There was plenty of noise around Carolina Panthers training camp this week, and not all of it was good. Second-year pass-rusher Nic Scourton and rookie wide receiver Chris Brazzell II are set to miss the 2026 season, right tackle Taylor Moton’s availability is still unsettled because of blood clots, and quarterback Haynes King, who delivered the game-winning touchdown last Thursday night against the Arizona Cardinals, has also been dealing with injury trouble.
But in the middle of that mess, the Panthers did get a clear positive out of their 33-30 win: rookie safety Zakee Wheatley.
Carolina used one of its two fifth-round picks on Wheatley in April, taking the Penn State safety 151st overall after selecting Kansas State center Sam Hecht seven picks earlier at No. 144. The Panthers have been trying to clean up the back end of their defense, and Wheatley gave them a strong first look in the preseason opener.
He started at safety next to second-year pro Lathan Ransom and was on the field for 35 defensive snaps. Wheatley finished with a team-high eight tackles and added a forced fumble, the kind of impact play Carolina has been chasing in the secondary. At 6-foot-3 1/8 and 203 pounds, he also drew major praise from Pro Football Focus, which gave him the top overall grade on Dave Canales’s team at 88.0.
The grades backed up the tape. Wheatley was charged on 18 run snaps and 17 pass-coverage snaps, and he came out with a team-best 84.7 against the run.
In coverage, his 73.7 grade ranked second on the Panthers behind linebacker Isaiah Simmons, who checked in at 82.4. His tackling grade was the best on the roster at 87.4.
For a preseason game, it was about as clean and convincing an opening statement as a rookie can make.
That kind of production fits the profile Wheatley built at Penn State. Over his final four seasons, he appeared in 54 games and produced six interceptions, six passes defensed, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. Those nine takeaways stand out, especially for a Panthers defense that didn’t get much of that kind of disruption from veteran Nick Scott in 2025.
Scott, whom Carolina re-signed this offseason, started all 17 games and finished second on the team with 109 defensive stops, but he recorded only one interception and one fumble recovery.
It’s still just one preseason game, but Wheatley gave the Panthers something to think about. If he keeps stacking nights like this, the starting secondary could look different by Week 1 when Carolina opens against the Chicago Bears.
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