CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Most stories this week about the Panthers will tell the tale of Will Grier, the local kid who is getting his first career NFL start Sunday. And they should.
But on the flip side of the story is Kyle Allen, who just over a year ago was preparing to make his own first NFL start on the road for a team out of playoff contention.
Fast forward 13 NFL starts, and Allen is back to talking to the media in the locker room, not at the podium. He's leading the scout team instead of taking first-team reps at practice.
But in typical Kyle Allen fashion, he did not get too caught up in the emotion of it all.
"I always see the big picture. I always do, and I'll go back and look after the season and learn from all the mistakes," Allen said Thursday. "Life moves on. It's not the end of the world. I got to start 12 games this year. Obviously, I would like to have played better in those last few games, I would like to put us in a position to win more games and the whole team would like to win more games, but I always see the big picture."
The Panthers officially announced Thursday that Grier will be starting against the Colts in Indianapolis. Allen had started 12 consecutive games after Cam Newton lost the first two regular-season games and was shelved because of a Lisfranc injury in his left foot suffered in the team's third preseason game.
Allen resurrected the team from the 0-2 start, leading them on a four-game winning streak. Over that stretch he completed 65.6% of his passes, threw seven touchdowns to zero interceptions and was sacked 10 times.
After the bye week, things went downhill. The Panthers won just one of their next eight games with Allen struggling to stay upright. He has been sacked 45 times this year, second-most in the NFL (behind Arizona's Kyler Murray). During that stretch, he also completed only 60.7% of his passes and threw 15 interceptions to 10 touchdowns, including three games with three-plus interceptions.
Four of the losses were by one score, something Allen pointed out as a frustration.
"I thought we had some close losses against some really good teams," Allen said. "I thought we had a chance to win a lot of those games, and I wish there were a couple things at the end that we could have put together to win a couple of those games. It's probably a little bit of both on those."
Being benched is something that, unfortunately, is nothing new for Allen. In college stints at both Texas A&M and the University of Houston, he was benched for other players (Murray at Texas A&M).
Offensive coordinator Scott Turner acknowledged that this wasn't something new for Allen, who was ranked among the top of his class coming out of high school.
"Kyle's been through this. He's been through this at different levels, he understands this profession, and Kyle will be ready to go," Turner said. "He's been great all week; he's been great with Will. Those two guys have become pretty close. We got a picture of them working at a camp together in North Carolina from when they were both 14 or something. They've known each other for a long time. Kyle's a great guy, a great person. There to support Will, wants our team to win and if something happens, he's ready to go."
Allen was forced to play behind a mismatched offensive line all year for the Panthers, but he also had turnover and inconsistency woes that were issues throughout the season. He's tied for the fourth-most interceptions this year (15, with the Rams' Jared Goff) and for the second-most fumbles lost (seven, the Jaguars' Gardner Minshew and the Eagles' Carson Wentz).
Improving his turnover issues is something that he knows he needs to do in the offseason.
"I think there's definitely a lot of things to clean up," Allen said. "But if you look back on it, I think we had some good wins against good teams, teams with winning records, some close losses, the main thing for me is to clean up the footwork and clean up the turnovers. I think I have more than enough potential."
Potential is a word that has been thrown around a lot with the Panthers this year and with Allen in particular. Growing pains and learning, as well. In what was effectively his rookie year, Allen had some good moments _ the 4-0 start and games against Green Bay and New Orleans, in particular _ and some bad _ losses to San Francisco and Atlanta.
But Allen does feel that he showed enough this year to prove he can be a long-term starting quarterback in the NFL. With so much unknown about the future of the quarterback position in Carolina, it's hard to say what things will look next year. The Panthers have the option to extend his contract this offseason or keep him as an exclusive-rights free agent next year, meaning he would not be able to negotiate with other teams. Allen said he'd like to be a Panther, but that his main goal is to play football "until they tell me I can't anymore."
For now that means staying true to himself and handling things as if nothing as changed. Because that's just who he is. A time for reflection on what this season truly meant for Allen is still to come in the offseason, as well as figuring out what comes next.
"I prepared the same way when Cam was playing. I prepared the same way when I'm playing. I'm going to prepare the same way the next two weeks," Allen said. "For me it's just week-to-week, same preparation, same everything, after the season we'll go back and look back at things."
