{"id":374993,"date":"2025-09-17T12:15:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/374993\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:15:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T12:15:10","slug":"whats-next-for-struggling-panthers-wr-xavier-legette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/374993\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s next for struggling Panthers WR Xavier Legette?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> thought they had a new No. 1 receiver<\/a> when they selected Xavier Legette with the 32nd overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft. But less than two years later, they might’ve realized differently.<\/p>\n

Legette’s rookie campaign was somewhat of a roller coaster, which ended on some rough downs. After tallying four touchdowns over his first nine games and flashing a bit of his exciting potential, the University of South Carolina star dimmed\u2014as he collected a handful of damaging drops<\/a> in near-upsets of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n

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Year No. 2 was going to serve as a refreshing reset, with Legette benefitting from a full offseason of preparation as a pro. Unfortunately, however, he has yet to get started.<\/p>\n

Over his first two games here in 2025, Legette has totaled eight receiving yards and four receptions on 15 looks. His outing in Carolina’s 27-22 loss<\/a> proved to be a historical one, as he became the first wide receiver<\/a> in NFL history to record negative receiving yards (-2) on at least eight targets.<\/p>\n

Oh, and he’s very clearly taken a backseat to the new first-round pick in town\u20142025 eighth overall selection Tetairoa McMillan. And McMillan, who has already amassed 168 receiving yards while looking the part, isn’t going to give that job back.<\/p>\n

Something surely seems off about the 24-year-old Legette\u2014whether it’s lapses physically, mentally or even both. And after this dreadful beginning, should the Panthers consider benching him?<\/p>\n

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Head coach Dave Canales remains hopeful for his young wideout, stating on Monday that Legette will still see plenty of opportunities moving forward.<\/p>\n

“I believe in Xavier,” Canales told reporters<\/a>. “This is a guy that I truly believe\u2014because of the way he’s wired, the way that he works at it, the way that he continues to train.<\/p>\n

“He had a great week of practice. He played better. He had some opportunities on the field where the ball didn’t go his way. I tried to get him a few early touches. They didn’t amount to much. But as the game kinda went on, a few of the other targets\u2014they were close plays. He didn’t make ’em. But I think it’s a matter of just finding opportunities.<\/p>\n

“I believe in him, I believe that he’s approached this the right way and just continues to work. I’m gonna continue to encourage him and be in his corner and push him to keep striving for that and keep working on his chemistry with Bryce.”<\/p>\n

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Well, Canales is right.<\/p>\n

The Panthers tried their best to give Legette chances to make plays with the ball. But for whatever reason, things are just not clicking for him\u2014and that is a problem.<\/p>\n

So, what’s the resolution?<\/p>\n

There has seemingly been a lack of a crossing patterns that Legette thrives in, with potential run-after-catch opportunities that give him a runway to accelerate and break pursuit angles. Canales, who has been under a microscope for his play-calling and player utilization, has tried to get Legette going in the screen game.<\/p>\n

Legette seems like he could afford to work into space on underneath shallow or intermediate crossers, digs, ins or vertical concepts that allow him to utilize that runway. A role as a big slot receiver could help with this as well, adding more green grass to navigate for the strong and speedy pass catcher.<\/p>\n

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In addition, an overlooked aspect of Legette’s struggles could be the absence of Jalen Coker\u2014who will remain on injured reserve with a quad strain for at least a couple of more weeks. Coker’s ability to draw defenders with his sharp route running could open up more favorable looks for Legette.<\/p>\n

Boosting a player’s confidence is all about continuing to give them chances. This is especially true for Legette\u2014but it is up to Canales and the player himself to execute and put themselves in positions to succeed.<\/p>\n

The answer is not to bench him. Instead, the Panthers and Legette should continue to work out the kinks and see what suits him best.<\/p>\n

If they can’t, then the very first first-round pick of the Dan Morgan-Dave Canales regime may go down as a drop.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: What’s next for struggling Panthers WR Xavier Legette?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Panthers thought they had a new No. 1 receiver when they selected Xavier Legette with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,3838,7,110,6911,6,236,109,3866,1453,1505],"class_list":{"0":"post-374993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-dave-canales","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","14":"tag-legette","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-panthers","17":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","18":"tag-receiving-yards","19":"tag-tetairoa-mcmillan","20":"tag-xavier-legette"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115219590633741149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}