The Carolina Panthers finally scored a TD, but the NFL preseason has become a joke

It took nearly three hours, but the fans who stuck around for the Carolina Panthers’ latest lackadaisical preseason game did finally get to celebrate a touchdown at the end.

On the game’s last play, Panthers reserve running back Dillon Johnson shook off a tackle and scored from two yards out. The extra point wasn’t even attempted, which gives you an idea of the meaninglessness of the New York Jets’ 15-12 exhibition victory over Carolina in Bank of America Stadium Saturday night.

Before Johnson’s score, the game had consisted of seven — yes, seven — field goals.

Meanwhile, 38 — yes, 38 — Panthers’ players skipped the game due to the coaching staff holding them out. All the Carolina starters sat for the second preseason game in a row and the Jets did much the same. Aaron Rodgers was nowhere near the field. Kids in the stadium wearing No. 9 Bryce Young jerseys had to instead be satisfied with watching quarterbacks Jack Plummer and Jake Luton, who combined — yes, combined — for 61 passing yards.

Still, there was that Carolina touchdown, scored before a few thousand hardy souls who stuck it out (I’d estimate there were 30,000 people actually in attendance at the beginning, although the Panthers announced a paid attendance of 71,205).

A touchdown?! For a team that had last scored one on Christmas Eve 2023, that wasn’t nothing — even though it was scored by a player so low on the depth chart that he was actually sharing the No. 28 Saturday night with a defensive player.

Johnson — who rushed for 83 yards on 18 carries vs. the Jets and by doing so outgained the Panthers’ passing yardage combined — had pre-planned a whole touchdown celebration for the game. Just in case.

It had something to do with spinning the ball and then pretending he was warming himself by a campfire. Instead, he stayed on his back in the end zone and tried to catch his breath.

“I was too tired to do anything,” Johnson said. “We ran it about six times in a row, so I had to put my big boy pants on for sure.”

It was actually seven times in a row, as the Panthers — down by nine points at the two-minute warning — seemingly tried hard not to score by not throwing the ball at all. Down 15-6, they were content to run out the clock. Johnson had other ideas, carrying the team into the end zone on his back.

But again, the fact that Carolina wasn’t even throwing the ball at the end — and was also playing a couple of offensive linemen who showed up about 10 minutes ago — points out how ridiculous the NFL preseason has gotten.

Simply put, the league’s exhibition season is irretrievably broken. It’s been that way for decades, but is even more noticeable now that so many coaches have decided the risk of playing starters isn’t worth the reward of a little more experience.

When I was a kid, the NFL actually had six preseason games. Then the league sliced it down to four, and now down to three. It should at this point be zero, with a couple of controlled scrimmages thrown in there somewhere.

The preseason has become a joke, one with pennies-on-the-dollar value to fans and notable only for the occasional injury.

If 71,205 really paid good money to see — or not see — this game, that’s a waste. The real action was in Thursday’s free (for those who could get tickets) joint practice between the Panthers and the Jets in Charlotte. In that one, Bryce Young and Aaron Rodgers both led their teams’ respective No. 1 offenses against the No. 1 defenses.

It was intense. It had three fights. It was hopeful. It featured Young throwing multiple TD passes and zero interceptions. In it, the Panthers actually had what I considered their best and most significant practice of 2024, because it was against truly strong competition.

This? It was, like most preseason games, mostly unwatchable.

The Carolina Ascent, the city’s new women’s soccer team, played in front of a sold-out American Legion Memorial Stadium just down the street. Those 10,553 fans got more of a show than whatever this was (an Ascent win, for one thing, and a game that matters for another).

Now some of this is the Panthers’ fault. If you’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan, you got to watch Patrick Mahomes throw a behind-the-back pass to Travis Kelce on Saturday. The Chiefs actually do play their starters in the preseason. A little.

If you were a Panthers fan, you got the third- and fourth-stringers. Again. Just like last week. Just like (unofficially, but I’d sure bet on it) next week.

I don’t agree with Dave Canales doing it this way — a 2-15 team from 2023 that doesn’t play its starters in the preseason? It’s downright weird. Are you trying to keep them off the artificial turf that so many NFL players can’t stand — but that nevertheless has become the standard at Bank of America Stadium?

But hey, it hasn’t been working the other way, either. The Panthers have missed the playoffs every year since 2017. We’ll give Canales the benefit of the doubt for now, as the rookie coach’s unexpurgated enthusiasm ramps up even further.

“Evening!” Canales boomed as he bounded into his postgame press conference. “That was fun, huh?!”

Well, not that much. But we only have to suffer through one more of these — next Saturday at Buffalo — before it gets real. And if you need some hope, Panthers fans, I saw a good bit of it in that joint practice Thursday. On Saturday, though, there just wasn’t much to see at all.