The Carolina Panthers have been linked to a former first-round pick and Super Bowl champion.
Greg Auman of FOX Sports has recently named who he believes to be the “ideal” free-agent signing for the Panthers. With Carolina struggling to get to opposing quarterbacks—as evidenced by their 31st-ranked pressure rate (16.5 percent) in 2025—he connects them to veteran outside linebacker Leonard Floyd.
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Auman writes:
This is ideal, as in “ideal and reasonably within their budget.” They’re not all $20 million signings, and Carolina is barely under the cap entering free agency. Edge rusher is arguably the biggest positional need, and Floyd played well with the Rams in 2020-21 when Evero Eijro was there. Last season was a down year, but he’d gotten at least eight sacks in five straight years before that, and could bounce back as a solid value impact for an improved Panthers defense. Only two NFL teams had fewer sacks than Carolina’s 30 last year, with no Panthers player getting more than five.
Floyd, the ninth overall pick from the 2016 NFL Draft, teamed up with Evero in what would be his two most productive NFL campaigns. He recorded a career-high 10.5 sacks in 2020, then followed that up with 9.5 sacks and a career-high 70 tackles in the Rams’ Super Bowl-winning season in 2021.
The 33-year-old spent his 2025 in the NFC South, as a member of the Atlanta Falcons. Floyd started in each of his 15 games and totaled just 3.5 sacks.
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This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: NFL free agency: Former 1st-rounder named ideal signing for Panthers