{"id":882161,"date":"2026-05-04T11:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/882161\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T11:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:30:23","slug":"panthers-named-offseason-champions-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/882161\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers named offseason champions for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> are still a ways away from capturing the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. But their work over the past few months, which has earned them a small (and unofficial) “accolade,” may help them finally get there.<\/p>\n

Pro Football Focus, in a recent Twitter\/X post<\/a>, has tabbed the Panthers as the offseason champions for 2026. The site holds their offseason activity in high regard, giving them an ‘A-‘ grade for free agency and an ‘A+’ for the NFL draft.<\/p>\n

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General manager Dan Morgan and his front office began the legwork behind their NFC South title defense by reeling in<\/a> two of the league’s very top free agents\u2014pass rusher Jaelan Phillips<\/a> and Pro Bowl linebacker Devin<\/a> Lloyd. Carolina would later add<\/a> the top left tackle of the open market, Rasheed Walker<\/a>, on a stunningly team-friendly one-year, $4 million pact.<\/p>\n

Their focus on the blindside continued into the draft, where they grabbed Georgia’s Monroe Freeling\u2014the top true left tackle prospect\u2014with this year’s 19th overall selection<\/a>. Here’s what PFF had to say<\/a> about their first-round choice:<\/p>\n

Freeling is still a young tackle prospect with untapped potential, but he showed clear signs of improvement as a pass protector from 2024 (65.3 PFF grade) to 2025 (86.1). This provides Carolina with another starting option at left tackle, with Ikem Ekwonu<\/a> coming off a major late-season injury.<\/p>\n

Carolina then scooped up<\/a> Texas Tech defensive lineman Lee Hunter in the second round, Tennessee<\/a> wide receiver Chris Brazzell II in the third, Texas A&M cornerback Will Lee III<\/a> in the fourth, Kansas State center Sam Hecht and Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley in the fifth and Miami of Ohio linebacker Jackson Kuwatch in the seventh.<\/p>\n

PFF, with the exception of Kuwatch, marked every Panthers pick as a “steal” based off their big board.<\/p>\n

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

This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers named offseason champions by PFF<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Panthers are still a ways away from capturing the first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,3839,2605,7,19676,7783,16251,10981,6,236,410,3993,526,7485],"class_list":["post-882161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-dan-morgan","tag-devin","tag-football","tag-franchise-history","tag-ikem-ekwonu","tag-jaelan-phillips","tag-lombardi-trophy","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-pro-football-focus","tag-rasheed-walker","tag-tennessee","tag-will-lee-iii"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116516082389083786","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882161","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=882161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}