Pitt is heading into the 2026 season with a different kind of confidence at defensive end. Not the loud, splashy kind that comes with portal headlines and offseason hype, but the quieter version that comes from believing the pieces are already in the building.
That’s why the Panthers didn’t add a defensive end through the transfer portal this offseason. After bringing in three transfers before 2024 and matching that number before 2025, Pitt stood pat this time around, trusting a group that has already shown enough promise to justify the bet.
“I think we hit on some high school kids that I think have come along nicely and Jaden Moore is a very, very talented player,” Pitt defensive line coach Tim Daoust said. “He got an unfortunate injury in camp last year and still projects very big things out of him.
He's got two years left. Production-wise, I think we're in really good shape.
I think there's, right now, going into camp, four defensive ends that can go out there at any moment in any football game against anyone on our schedule.”
That four-man mix includes Moore, returning starters Jimmy Scott and Isaiah Neal, and third-year player Zach Crothers, who is back healthy and ready for a bigger role. It’s a group with real experience, but the upside may start with Crothers.
In a little more than three games last season, Crothers put up 15 tackles, three tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. The numbers stood out, but so did the frame: 6-4, 265 pounds, with the kind of build that brings Patrick Jones and Rashad Weaver to mind.
“Well, look at him physically,” Daoust said of Pitt's promising young edge rusher. “If you just go out there, you're like, 'Oh my gosh.' Alright, that's what the greats around here looked like physically, right?”
Crothers’ chance to become one of those players is still ahead of him, but Pitt clearly sees him as someone who can help create more disruption in the backfield this fall.
Moore carries a similar level of expectation. The 6-4, 250-pound fourth-year player arrived from Oregon last season and turned heads in camp before an injury took him off course. He returned briefly late in the year, but never got the full runway Pitt had been expecting after all the buzz that surrounded him the previous summer.
That’s part of why Neal is so bullish on what comes next.
“I think they're going to help tremendously,” Neal said of his two teammates returning from injury. “I don't think they'll be the only two to help us at defensive end or defensive line in general, but both of these guys they didn't have the opportunity to really showcase what they could do last year because of the injuries. Jaeden didn't really have the opportunity at all and he had a couple of games at the end, but both of those guys are going to do tremendous things this year as well as the rest of the D-Line.”
Neal is also in a different place entering this season. Last year, he started nine games at defensive end because Pitt had no choice, even moving him there mid-game against Louisville in September after injuries forced the issue. He handled it well, and the move ended up revealing just how disruptive he could be.
Now it’s no emergency. It’s the plan.
Neal spent the offseason fully committed to the position, reshaping his body and adjusting his game for a permanent home on the edge. The fourth-year player from Washington, D.C., says that shift has opened things up for him.
“It's been exciting,” Neal explained of his new full-time spot. “It's a new challenge for me to go and build and develop and change my body and change the things that I can do and I feel like, in my opinion, I can use my strengths a little bit more. I'm excited to go into this year knowing I trained myself to be a defensive end this year.”
Daoust likes the fit, and he likes the player.
“He's always going to be where he's supposed to be,” Daoust said of Neal. “So, put him out there at defensive end, and he's very productive out there.
In the run game, he's going to grow and grow and has continued to grow as a pass rusher. But, in a nutshell, Ghost (his nickname) is competitive and next-level intelligent.
You say it to him one time, he's got it. He's a guy a lot of people like and a lot of people like to line up next to Ghost.”
Scott brings the most experience of the bunch. He has started 25 of Pitt’s last 26 games off the edge and over the past two seasons has piled up 56 tackles, 21.5 tackles for loss and 10.5 sacks. The fifth-year senior is confident in the ends, and in the line around them.
“Super confident, especially in the core guys,” Scott said. “Me, Nick (James), Fitz (Sean FitzSimmons) and Ghost (Neal).
We've been around each other for a while and I feel like we compliment each other well. Now it's just time to go out and be that group every Saturday.”
That confidence is rooted in Pitt’s defensive identity. For years, the Panthers have been defined by a pass rush that can wreck an offense’s rhythm.
They finished in the top five nationally in sacks every year from 2019-2022, then ranked top 10 in 2024 with 41 total. Last season, though, the production dipped to 31 sacks, which ranked 35th nationally.
The group in that room thinks the rise back up the rankings is coming.
“We've got guys who have experience playing in this defense and we have guys who have experience playing elsewhere as well,” Neal said. “The combination of the two in this defense, there's not going to be a better defensive line in the country than us if we go out there and execute the way we know we can.”
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Pitts First Padded Practice Put Two Big Camp Battles In Focus
Pitts first padded practice of training camp gave the staff its first real chance to sort through a roster still trying to settle in at several spots. It was the first physical test of camp, the sort of session that starts separating solid practice work from the kind of play that translates when the pads come on, and it offered an early look at how the depth chart might begin to take shape.
Alex Sanford Jr. and Malik Knight stood out as two players drawing attention for their development on their respective sides of the ball, while the tight end room remains one of the more open competitions on the roster. Pat Narduzzi also sounded encouraged by the offense and defense in these early days, but the bigger picture still comes back to how quickly Pitt can turn promising camp work into answers in battles that are far from settled. [Read more 🡒]