{"id":774161,"date":"2026-02-24T22:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/774161\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T22:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T22:05:20","slug":"1-free-agent-who-would-fix-panthers-biggest-flaw-heading-into-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/774161\/","title":{"rendered":"1 free agent who would fix Panthers’ biggest flaw heading into 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the Carolina Panthers are going to take the next step, Bryce Young needs<\/a> to join in rhythm. But the team has other glaring needs, and losing its own free agents won\u2019t help<\/a>. However, here is one free agent the Panthers could sign who would fix their biggest flaw heading into the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The point of trouble for the Panthers, like other NFL teams, was the inability to affect the opposing team\u2019s quarterback. Head coach Dave Canales<\/a>\u2019 Panthers must find a way to get quick pressure and give the secondary a fighting chance.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s the area the team should target. And the answer isn\u2019t<\/a> the No. 1 overall free agent, edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, according to Pro Football Focus. It\u2019s a different pass rusher.<\/p>\n

Panthers should sign edge rusher Jaelan Phillips<\/p>\n

It depends on who you trust in the free-agent rankings. Pro Football Focus lists Phillips as No. 14 overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cInjuries have plagued Phillips\u2018 career, but he looked closer to his best after arriving in Philadelphia ahead of the trade deadline,\u201d PFF wrote. \u201cFrom Week 10 on, he earned a 70.2 PFF pass-rush grade and generated 44 total pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of production the Panthers would be looking to acquire. It\u2019s also how NFL.com sees Phillips, ranking him at No. 3 overall. The strong finish made a huge wallet difference for Phillips.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo NFL player made himself more money in 2025,\u201d Rosenthal wrote. \u201cAfter dealing with devastating injuries in back-to-back seasons, Phillips was excellent in Miami, then helped transform the Eagles’ defense with his complete arsenal. His best should still be ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, the Eagles would like to keep Phillips. They basically will have traded a third-round pick for a rental player if they don\u2019t get him back. But Eagles GM Howie Roseman said he understood the risk<\/a>, according to Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understood also here’s a worst-case situation, which is he’s going to be a free agent,\u201d said the GM. \u201cIf he leaves as a free agent, you would have to not sign somebody to get the comp pick for next year. Understanding that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also, the hardest part about free agency is understanding who the player is because you don’t live with that person, and getting the chance to be with him. And see who he was, obviously, to us is even more addictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers struggled with pass rush last season<\/p>\n

With just 30 sacks last season, the Panthers ranked No. 29 in the NFL. That\u2019s a big reason they allowed a 66.3 completion percentage.<\/p>\n

Rookie Nic Scourton led the Panthers with just five sacks. Derrick Brown also had five. The team simply didn\u2019t have a dominant pass rusher.<\/p>\n

Now, Phillips isn\u2019t a dominant pass rusher in terms of sacks. In his five seasons, Phillips has only 28 total. He had five last year between the Dolphins and Eagles.<\/p>\n

However, he had a good pass-rush grade from PFF. His number of 77.1 ranked No. 20 among 155 edge rushers. Also, Phillips totaled 57 quarterback hurries, ranking No. 5 in the NFL. Furthermore, he racked up<\/a> 73 total pressures for a ranking of No. 9.<\/p>\n

All of those numbers would be music to the ears of Panthers\u2019 fans. Scourton had only 34 pressures last season. Brown totaled 35. So Phillips had twice as many pressures as the Panthers\u2019 top two sack leaders.<\/p>\n

Why should the Panthers pursue Jaelan Phillips?<\/p>\n

One reason is salary. If the Panthers went hard and heavy after Hendrickson, they would likely spend a huge percentage of their cap money.<\/p>\n

Phillips has a market value<\/a> of $17.3 million, according to Spotrac. He would be looking for a three-year $52 million deal. That\u2019s notably less expensive than Hendrickson.<\/p>\n

Plus, Phillips will be 27 years old in May. That\u2019s notably younger than Hendrickson.<\/p>\n

Now, Hendrickson will produce more sacks than Phillips over the course of the season, considering both stay healthy. But the idea isn\u2019t \u201csacks only.\u201d It\u2019s about quarterback pressure. And that’s where things even out in Phillips\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

Hendrickson was limited to seven games in 2025. And that\u2019s why he only totaled 23 pressures and 14 hurries. Still, if you expand those numbers to a full season, you get 56 pressures and 34 hurries. Again, that makes Phillips look a whole lot better.<\/p>\n

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni knew immediately what he had in Phillips after last year\u2019s trade, according to NBC Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves football,\u201d Sirianni said. He loves working. You can just see the way he was running around at practice, his motor is constantly, constantly running, just pushing to get better. It was a really big impact that he made tonight for his first game as an Eagle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the Carolina Panthers are going to take the next step, Bryce Young needs to join in rhythm.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":774162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,3838,18731,7,6,18732,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-774161","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-editorials","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nfl-editorials","16":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116127880074694589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774161","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=774161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}