The Carolina Panthers enter Week 17 in a position few anticipated, sitting at 8–7 and atop the NFC South with a pivotal home matchup against one of the league’s most complete rosters in the 12–3 Seattle Seahawks.
For Carolina, the game will be decided less by offensive fireworks and more by discipline, physicality, and defensive execution. And for head coach Dave Caneles, at the center of it all stands Christian Rozeboom, a violent and versatile second-level defender who has been a revelation at the linebacker spot.
An undrafted free agent out of South Dakota State during the COVID-impacted 2020 draft cycle, Rozeboom’s early professional years were spent largely on the periphery. He didn’t log a snap in his rookie year, played just two snaps in 2021, and saw eight snaps in 2022.
Carolina Panthers’ gamble on Christian Rozeboom is starting to pay off
For many players, that trajectory ends quietly. For Rozeboom, it became the foundation for growth.
His opportunity arrived in 2023 and 2024 with the Los Angeles Rams. He emerged as a reliable starter, proving himself as a legitimate NFL linebacker with instincts, toughness, and range. Now in Carolina, Rozeboom has become a core piece of the Panthers’ defensive structure, operating as a three-down presence whose responsibilities will be magnified to an extreme this week.
On the opposite sideline, Seattle presents one of the league’s most demanding schematic tests. The running back tandem of Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet stresses defenses horizontally and vertically in the run game. The middle of the field becomes a pressure point when Sam Darnold works through progressions to Jaxon Smith-Njigba and tight end A.J. Barner.
Against the run, Rozeboom’s downhill trigger and willingness to take on blocks will be essential in limiting early-down success. In coverage, his awareness and positioning over the intermediate middle will be key in disrupting Darnold’s comfort zone, particularly against in-breaking routes and play-action concepts designed to manipulate linebackers in space.
And what separates Rozeboom isn’t flash, but reliability.
He plays with urgency, communicates effectively, and rarely finds himself out of position. For a Panthers defense that has to win with discipline rather than star power, Rozeboom’s ability to impact all three downs could be the difference between staying atop the division and ceding control to set up a do-or-die Week 18 rematch with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It’s a moment built for players like Rozeboom — those who have earned every snap and now carry the weight of meaningful football.