Carolina Panthers 2026 regular season mailbag: Offensive line depth, final roster questions, Bryce Young, and more!

Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! I got flooded with questions following the fallout of final roster cutdowns, and now we’re on a collision course with the regular season. Let’s dive right in!

GooseCreek: When and if Ja’Tavion Sanders gets traded, who do you bring into the Panthers 53 man roster? I’d like to see them bring in Ja’seem Reed to protect him from being poached from the practice squad.

I actually do think the Panthers intend to carry 5 TEs for the moment on the active roster. But if they do end up trading Sanders away, I think they’ll bring up LB Tyrell Dodson, offensive line depth, or S Isaiah Simmons. I don’t think they are worried about Ja’seem Reed being poached otherwise they wouldn’t have waived him in the first place for the practice squad.

storybook: Who’s winnin the superbowl?

The Carolina Panthers, of course. But if not, I’d say possibly the Bills or Broncos. The Rams are everybody’s pick and that almost never works out for a “dream team”. Unless Tom Brady was involved of course.

e4*: Will HRH Haynes (it is inevitable I will be) King assume his sovereignty by week 11?

No.

bolshy: I think both our offense and our defense will be better this year. Which one do you think makes the biggest improvement and why?

I think the defense will take the biggest step forward. Added two high impact players on the front seven and built up the depth around it this off-season.

DBelt: How many starts will Nick Scott have this season for the Panthers and will he finally receive the All Pro recognition he deserves?

I expect him to start every game (just like he did last season) but unless he gets a bunch of picks I don’t expect him to make the All Pro team. That has just never been his game.

PurrDurham: How much more improved is our defense with the two new linebackers and other post-cut day signings?

My biggest concern for this defense was if they could weather an injury to one of their significant contributors. They appear to have the depth to do so now. That in itself is a huge improvement over last season.

Panthers75: Using the app. You can now post photos in these threads. Very nice. Maybe thats old news, idk. I’ve been enjoying the real world since January.

Which NFCS team improved the most over this past off-season?

I’m glad you’re enjoying the app! I am very much enjoying it too!

I would say the Saints were most improved unfortunately, but every team made some material upgrades. It will likely be another close race this season.

@WTMealey: Bryce has 17 games to show he can be relatively good enough CONSISTENTLY

Let’s say

red is definitely moving on

Yellow is the decision is difficult

Green he’s getting a contract the only question is the details

Paint a picture of each of these scenarios not with season long stats but more with x amount of games he does this and y amount of games he does that and…..

I’m going to once again remind others (this does not apply to this question but others I have been receiving) that if you are not seeing your question answered about Bryce Young, a lot of times its because there was a derogatory tone to it. I’m perfectly fine with being critical of NFL players, but there’s enough discourse in the comments that turns very negative over a subject that likely isn’t going to change this season regardless of how you feel. Anyway, onto Mealey’s question.

Red: We see Bryce Young take a step back to early 2024 form, very little consistency and the same up and down performance.
Yellow: We see about the same version of Bryce Young from this past season, where some weeks he’s playing out of his mind and others he’s struggling against teams he shouldn’t be struggling against. Possibly another slow start but quickly gets back to the form we saw at times last season. We see a little more of the great version but still somewhat inconsistent.
Green: We see Bryce Young take a big step forward, and we see playoffs Bryce more often than he struggles. I still expect there to be bad games, because its very rare not to have those, but more often than not he’s consistent and we see the ball getting chucked around.

I’m not sure what version to expect but I am hopeful year 3 in the Canales/Idzik coaching tree will see more progress as one would expect.

schrodingersblackcat: What are the odds our offense gets off to another rocky start next week, just as we have for the past three seasons? (Preseason hasn’t inspired much confidence that things will be different.)

If we do struggle for the first few games, do you expect to see Idzik respond differently from the way Dave has in the past?

I still do not take anything we see from the preseason’s limited reps with much more than a grain of salt. Week 1 is ugly for most teams so I can see that happening, but I’m not worried about it for the long term. I think Idzik/Canales should have a firmer grasp on what they feel works for their QB and this offense than they did in the previous two seasons, so if there’s lag in the offense getting into a groove I would expect them to add some plays to help get the offense into a rhythm. In theory, they should continue leaning on the run game like they have and that should help with things.

Chef: Hey, Brian. So, with the roster looking pretty much finished, what’s the position group that we probably feel better about than we should and what group that doesn’t look so great on paper that is going to outperform expectations?

I agree with Shifty Fish that EDGE has been promising but an injury to Jaelan Phillips or even the other two of the top three makes that position very dicey once again. Losing Nic Scourton really hurt things.

As far as the position that people might be concerned about that I’m not, I would say running back. There was a bit of concern with Chuba Hubbard basically sitting out the off-season with a hamstring, and then Jonathon Brooks now dealing with soreness plus Trevor Etienne being put on IR. I think Hubbard and Brooks will be fine and they now have a true power back in AJ Dillon. I think running back is going to outperform people’s expectations and I think both Hubbard and Brooks will be productive and involved in the offense. Their skill-sets are different enough that they should compliment each other much better than Hubbard and Rico Dowdle did.

DIESEL009: How good are our current starting OTs? Are we going to miss Moton and Ickey, or will they hold it down?

I actually think Rasheed Walker at left tackle and Monroe Freelin at right tackle have been relatively solid, all things considered. Freeling is going to have growing pains, we saw that in the preseason, but here’s a pretty good breakdown on some of the film we got to see in the preseason.

I think they’ll do just fine. I’m more concerned about an injury for now, but hopefully Taylor Moton will be back sooner than later. Ikem Ekwonu, we still don’t really know when he will be back but the team seems to think he will be.

DeacCat: Who will our leading rusher he this year?

Pepsi or Coke?

I think Chuba Hubbard will end up being the leading rusher but I could see Jonathon Brooks having the most yards from scrimmage. He brings the receiving element that Chuba just doesn’t have, so I could see him getting quite a few passing and manufactured touches.

I’m definitely a Coke guy. Vanilla Coke to be precise.

Mozzie11: For roster building, do you stick with Pickett who has experience but will probably not be able to advance the team anywhere if he has to play any extended time. Or do you look to the future and replace him with Levis or Milton knowing having to use either this year is more of a crap shoot?

I don’t see any reason you move on from the guy who spent the off-season as the primary backup right before the season starts for a shot in the dark at a released backup (who MAY have upside). I think the Panthers feel set at QB with Haynes King as their developmental 3rd. There’s a reason Will Levis and Joe Milton were waived and given the chance to sign elsewhere on practice squads.

positivebob: What’s a realistic idea of when, or if, Moton and Ekonwu, get back on the field and are ready to play? How do you think Freeling will hold up? He might face Montez Sweat, Jared Verse, and Aidan Hutchinson in 3 of the 1st 4 games. Think the run blocking will be OK on the edges? The team goes as far as the OL can take it, and with BC out, things look thin. Pretty thin before he went out. Give me an OL update.

dayneb12: Should there be concern about the guard depth? Outside of Lewis and Hunt, the only person on the roster with any guard experience is Corey Bullock.

I just decided to lump these questions together since they were in the same neighborhood.

As far as Taylor Moton goes, all of the news has said he will miss “the start” of the season. He can return as early as week 6 but there’s been no real timetable for him. Ikem Ekwonu’s only news has been that the team is “optimistic” he’ll play this season. So both of them are a very much “we’ll see” for now. I addressed the question about the current tackles above. They like Sam Hecht and they claimed Corey Bullock on waivers from the Ravens, a guy they very much liked. They also brought back Jake Curhan and Chandler Zavala on the practice squad for some continuity. So things aren’t as dire as they may appear in my opinion. They have Curhan listed as a tackle but he can play guard.

Bruce Guild: If you can pick from across all era’s of Panther LB’s to put together the perfect 3/4 and the perfect 4/3 LB group, who are they?

This is going to be a difficult one. I’d go with Dan Morgan, Luke Kuechly, and Thomas Davis as the 4-3 group, and Dan Morgan, Luke Kuechly on the interior with Julius Peppers (he DID play EDGE for the Packers!) and Kevin Greene for the 3-4. Sam Mills being the key backup on both squads in the middle. Don’t yell at me please.

That’s all for this week, Panthers fans!

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