The Carolina Panthers won the NFC South in 2025, marking the franchise's first division title in a decade. While it's true that the Panthers won the crown with a sub-.500 record at 8-9, taking a three-way tiebreaker between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons, it did mark the second straight season the team improved by three wins. The arrow appears to be pointing up for the team from Charlotte, and it certainly acted that way during the first blush of free agency.

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. As Head Coach Dave Canales heads into his third season and quarterback Bryce Young into his fourth, the Panthers are clearly going for it.

The NFC South has been very streaky over the last decade-plus. Carolina's division title last season broke a run of four straight crowns for the Buccaneers, which immediately followed a four-year streak of titles by the New Orleans Saints. Shortly before the Saints' streak, the Panthers won it three straight times from 2013-15 in Cam Newton's heyday. Now the Panthers are betting on another such streak. Can Canales and Young take them to their first winning record since 2017? The Buccaneers, Falcons and Saints will be trying to prevent that, but it won't be due to a lack of effort on the Panthers' part.

Much of how the NFC South race eventually shapes up next fall will be determined by the moves that the teams make over between now and the summer, or in some cases have already made. For that reason, we're going to keep an eye on what is transpiring in Atlanta, Charlotte and New Orleans with our monthly "NFC South Check-Ins." Once a month from February through May we're going to look at how the rosters, leadership and opportunities are shaping up for the Falcons, Panthers and Saints. We first checked in on the Panthers in February, but now we're taking an updated look after that busy first week of free agency.

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 do head into the offseason with a significant injury concern to monitor. 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.

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 has now completed his third season, the team now must decide by an NFL deadline later this spring whether it will 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.

The biggest news surrounding the Panthers since the end of the 2025 season came during the NFL Honors show the week of the Super Bowl. Carolina 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. Kuechly's career was limited to eight seasons by repeated concussions but he was the Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2012, the Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, a first-team All-Pro five times and a Pro Bowl selection in each of his last seven campaigns.

Free Agency Developments

After a disastrous season on defense in 2024, when the Panthers surrendered the most points ever in a single season (albeit in 17 games), 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 has 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 61 quarterback 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.

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.

The Panthers also found a new backup for Young, moving on from Andy Dalton and signing a younger option in former first-round pick Kenny Pickett, most recently of the Las Vegas Raiders. 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 of Cade 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 David 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. 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 has also reportedly signed with the Lions.

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 is the latest they have 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.

Carolina has held on to all of its own picks in the first six rounds and will pick 51st in Round Two and 83rd in Round Three. The Panthers also own Minnesota's fifth-round pick, which they gained by trading long-time Vikings receiver Adam Thielen back to his original team last season. Carolina is actually slated to make two consecutive picks in the fifth round at numbers 158 and 159. That same Thielen deal sent the Panthers' seventh-round pick back to Minnesota.

A year ago, the Panthers opted for McMillan at pick number eight despite expectations that they might look for defensive help in the first round. But, as noted above, they used free agency to hit a lot of spots on their defensive depth chart and made good strides on that side of the ball in 2025, and McMillan was obviously a hit. They also nabbed Scourton, who had 5.0 sacks as a rookie, in the second round.

The Panthers could do something similar in the first round this spring, seeking an upgrade over 2024 first-round selection Xavier Legette, who had just 35 receptions for 363 yards in 15 games last season. That could be another receiver, such as Washington's Denzel Boston, or, as was predicted in the first Buccaneers.com mock draft, dynamic Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq.

The signing of Walker makes the offensive line a less pressing issue for the Panthers in the wake of Ekwonu's injury. Other potential needs for the Panthers include linebacker, safety and edge rusher. Even after drafting Scourton and fellow edge rusher Princely Umanmielen on Day Two last year, Carolina tied for the league's third-lowest sack total (30) in 2025. If the Panthers decide to add to their secondary, Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman could be the pick if he makes it to number 19, though his draft stock seems to be on the rise. Toledo's Emmanuel McNeil-Warren could also be a candidate at safety if Thieneman is off the board.