When the Panthers open training camp next week, the obvious questions are already lined up: can Bryce Young take another step, will the new defensive pieces click, and can the rebuilt offensive line keep Young upright?
But the bigger issue sits underneath all of that.
For Carolina, the real problem is simple: where is the offense supposed to come from? The Panthers have shown flashes from different places, but they have not found a way to make it happen consistently.
Young has proven he can put an offense on his back for a game or two. He just hasn’t shown he can do it over an entire season at a high level.
Chuba Hubbard has done it before, too, but he was pretty disappointing in 2025, and there’s no Rico Dowdle around to help stabilize the run game this year. Tetairoa McMillan is clearly a difference-maker, but his impact is still tied to Young’s play, which puts a ceiling on how much he can carry by himself.
That leaves the Panthers with a familiar offseason answer: wait and see. Maybe Young makes the kind of year-four leap that changes everything.
Maybe Hubbard’s 2025 struggles were injury-related, and a healthy version of him looks more like the dominant 2024 back again. Maybe McMillan turns into an All-Pro and makes the quarterback situation less important.
Those are all possibilities. But the more important answer is whether Carolina can get real production from the players behind those headliners.
That means Jonathon Brooks, Xavier Legette, and Chris Brazzell II matter a lot more than they might on paper. If Brooks is what the Panthers believe he can be, he gives them a weapon who can truly damage a defense. The staff needs to find out what he can do on that twice-repaired knee and how much of an impact he can make.
The same goes for the wideouts behind McMillan. If Brazzell or Legette take a step forward, everything opens up. It gives McMillan and Jalen Coker more room to work and helps the Panthers settle the WR3 spot in a way that actually supports the rest of the offense.
That’s the path Carolina needs. If those depth pieces hit, the offense can function even without one player carrying the whole thing. If they don’t, the Panthers could be staring at a very long season on that side of the ball.
In Other News...
Panthers Face A Defining Call On Who Really Fits The Core
The Panthers are entering one of those roster-building stretches where the next wave of decisions matters almost as much as the last one. Contract talks and extension projections are already circling around several familiar names, with Mike Jackson, Bryce Young, Rasheed Walker and Damien Lewis all sitting in different spots on the teams long-term map as Carolina weighs performance, fit and where the roster is headed next.
Jacksons case is complicated by the teams recent draft move, while Walkers path is tied to how the left tackle picture settles over time. Lewis has put himself in position for a new deal if his play keeps trending the right way, and Young remains the biggest swing of all because the Panthers still have to decide how much confidence to put into his future before the market forces the issue. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Defense Still Has One Worry Fans Can't Ignore
Rookies report for Carolinas 2026 training camp on July 21, with veterans following on July 22, and the early buzz around the defense is already familiar: the Panthers have added help in the offseason, but the back end still looks like the spot most worth watching. CBS Sports analyst Josh Edwards pointed to the secondary as the area that still needs work, even with linebacker Devin Lloyd and edge rusher Jaelan Phillips joining the mix, while cornerbacks Mike Jackson and Jaycee Horn remain among the more encouraging pieces on the roster.
The Panthers did make progress against the pass a year ago, trimming the number of passing touchdowns they allowed from 2024 to 2025, and Dan Morgan also used Aprils draft to add cornerback Will Lee III and safety Zakee Wheatley. Even so, the question heading into camp is whether those moves are enough to give Horn the kind of support this defense still seems to need at cornerback or safety, or whether the secondary remains the unit that keeps the Panthers from feeling fully settled on that side of the ball. [Read more 🡒]