{"id":703836,"date":"2026-01-25T12:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/703836\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T12:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T12:06:16","slug":"astonishing-name-pitched-as-panthers-best-mvp-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/703836\/","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing Name Pitched as Panthers&#8217; Best MVP Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">If every team got an MVP candidate, who would be up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carolina Panthers<\/a>? One could make an argument for a few different players on both sides of the ball. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">Would it be Bryce Young for his comeback drives? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\/news\/panthers-should-call-bills-rare-wide-receiver-swap\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How about<\/a> Derrick Brown for his otherworldly defense? What about Jaycee Horn&#8217;s lockdown coverage, or better yet, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\/the-best-carolina-panthers-player-is-not-at-all-who-you-think-01kff0xx7rf1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mike Jackson for his<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">Maybe Rico Dowdle, who literally had the best two-week stretch of anyone in NFL history? What about none of those options? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/47663581\/nfl-top-100-rankings-mvp-candidates-2025-regular-season-maye-stafford-prescott\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">According to ESPN&#8217;s Seth Walder<\/a>, it&#8217;s not a single one of those candidates. <\/p>\n<p>Taylor Moton deemed Panthers&#8217; best MVP candidate<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/01kfkrd4vjy98wtq0q99.jpg\" alt=\"Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Taylor Moton (72) during the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers\" title=\"Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Taylor Moton (72) during the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers\" width=\"3673\" height=\"2066\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6q\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Taylor Moton (72) during the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers | Kyle Terada-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6u\">The Panthers have a variety of different team MVPs. Bryce Young has an argument for offensive MVP, as does Tetairoa McMillan. On defense, it&#8217;s probably Derrick Brown, but Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson deserve a shoutout. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">Brown actually landed 96th on ESPN insider Seth Walder&#8217;s list of 100 real MVP candidates. That is probably a bit too low for Brown, who was outstanding this year. What&#8217;s perhaps more shocking is that he wasn&#8217;t the highest Panther. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">That honor goes to Taylor Moton, who ranked 77th. Walder didn&#8217;t give everyone a synopsis as to why they belong on the list at that place, but Panthers fans can surmise why Moton is on here, even if it&#8217;s a surprise he&#8217;s their best candidate. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Moton is the picture of reliability. He locks down that right tackle position, and he routinely grades out as one of the best offensive Panthers. He&#8217;s great and doesn&#8217;t get the attention he deserves. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">However, as far as being the best Panthers player goes, which is essentially what this list is revealing, that might be a stretch. One could argue Brown, Horn, Jackson, McMillan, and even Young were more deserving of the top spot. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">Nevertheless, Moton is awesome, and the Panthers are fortunate to have him, especially with fellow tackle Ikem Ekwonu set to miss maybe the entire 2026 season. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">One tackle spot is totally in flux, so fortunately the Panthers do have maybe their best player on the other side to at least keep half the line in good standing. <\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Enjoy more free Panthers coverage with Carolina Panthers on SI &#8211;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\/news\/carolina-panthers-linked-controversial-22-touchdown-wr-free-agency\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Panthers linked to controversial wide receiver in NFL free agency<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\/draft\/pff-mind-blowing-carolina-panthers-choice-2026-nfl-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PFF expects Panthers to make shocking choice in NFL draft<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\/news\/carolina-panthers-rookie-class-officially-ranks-among-nfl-best\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Carolina Panthers officially had second-best NFL rookie class in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/panthers\/onsi\/news\/nfl-insider-suggests-cam-newton-option-broncos-bo-nix-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NFL insider suggests Broncos add Cam Newton after Bo Nix injury<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If every team got an MVP candidate, who would be up for the Carolina Panthers? One could make&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,7,6,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-703836","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-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115955656470541542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703836","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=703836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}