In 2024, the Carolina Panthers hired former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator Dave Canales as their new head coach, pairing him with young quarterback Bryce Young, the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft. After finishing that '23 season with just two wins, the Panthers improved to 5-12 in Canales' first season at the helm, and then made another three-game leap in 2025 to 8-9.

As it turned out, that was enough to earn Carolina its first NFC South title in a decade, as it won a three-way tiebreaker with the Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons, both also 8-9, at the end of the season. The Panthers subsequently lost at home to the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round, but not before taking a four-point lead into the final minute of the contest.

Given the upward trajectory of the Panthers' win totals, the steady improvement of Young and afree agency infusion on defense in 2025 that took that unit from disastrous to middle-of-the-pack, the Panthers understandably went into the 2026 offseason with an aggressive mindset. There is apparently an expectation of a division-title defense and more.

This was evident in March when the new league year began. Carolina signed 15 players in the first week of free agency, committing $191 million in salaries, with $119 million of total guarantees, according to Spotrac. The Panthers spent the fifth most of any team during the week and landed top-of-the-market players at three key positions. Now the 2026 draft has also come and gone and it's clear the team wanted to give Young every opportunity to take another step forward in his fourth season.

Prior to last season, the Buccaneers had won the NFC South crown four years running, immediately on the heels of the New Orleans Saints' own four-year streak of division championships. Can the Panthers be the latest South team to go on a title run? That remains to be seen, but we can get an idea of how they are trying to do so by once again examining all of their offseason moves.

During this offseason, we have been keeping an eye on what is transpiring in Atlanta, Charlotteand New Orleans with our monthly "NFC South Check-Ins," and this is our last round of those team reviews. We've already done a post-draft review of the Falcons, and now we'll do the same with the defending champs in Charlotte.

2026 Carolina Panthers

News/Developments Since the End of the 2025 Season:

While the Falcons made the big moves at the top of their organizational chart noted above and the Buccaneers overhauled a good bit of their coaching staff, the Panthers have been understandably quiet since capturing that division title in Canales' second season as head coach. Canales is keeping his entire coaching staff intact for a third season and Dan Morgan also heads into his third season as the team's general manager.

Canales might have done some homework on potential defensive coordinator candidates because there was a chance his own man in that job, Ejiro Evero, would leave for a head coaching job. Evero interviewed for the openings in Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas but all 10 vacancies filled up without him getting the call so he returns for a fourth season with the Panthers. Evero was actually hired by Frank Reich in 2023 but was then retained when Canales succeeded Reich in 2024.

The Panthers are monitoring a significant injury concern this offseason. Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu left the playoff contest against the Rams just eight plays in with a knee injury that Canales described as "significant" after the game. A day later, Canales revealed that Ekwonu had suffered a ruptured patellar tendon, an injury that could threaten the blocker's start to the season, or possibly even a bulk of the schedule. As will be noted below, Carolina has aggressively addressed the issue through both free agency and the draft.

Morgan also held a press conference three days after the playoff loss and among the topics covered was the contract of quarterback Bryce Young, the first-overall pick in the 2023 draft. Since Young had just completed his third season, the team had to decide by May 1 whether it would pick up the fifth-year option that is standard in the contracts of all first-round selections. Morgan took the mystery out of that decision by announcing that the Panthers would definitely be exercising that option, which would cover the 2027 season. Morgan said the young passer showed "flashes of greatness" during the 2025 campaign, and indeed that option was officially exercised on April 29.

Before all the roster moves began in the offseason, the Panthers got some good news in February at the NFL Honors show. Wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, the eighth-overall pick in last year's draft, was named the Offensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press after he led all NFL rookies with 1,014 receiving yards. Then, in arguably an even more significant development for the franchise, former linebacker Luke Kuechly was one of four modern-era players chosen to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in the Class of 2026.

Free Agency Developments

After surrendering the most points ever in a single season (albeit in 17 games) in 2024, the team started reloading on that side of the ball in free agency last offseason. Among the new additions were three players who should remain in the starting lineup in 2026 in safety Tre'von Moehrig and interior linemen Bobby Brown and Tershawn Wharton. The team also found a starter on the edge in the draft in Nic Scourton.

The defensive reload continued this spring, with the Panthers landing two of the most coveted free agents in outside linebacker Jaelen Phillips (formerly of Philadelphia) and off-ball linebacker Devin Lloyd (formerly of Jacksonville). Phillips does have a concerning record of injuries since entering the league as a first-round pick by the Dolphins in 2021, but his 5.0 sacks in 2025 belie a very strong season of rushing the passer. NFL Next Gen Stats credits him with 61quarterback pressures last season, with an excellent pressure rate of 15.6%. Lloyd, another former first-round pick by the Jaguars in 2022, delivered his best season yet in a contract year, picking off five passes in 2025 and earning second-team Associated Press All-Pro honors. Later in March, the Panthers added a depth signing in former Rams outside linebacker Nick Hampton, a fifth-round pick in 2023 who played sparingly during three seasons in Los Angeles.

After the whirlwind first few days of free agency, the Panthers made a later strike at another key position, nabbing former Packers tackle Rasheed Walker on a one-year deal worth up to $10 million. The move was important given the uncertain timeline for Ekwonu and at just one year it lines up well for Ekwonu to regain the season-long job in 2027, though a subsequent draft move makes the situation less clear. Walker will once again be a teammate of running back A.J. Dillon, who played four seasons for the Packers before landing in Philadelphia last year. The Panthers also brought back tight end and special teams contributor Feleipe Franks, who has bounced between Atlanta and Carolina in recent years, returning for a second stint in Charlotte on a one-year deal.

The Panthers also found a new backup for Young, signing a younger option in former first-round pick Kenny Pickett, most recently of the Las Vegas Raiders. He replaces veteran passer Andy Dalton, who was subsequently traded to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 2027 seventh-round draft pick. Will Grier, most recently of the Cowboys, was also added to the quarterback room. The team added offensive line depth in center Luke Fortner and tackle Stone Forsythe and took a low-budget flier on wide receiver John Metchie. The O-Line additions balanced out the losses ofCade Mays, Yosh Nijman, Brady Christensen, Austin Corbett and Jake Curhan, and Fortner is the anticipated starter at the pivot in place of Mays. Carolina also locked in a long list of its own free agents, including wide receiver David Moore, punter Sam Martin, safety Nick Scott, edge rusher Trevis Gipson, tight end James Mitchell and special teams ace Akayleb Evans.

A small handful of players from the 2025 division title team did depart in free agency, including Mays, who signed a three-year deal with Detroit, and Corbett, who landed in Buffalo. Running back Rico Dowdle, who led the team with 1,076 rushing yards in 2025, moved on to the Steelers on a two-year deal, and defensive tackle A'Shawn Robinson landed in Tampa after being released just before the start of free agency. Edge rusher D.J. Wonnum also signed with the Lionsand linebacker Christian Rozeboom followed Robinson to Tampa.

2026 NFL Draft:

The Panthers ended up with the 19th pick in the first round of the 2026 draft after they were eliminated from the playoffs and were the team with the worst regular season record of the six Wild Card round losers. That was the latest they had been slotted to pick in the first round since they also lost in the Wild Card round in 2018 and ended up with the 24th selection.

The Panthers went into the draft with seven picks in hand and did, in fact, end the weekend with seven selections, but not before Morgan moved them around the board in a series of trades. Carolina started the weekend with its own picks in Rounds 1-6 plus an extra fifth-rounder they got from Minnesota by trading long-time Vikings receiver Adam Thielen back to his original team last season. That same Thielen deal sent the Panthers' seventh-round pick back to Minnesota.

When the dust had settled, the Panthers only made two picks in the slots they originally held when the draft began, at number 19 in the first round and number 83 in the third round. Those were the two main selections the team made to get better around Young, nabbing big and athletic tackle prospect Morgan Freeling out of Georgia in the first round and adding Tennessee's deep threat wide receiver Chris Brazzell in the third. Morgan later started that Walker and Freeling would compete for the starting left tackle job in Ekwonu's absence. Brazzell is 6-4 and ran a 4.37-second 40-yard dash at the Combine, but he didn't have a well-developed route tree at Tennessee. Still, he could surpass 2024 first-round pick Xavier Legette, who had just 3 catches last year, to join McMillan and Jalen Coker as the top three.

Morgan's cascade of trades began in the second round, when he moved up two spots from number 51 to number 49 to nab Texas Tech defensive tackle Lee Hunter. The move cost Carolina a pick swap of 37 spots later in the draft, from number 159 in Round Five to number 196 in Round Six. Hunter's testing numbers at the Combine suggested a low upside as a pass-rusher but he's a well-developed run stuffer who should pair with Derrick Brown to make the Panthers' interior line tough to move.

Morgan got busy again in the fourth round, trading down twice with Jacksonville and Chicago for more favorable pick swaps on Day Three. Those two deals moved Carolina from pick number 119 down to 129, where it selected Texas A&M cornerback Will Lee. The 6-2, 189-pound Lee has great size, length and explosiveness but may need some development time to challenge for a starting job. The Panthers can wait, as they have Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson installed at the outside corner spots.

The Panthers used the fifth-round pick they got from Chicago to nab Kansas State center Sam Hecht, and then Morgan made one more deal, moving up seven spots in a trade with Miami to number 151, leading to the selection of Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley. That deal moved Carolina's last pick back to number 227 in the seventh round, which was used on Miami (OH) linebacker Jackson Kuwatch.

As noted above, the Panthers signed a new starting center in free agency in Fortner, but he only got a one-year deal and the team still needed to restore some O-Line depth. Hecht has a wide base, good strength and great attention to detail and could eventually step into that starting spot after serving as an active interior-line reserve on game days.

Wheatley lacks high-end speed but is a fluid and instinctive safety who could also offer somevalue in nickel and dime packages. The Panthers' starting duo at safety is set with Moehrig and Nick Scott. Like many seventh-round picks, Kuwatch could be considered something of a project, but he has good size and some potential as a blitzer.

Carolina's most interesting addition in the rush of rookie signings that follows the draft was Georgia Tech quarterback Haynes King. King was a physical tone-setter for the Yellow Jackets, and over three seasons as a starter he threw for nearly 9,500 yards, ran for another 2,400 and accounted for 102 total touchdowns, 65 through the air and 37 on the ground.