The Panthers lost a brutal preseason game against the Patriots on Thursday evening. On the bright side, Cam Newton’s foot injury does not sound serious and a few of the rookies showed their potential.

Here is a quick review of how some of them did in their third game.

OLB Brian Burns

Burns is a big fan of Spiderman, but the way he has played this preseason has more of a supervillain/Thanos kind of vibe. Burns has been dominant as a pass rusher. He’s collected four sacks already, including two last night and he hasn’t played that much.

Burns also forced a turnover by punching the ball free from Jarett Stidham’s hands. There’s absolutely nothing not to like about what Burns has been doing so far. Preseason is preseason, but Burns looks ready to run and be a serious contributor on defense right away.

QB Will Grier

Grier’s preseason has been notably less successful. He bombed against Chicago and Buffalo, throwing a couple of awful interceptions, one for a pick-six. We did finally see some light last night, though.

Grier threw a superb ball into the end zone intended for Jaydon Mickens, who probably would have caught it for a touchdown if he hadn’t been held. Ron Rivera rightfully challenged the play but lost. One great throw isn’t enough to save Grier, though. He will be the third-string quarterback once the season begins. Either Kyle Allen or Taylor Heinicke or somebody from the outside will be Newton’s main backup.

RB Jordan Scarlett

Cameron Artis-Payne did not play and Elijah Holyfield saw only one snap, so Scarlett had a chance to impress and it didn’t work out great.

Then again, it’s tough to fault Scarlett and the other running backs for struggling like they did. Scarlett only averaged 2.4 yards per carry on 10 tries. To be fair, he had little to no help from his linemen and the Patriots were all over the run.

WR/PR Terry Godwin

Bill Belichick seemed to make an example of Carolina on special teams. The Patriots dominated this area of the game, limiting Godwin to just five yards on three punt returns. He also dropped one that was recovered by Corn Elder.

Godwin also caught two passes for nine yards. Fortunately for him, Aldrick Robinson did not play and Rashad Ross only got seven snaps, so it’s difficult to tell where the WR6 competition stands right now.