The Carolina Panthers are heading into roster cutdown day with one of their toughest calls sitting right in the wide receiver room.
With the 2026 NFL preseason wrapped up and the team’s final exhibition behind them on Friday night, Carolina now has until Sunday’s 6 p.m. deadline to trim the roster to 53 players. That leaves Dave Canales and his staff with a narrow window to sort through a group that has clearly made the decision harder than they wanted it to be.
The top of the receiver depth chart appears set with Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker and Xavier Legette. After that, though, things get crowded in a hurry. There’s a fight for the final two and maybe three spots, and several players have pushed their way into the conversation.
Canales said the competition has been exactly what the team was looking for.
"Extremely difficult, exactly what we want," Canales replied."We wanna have those conversations. We're talking about John Metchie, we're talking about Jimmy Horn, Ja'seem Reed-all those guys who've had a really amazing camp.
"David Moore has just been consistent throughout the whole time. He was able to play some special teams today to kinda show what he can do in that regard.
We hadn't given him a lot of [opportunities], but wanted him to get out there because we just wanna see. We think of him in that realm like Brycen Tremayne-an impact player on special teams who we also trust offensively.
And we wanted to get him out there and give him more opportunities.
"It's great room, love the competition, love the way the guys are making the decisions really hard on us."
Moore also brings veteran experience to the mix, which only adds another layer to a receiver battle that already looks tight.
Now Carolina has to decide which of those names sticks when the cuts come.
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