One of the biggest offseason storylines in Carolina didn’t come from a signing, a trade or even a new face walking through the door. It came when Dave Canales decided in February to hand off play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Brad Idzik, ending his two-year run with the sheet and giving Idzik his first crack at running the offense that way.
That change alone raises plenty of questions. How much will the offense shift under Idzik?
Can the Panthers finally make a real jump? And does Canales benefit from stepping back and taking a broader view of the job?
Those answers will have to wait until the 2026 regular season. For now, there’s plenty else hanging over Carolina’s offense as training camp approaches.
At quarterback, the Panthers are asking whether Kenny Pickett can really hold down the backup job behind Bryce Young. General manager Dan Morgan said he wanted mobility and athleticism when he talked about the role, then signed Pickett anyway.
The fit is a little awkward. Pickett, 28, has not lived up to his first-round status, has made only 27 starts in 36 games since being drafted in 2022, and has thrown 16 touchdowns against 16 interceptions while bouncing to his fifth team in as many years.
Carolina moved on from 38-year-old Andy Dalton to make room for him, but it’s fair to wonder whether Pickett is actually an upgrade. The bigger question is simple: if Young misses time, can Pickett keep things from going sideways?
The backfield has a much different kind of intrigue. Jonathon Brooks was drafted in the second round in 2024 with the idea that he could eventually become the guy, but ACL injuries from college and then his rookie season have limited him to just three games since then.
Now, in 2026, he’s in a far better place physically. Brooks took part in a full slate of spring workouts for the first time and looked good doing it, which has sparked talk that he could jump Chuba Hubbard as the team’s lead runner.
Hubbard is coming off a rough, injury-hit 2025 season, and Rico Dowdle’s departure for Pittsburgh this offseason only adds to the opening. The question is whether Hubbard will open the door for Brooks - and whether Brooks can stay healthy long enough to walk through it.
Wide receiver brings a different sort of pressure, and it lands squarely on Xavier Legette. The 2024 first-round pick hasn’t looked like one.
Drops and spacial awareness have been recurring issues, and over his first two NFL seasons he has 84 catches for 860 yards and seven touchdowns. The numbers tell the story: he has nearly twice as many games with 10 or fewer receiving yards as he does with at least 50.
Carolina’s patience appeared to thin late in 2025, when his snap share dropped in each of the final four regular-season games. Then the front office added another challenge by drafting first-team All-SEC wideout Chris Brazzell II in the third round and extending Jalen Coker, an undrafted free-agent signee from Legette’s rookie class.
With Tetairoa McMillan and Coker already ahead of him and Brazzell now in the mix, Legette has to start producing.
Tight end is still waiting for someone, anyone, to make a real dent in the passing game. Carolina has now gone six straight seasons without a tight end reaching 400 receiving yards, and this offseason didn’t exactly change that outlook.
Unless there’s a late addition, the Panthers will head to camp with Tommy Tremble leading a group that also includes Ja’Tavion Sanders, Mitchell Evans and Feleipe Franks, who returned after spending a year in Atlanta. None of them has topped 350 receiving yards in a season.
The group may be asked to do plenty of blocking, but the passing game could use somebody to emerge as a threat.
Up front, the rookie-veteran battle is the one to watch. Carolina used two of its seven 2026 draft picks on offensive linemen, taking Georgia tackle Monroe Freeling with the 19th overall pick and Kansas State center Sam Hecht later in the draft.
Both are expected to push for starting jobs right away. Freeling will compete with free-agent pickup Rasheed Walker at left tackle while Ikem Ekwonu recovers from a torn patellar tendon, and Hecht will challenge another newcomer, Luke Fortner, at center.
The Panthers have one-year deals tied to Walker and Fortner, which makes the rookies the more important long-term bets. Don’t be shocked if Freeling and Hecht are in the starting lineup in Week 1, or at least sometime in 2026.
In Other News...
Bryce Young Debate Just Took Another Turn For Panthers Fans
Bryce Youngs future in Carolina has been one of the leagues most debated quarterback topics, and the conversation got another push this week when former Panthers general manager Marty Hurney voiced confidence in the former No. 1 pick. Youngs record as a starter has left plenty of room for skepticism, but he has also piled up more than 8,000 passing yards and 49 touchdowns since arriving in Carolina, enough production to keep the argument alive about what he can become with the right support around him.
Panthers offensive coordinator Brad Idzik added to that optimism by pointing to Youngs competitiveness and his ability to deliver in critical moments. Even with the questions that still follow him, Youngs first appearance on the NFLs Top 100 list at No. 98 suggests the league is starting to take notice of his progress. The bigger issue now is whether Carolina sees enough consistency to make a longer-term commitment, or whether this remains a wait-and-see situation heading into the offseason. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Just Got Linked To A Bryce Young Backup Plan
Bryce Youngs uneven start has kept the Panthers in the conversation any time quarterback speculation comes up, and the latest round of chatter points to Carolina once again being linked to a possible backup plan. The idea is not hard to understand: the franchise still needs to sort out what it has at the position, and any hint of another young quarterback with upside is going to draw attention.
One name being floated around the league is a former top pick whose tools still intrigue evaluators even though the results have been mixed. The appeal is obvious for a team that is still searching for stability under center, but the real question is whether Carolina would see enough value to make a move and try to unlock a different kind of talent than the one already in the room. [Read more 🡒]
Bryce Young Is Giving Panthers Fans Real Hope For 2026
Bryce Youngs rise has given Carolina something it has not had in a while: real reason to look past the present and imagine a better 2026. Since returning to the starting lineup in the middle of the 2024 season, Young has trended upward, and the Panthers have ridden that improvement all the way to their first playoff appearance since 2017 and their first NFC South title since 2015.
The optimism is easy to understand, because Young looks like a quarterback whose best football may still be ahead of him. Still, the next step is about more than flashes, and the questions around consistency have not disappeared, especially with his limited history of big-yardage outings. If he keeps building on this stretch, Carolinas outlook gets a lot more interesting. [Read more 🡒]