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns, all career highs. Chicago scored twice in the third quarter after the last tie and stayed ahead.

The final score from Atlanta, and what it meant, will follow here after the game.