The Carolina Panthers’ run defense has been a mess again, and the roster situation up front is pushing the team toward outside help.
In 2024, Carolina gave up the most points in a single NFL season in league history, and a huge part of that collapse came on the ground. The Panthers allowed 3,057 rushing yards that year, the worst total in the league and the third-worst in NFL history, with the 17th game helping inflate the number.
Getting Derrick Brown back in 2025 brought the run defense back to something closer to respectable, but it still never became a strength. Then, after one game in 2026, it already looks like the unit has drifted back toward its 2024 level. The talent is there to be better, but the results have not followed.
That was especially true against the Chicago Bears, where the Panthers’ run defense was described as hard to overstate in how bad it was. Carolina is on pace to allow nearly 5,000 rushing yards, a number that obviously won’t hold but still says plenty about how broken things have looked.
With the defensive line already thin, and with Pat Jones injured and Bobby Brown III playing through back issues, the Panthers may need to shop the free-agent market for help.
One name is Larry Ogunjobi, who stands out as one of the best interior defenders available. The idea here is straightforward: he could be added cheaply to the practice squad and then elevated for game day.
Sheldon Day is another option still waiting for a chance, and the Panthers could certainly do worse. In his prime, he posted run defense grades in the 70s, and Carolina does not need a headline-grabber so much as it needs more bodies and more stability up front.
Brandon Graham is retired, but there is at least a path to a return if the incentive is right. If he came back, the Panthers would be getting a player who routinely posted run defense grades over 80, along with a pass rusher who would help in a defense that still is not exactly elite at getting after the quarterback.
Then there is Yetur Gross-Matos, who checks a few important boxes. He spent a year, and maybe his best year, in Ejiro Evero’s system with Carolina in 2023, and he put up a 66.4 run defense grade that season, one of the better marks in recent years for a run defender. He can help set the edge, he is fairly young, and on paper he looks like the ideal addition.
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