{"id":943950,"date":"2026-07-12T23:48:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943950\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T23:48:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T23:48:38","slug":"panthers-star-earns-honorable-mention-in-espn-rankings-after-disappointing-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943950\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers star earns honorable mention in ESPN rankings after disappointing 2025 season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-ylk=\"elm:icon;slk:USA TODAY;\" href=\"https:\/\/uw-media.usatoday.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img alt=\"USA TODAY\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"174\" height=\"40\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"pr-2.5 max-w-[150px] max-h-[40px] min-[601px]:max-w-[115px]\" style=\"color:transparent;max-width:auto;max-height:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/os\/creatr-uploaded-images\/2021-07\/506fdd20-ee43-11eb-8f33-8a4102cf7edb.jpeg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tim Weaver, Panthers Wire<\/p>\n<p>Sun, July 12, 2026 at 10:20 PM UTC<img alt=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"976\" height=\"651\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_usatoday_us_articles_590\/7f911d65ede44cbc80138668aec7eff2.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Panthers star earns honorable mention in ESPN rankings after disappointing 2025 season<\/p>\n<p>So far, the tenure of <a data-ylk=\"slk:Carolina Panthers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/carolina-panthers\/364\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Carolina Panthers<\/a> general manager Dan Morgan has been a smashing success. There have been some mistakes, but Morgan has far more hits than misses so far\u2014including the first two big moves that he made after taking over the front office.<\/p>\n<p>Those would be the massive contracts he handed out in free agency to left guard Damien Lewis (four years, $53 million) and right guard Robert Hunt (five years, $100 million) in 2024. Together, they have solidified the interior of a unit that is the strongest on the roster right now.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Hunt only appeared in two games last season due to a pectoral injury, he&#8217;s still impressed enough since joining Carolina to earn an honorable mention in <a data-ylk=\"slk:ESPN&#039;s top-10 interior lineman rankings;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/49285849\/ranking-nfl-top-10-guards-centers-interior-offensive-linemen-2026-execs-coaches-scouts\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">ESPN&#8217;s top-10 interior lineman rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Senior NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler\u2014who polled league executives and coaches for the list\u2014included the following quote on Hunt from an NFC scout:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s not in the elite group, but as a run-game mauler, there aren&#8217;t many better. He just wasn&#8217;t healthy last year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hunt didn&#8217;t play enough snaps in 2025 to qualify, but the blurb checks out. In 2024, Hunt earned a 57.5 grade in <a data-ylk=\"slk:pass blocking from Pro Football Focus;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/nfl\/players\/robert-hunt\/46139#gradesWidget\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">pass blocking from Pro Football Focus<\/a> to go with a much stronger 72.0 in run blocking. He&#8217;d earn his first Pro Bowl nod that year.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, Hunt is clearly established as one of the game&#8217;s best guards\u2014and with another high-quality season, Lewis should be joining him in that conversation soon.<\/p>\n<p>Follow <a data-ylk=\"slk:@ThePanthersWire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ThePanthersWire\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">@ThePanthersWire<\/a> on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: <a data-ylk=\"slk:Panthers G Robert Hunt earns honorable mention in ESPN OL rankings;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" href=\"https:\/\/pantherswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/panthers\/2026\/07\/12\/panthers-robert-hunt-honorable-mention-espn-rankings\/90893170007\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Panthers G Robert Hunt earns honorable mention in ESPN OL rankings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Weaver, Panthers Wire Sun, July 12, 2026 at 10:20 PM UTC Panthers star earns honorable mention in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,27169,3839,7,6,236,410,3454],"class_list":["post-943950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-damien-lewis","tag-dan-morgan","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-pro-football-focus","tag-robert-hunt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116909684134792921","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943950","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=943950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}