The Panthers are heading into camp with a fresh hole on the edge, and it opened up almost immediately. Nic Scourton went down with a season-ending ACL tear in the first session of training camp, leaving Carolina to find answers fast.
One of the players expected to help fill that void is second-year edge rusher Princely Umanmielen, and he’s already drawing strong support from a teammate who knows pass rush talent when he sees it. Free agent addition Jaelan Phillips had plenty of praise for Umanmielen after Tuesday’s practice.
"He's probably the best pass rusher on our team," Phillips stated. "I think that he is extremely naturally gifted. And I think that as he continues to develop, he can be a very special player.
"I think that he already has crazy attributes, and he's definitely learning, he's young. So I'm excited to watch him grow."
That’s a strong endorsement, though Carolina will obviously be hoping Phillips himself lives up to the billing after signing for $30 million a yeay.
Umanmielen’s rookie numbers don’t jump off the page - 1.5 sacks and four quarterback hits - but there’s more to the story than the stat line. The 2025 third-round pick was on the field for only about 22 percent of the defense’s snaps, so the opportunity simply wasn’t there in full.
This year should look different. Umanmielen is set for a larger role, and he showed some real upside in last preseason. If he can win the starting job opposite Phillips over Patrick Jones II, that would be a meaningful sign for what 2026 could hold for him.
In Other News...
Panthers Camp Just Raised A New Question About This Roster
Bryce Young kept building momentum at Panthers camp, turning in another sharp practice as his timing with the passing game looked cleaner and his connection with the receivers continued to settle in. The improvement has been noticeable enough to give Carolina a more encouraging early read on its offense, especially with Young working to establish a steadier rhythm in camp.
At the same time, the roster picture around him is still taking shape, and that is where the intrigue starts to creep in. The Panthers have been sorting through depth and availability across the quarterback room and the receiving group, and every practice seems to add another layer to the question of how much stability this offense will have once the games start to matter. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Pass Rush Already Drawing Brutal Doubts After Offseason Fix
The offseason was supposed to give Carolinas pass rush a real jolt, with the front office bringing in Jaelan Phillips and adding Devin Lloyd to help a defense that needed more disruption off the edge. Even so, the early view around the league has been skeptical, with CBS Sports analyst Carter Bahns slotting the Panthers at No. 31 in his preseason pass-rush rankings, a harsh reminder that the group still has plenty to prove before the games count.
Phillips gives Carolina a legitimate starter when he is healthy, but the production ceiling is still part of the conversation because he has not yet topped 10 sacks in a season. The bigger concern is how the rest of the rotation settles in around him, especially with the edge opposite Phillips now looking unsettled and the Panthers left trying to replace the pressure they expected to get from that side. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Suddenly Face A Bigger Question About Bryce Youngs Next Step
Bryce Youngs 2025 season gave the Panthers a much clearer picture of what their quarterback can be when the operation around him is cleaner. He completed 63.6% of his passes for 3,011 yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, and the jump mattered because it came with signs of real growth rather than empty volume. Even so, the film and the numbers both pointed to another layer in the evaluation: too many throws were being spoiled after the ball arrived, with receiver mistakes and drops repeatedly turning usable plays into incompletions.
Tetairoa McMillan was part of that problem, finishing with eight drops, and Carolinas passing game now sits at a crossroads that is bigger than Young alone. The Panthers still have injury concerns and still need more consistency from the people catching the ball, which makes the next step feel less like a simple quarterback question and more like an organizational one. Young has shown he can move forward, but the team now has to find out whether the rest of the passing game can keep pace. [Read more 🡒]