The Carolina Panthers have built themselves a little cushion up front, and that matters now more than ever. Two starter injuries that would wreck most offensive lines haven’t knocked them off course the way they could have, because this group has enough depth to absorb the hits.
Losing Ikem Ekwonu and Taylor Moton still stings. But the Panthers are in the unusual spot of being able to replace them with players who can start.
Rasheed Walker arrived on an incredibly cheap deal, and Monroe Freeling came in as a first-round pick. In a healthier world, both might be looking at the bench.
Instead, they’re part of the solution.
That doesn’t mean the line is anywhere near polished. Far from it.
There are three new starters in the mix, and the two holdovers missed time in preseason. That kind of turnover usually shows up somewhere, and for Carolina it could show up fast.
The biggest question is the right side, where the Panthers are leaning on a rookie who was seen more as a long-term development piece than someone ready to step in on Day 1. Freeling is talented, no doubt, but he’s still young and still inexperienced, and NFL speed has a way of exposing even the best athletes.
Still, there’s a reason this might not become a disaster. Rasheed Walker has been a starter for years, and Luke Fortner has plenty of NFL experience.
The issue isn’t whether they know how to play at this level. It’s whether they know how to play together.
Right now, that’s the part that’s missing. Freeling has never taken an NFL snap with any of these linemen.
Walker hasn’t played a regular-season snap with anyone on his current offensive line. The same goes for Fortner, while guards Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt also haven’t logged NFL snaps with their new teammates.
Add in the preseason absences for Lewis and Hunt, plus the fact that the starters barely played, and you get a group that still has to figure out how to function as one unit.
So when the Chicago Bears come to town, this probably won’t look like a finished product.
But the Panthers may have the one thing that can keep the rough edges from turning into a full-blown problem: Bryce Young. A chart making the rounds pointed out how well Young avoids sacks when pressure gets home, and the point is hard to miss. He may not have ideal size and he may not be the most explosive athlete, but he’s not easy to bring down.
That chart placed Young in the same top-right company as Joe Burrow, C.J. Stroud, and Jayden Daniels, which says plenty about how he stacks up in this area. If the line is going to have breakdowns, and it probably will early on, Young is a strong quarterback to have behind it because he can limit the damage better than most.
In Other News...
Bryce Young Trade Still Haunts The Panthers For One Reason
The 2023 deal that sent the No. 1 overall pick to Carolina is still one of the defining moves of the Bryce Young era, because it did not just land the Panthers their quarterback, it set Chicago up with the kind of draft capital that can reshape a roster for years. The Bears turned those picks into a wave of players, including Caleb Williams, Darnell Wright, Tory Taylor, Tyrique Stevenson and Luther Burden, giving the trade a footprint that keeps growing well beyond draft weekend.
For Carolina, the lingering sting is not only about Youngs early progress, but about how much the other side has already gotten from the transaction. Chicagos haul has produced more immediate depth and impact, while the Panthers are still waiting for the move to fully justify itself on their end. Even so, this is the kind of trade that can look different a year from now if Young keeps developing and Carolina starts cashing in on the quarterback it paid so dearly to land. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Secondary Could Get Even Scarier With This Early Projection
A new 2027 NFL mock draft from Bleacher Reports Scouting Department has already put the Panthers in a familiar place: eyeing the secondary. The projection has Carolina taking Notre Dame cornerback Leonard Moore with the No. 7 overall pick, a move that would add a technically polished defender with the size and football IQ to fit alongside what the Panthers are trying to build on that side of the ball.
It is only an early projection, of course, but it speaks to how the Panthers could keep leaning into defense if the roster trends hold. Moore is the kind of cornerback evaluators tend to pair with a strong existing group, and that is what makes this idea interesting for Carolina - not just whether he would be a fit, but how much scarier the secondary could look if the front office ever decides to spend premium draft capital there. [Read more 🡒]
Darren Waller Is Giving Panthers Fans A Reason To Dream Again
Darren Waller has spent this offseason taking a different approach to his conditioning, and it has given the Panthers something worth watching as camp unfolds. After a stretch in which his availability and effectiveness have been the real questions, the tight end has come into Carolina with a focus that has shown up both physically and mentally, according to coach Dave Canales.
Canales praised what he has seen from Waller during camp, and for a team looking for any reason to feel better about its passing game, that matters. The Panthers are still piecing together plenty of the offense around him, but Wallers work has at least added a layer of intrigue to a roster that has spent too long searching for steady playmakers. [Read more 🡒]