Get more Panthers news: Carolina team feed<\/a>]<\/p>\nCarolina\u2019s trip here was not a straight line \u2014 the regular season featured wins against the Packers and Rams, but losses to the Cardinals and Saints \u2014 but the Panthers sit at a much better spot than they did coming off last year\u2019s 5-12 record and two years removed from a 2-15 finish, especially after pushing the Rams to the limit in the wild-card round.<\/p>\n
Cap\/cuts outlook<\/p>\n
The Panthers have just under $13 million in effective salary cap space, which is 18th in the league. Moving on from A\u2019Shawn Robinson would give the Panthers the biggest 2026 cap relief at $8.5 million, though Robinson was third on the team in pressures. The team is more likely to move on from smaller hits like Patrick Jones II ($4.75 million), Tommy Tremble ($4.5 million) and Bobby Brown III ($4.4 million). Carolina could also free up nearly $35 million in cap space by restructuring the deals of Robert Hunt, Derrick Brown and Jaycee Horn.<\/p>\n
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Key pending free agents<\/p>\n
OL Cade Mays
OL Austin Corbett
RB Rico Dowdle
S Nick Scott<\/p>\n
Corbett beat Mays out for the starting center role in the offseason, but an early-season injury put Mays back in the lineup for most of the season. Mays finished ninth among centers in blown block rate, per Sports Info Solutions. Corbett played all three interior positions, settling at right guard to end the year. Corbett has played only 22 games over the past three seasons. Dowdle signed a one-year deal in free agency and emerged as a productive back who often outshined Chuba Hubbard in the backfield. He was 12th among running backs in EPA per rush.<\/p>\n
Positional needs<\/p>\n
Linebacker
Edge
Slot corner<\/p>\n
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The Panthers ranked 31st in pressure rate and 32nd in quarterback hits. Carolina took multiple swings at pass rushers in the draft and there were flashes from second-round pick Nic Scourton, but there was little impact on the edge elsewhere on the roster.<\/p>\n
Carolina ranked 30th in DVOA against tight ends and 28th against passes to the short middle of the field. Those were two places where the lack of depth and coverage ability at linebacker was exposed. Christian Rozeboom ranked 86th among 96 linebackers in yards allowed per coverage snap. The Panthers played the fourth-highest rate of dime defense, but didn\u2019t necessarily have the defensive backs to play that way. While the defense had impressive play from outside corners, Carolina was picked apart in the slot. On slot targets, the Panthers ranked 31st in EPA per play allowed.<\/p>\n
2026 NFL Draft picks<\/p>\n
1st round, pick No. 19
2nd round
3rd round
4th round
5th round (MIN)
5th round
6th round
7th round<\/p>\n
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Good draft fit<\/p>\n
CJ Allen, LB, Georgia<\/p>\n
Allen is the type of do-it-all defensive leader who could accelerate the Panthers’ build. He’s a great run defender, holds up well in coverage and is versatile, and that’s simply a hard player to find in today’s NFL.<\/p>\n
Betting nugget<\/p>\n
The Panthers won all eight of their games this season as an underdog, and went 8-0 against the spread in the regular season in the game following a loss.. \u2014 Ben Fawkes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL offseason has begun, and Yahoo Sports is previewing the coming months for all 32 teams, from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[97287,1992,1991,22657,228,19259,1476,10418,235,260,2567,10628,1751,2005,11404,7,213,6457,6,748,10128,428,236,20632,424,7152,3454,238,426,1453,222,10120],"class_list":["post-668640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-2025-season-record","tag-afc-east","tag-afc-west","tag-austin-corbett","tag-bengals","tag-bobby-brown-iii","tag-bryce-young","tag-cade-mays","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-christian-rozeboom","tag-chuba-hubbard","tag-colts","tag-derrick-brown","tag-football","tag-jaguars","tag-jaycee-horn","tag-nfl","tag-nic-scourton","tag-nick-scott","tag-packers","tag-panthers","tag-patrick-jones-ii","tag-rams","tag-rico-dowdle","tag-robert-hunt","tag-seahawks","tag-steelers","tag-tetairoa-mcmillan","tag-texans","tag-tommy-tremble"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668640","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=668640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}