The Panthers went into the offseason trying to reshape the quarterback room around Bryce Young, and the moves told the story right away. Andy Dalton was traded away, Kenny Pickett was brought in, Will Grier was signed, and undrafted free agent Haynes King was added too.
Grier has since retired, leaving Pickett and King still in the mix at training camp. On paper, Pickett is the backup. In practice, he has not done much to lock that spot down.
His camp has been rough enough to raise eyebrows, and last week produced one sequence that looked especially ugly.
Kenny Pickett 11v11 series: SackTrips and fumbles ball, picks it back up, but would’ve been sackSack
That was three sacks in a row, with one of them coming after he tripped and fumbled the ball. It brought back some of the same bad memories from Andy Dalton’s rough start against the Buffalo Bills.
The bigger picture, though, is that Carolina is not pretending the backup job is meaningless. If Young goes down, the Panthers are in trouble no matter who is standing behind him. Pickett, King, or even Grier coming out of retirement would not change that.
Still, the Panthers are trying to contend, and that makes the No. 2 quarterback spot worth getting right. Last season, Dalton’s spot start for Young was far from ideal, but it did not really become a major issue until the Panthers were pushing for the playoffs.
This year is supposed to be a playoff push from the start, so the backup has to be capable. That is part of why Carolina moved on from Dalton and brought in Pickett: to get younger and more athletic behind Young.
The problem is that King fits that description even better than Pickett does. He is younger and much more athletic, and if Pickett keeps struggling, Carolina could end up facing a real choice.
Pickett is the safer name because he is the established veteran, even if his reputation comes with the baggage of being a former bust. King is the unknown, but his athleticism is the kind of trait that can make a staff pay attention. At the moment, this does not look like a true battle so much as King trying to push the Panthers into keeping three quarterbacks.
Pickett’s lack of momentum is what keeps the door open. King may have a backdoor path not just onto the roster, but all the way up to the official backup job.
Dalton was moved on from because he no longer had it. If Pickett cannot hold up either, Carolina would have to at least consider whether it wants to stick with him.
He is only on a one-year deal, and he could still serve as a mentor for Young, so cutting him would be a surprise. But if his camp keeps going this way, King could absolutely force his way into a bigger role.
In Other News...
Panthers Suddenly Face A Huge Camp Test Up Front
The Panthers were supposed to use the start of camp to get a head start, opening early because of their Hall of Fame Game appearance. Instead, the first real test up front has arrived almost immediately, with the offensive line already being reshuffled before the pads even come on in earnest. Carolina has had to adjust around Taylor Moton and the left side as well, turning what should have been a routine summer ramp-up into a live evaluation of depth and adaptability.
Rookie Monroe Freeling has been thrust into the mix on the right side, while Rasheed Walker was brought in to help stabilize the left tackle spot after Ikem Ekwonus injury. For a team trying to build continuity, the challenge is obvious: the Panthers are now asking new pieces to settle in fast, and the early weeks of camp will tell them a lot about whether this front can hold together when the regular season arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Made Their Biggest Pass Rush Bet Yet
Carolina spent the early part of the offseason trying to solve a problem that showed up in plain sight all year: the pass rush never consistently threatened opposing quarterbacks. After finishing last in pressure rate and near the bottom of the sack leaderboard in 2025, the Panthers went looking for a difference-maker and found one in Jaelan Phillips, the former Eagles edge rusher whose arrival instantly changes the conversation around that front.
Phillips move to Charlotte also says plenty about how the Panthers sold the opportunity, not just the money. He pointed to the contract as a major factor in choosing Carolina, and the teams willingness to make him one of the biggest investments of the free-agent cycle shows how urgent the need felt. The question now is whether the Panthers finally have the kind of rusher who can turn a glaring weakness into something much harder for opponents to plan around. [Read more 🡒]