The Carolina Panthers have one of the league’s top offensive lines going into the 2026 season, but one position is currently holding the unit back from earning a top ranking.
Carolina Panthers guard Damien Lewis (68) quarterback Bryce Young (9), and guard Robert Hunt (50) looks on before a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
The Carolina Panthers open training camp in just a few weeks and have multiple positions up for grabs throughout the roster with battles expected to take place once players are back in the building and pads are on.
Two of those battles will occur on the team’s offensive front at the left tackle and center position with both battles set to be between a new veteran addition and a high-upside rookie draft pick.
On paper, the veterans currently hold the projected starting spot heading into camp based on what we learned during the offseason program. Things could quickly change depending on how those two battles go, but the battle at center will be an underrated one to watch considering it’s the team’s one glaring weakness on the offensive line.
Carolina Panthers offensive line among the league’s best, but one spot is clearly viewed as a weakness
The battle at left tackle between veteran Rasheed Walker and first-round rookie Monroe Freeling will obviously be one of the team’s top battles to watch in training camp. It’s a crucial position protecting the blindside of quarterback Bryce Young, but the Panthers should feel very confident in either option.
Walker has plenty of starting experience during his first four years with the Green Bay Packers and played at a serviceable level. Freeling, meanwhile, offers a ton of untapped athletic potential but is still relatively inexperienced at the position.
Looking at the entire projected starting unit, the Panthers have strong ratings at four of the five spots, with the entire offensive front ranked ninth in the NFL according to Mike Clay’s ratings. Walker is the projected starter at left tackle while right tackle Taylor Moton, left guard Damien Lewis, and right guard Robert Hunt are all returning starters. All four have proven they can all play at a above average level.
The real glaring weakness for this unit is a center. Clay’s projections have veteran Luke Fortner listed as the starter with the lowest rating of the starting five at 4.5, which happens to be tied for the seventh-lowest grade among all 32 projected starting centers.
It’s clear that position will be worth monitoring throughout training camp and throughout the entire regular season as a potential weakness team’s could exploit against this front. And we still don’t know for sure if it’ll even be Fortner starting in Week 1.
Panthers center position will be an important battle to watch going into training camp
Like Walker, Fortner handled the majority of the first-team duties with the coaching staff relying on the veteran presence throughout the offseason program while the rookies worked to get a handle on the offense. In training camp, the guardrails come off and everything is up for grabs.
As it relates to the center position, head coach Dave Canales shared some of the things he’s looking to see out of the position and what he liked from Fortner during the spring.
“For the center position, if you just give a good, clean declaration early on, the quarterback can fix it if he needs to. It allows us to play fast,” Canales explained. “And Luke’s got a ton of experience, and so he’s able to hop in there, get everybody lined up where they need to, get a good starting point, and then he and Bryce are talking through things in between.”
That experience will only give him a leg up at the start of camp, but then ball will be in rookie Sam Hecht’s court to challenge for the job and prove he can handle what the starting position demands.
If the Panthers can get a strong, competitive battle for the starting job, it should inspire more confidence in the unit’s perceived “weak link” going into the 2026 season and push this group up as one of the league’s best. Or, it could turn out to be the opposite and become a real weakness. We’ll see how it goes and which player earns the job.
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