newsweek
With teams on their month-long break from mid-June to mid-July in between minicamp and training camp, weve reached the deadest point of the NFL offseason.
But fortunately for football fans, theres just three weeks left before training camp kicks off, followed by the preseason and regular season, which starts the week of Sept.
7.
Until then, weve done training camp previews and analyzed the top position battle to watch for all 32 teams.
Next up in our offseason series is looking at one rookie from every team who could win a starting job in training camp this season, and today were looking at the Carolina Panthers.
Carolinas 2026 Draft Class Monroe Freeling, OT, Round 1 Lee Hunter, DT, Round 2 Chris Brazzell II, WR, Round 4 Will Lee III, CB, Round 4 Sam Hecht, C, Round 5 Zakee Wheatley, S, Round 5 Jackson Kuwatch, LB, Round 7 The Panthers have two capable starting tackles Ikem Ekwonu and Taylor Moton the problem is neither is terribly reliable.
Ekwonu has been Carolinas starting left tackle since his rookie year in 2022.
Hes started 64 games over that span, playing 4,022 offensive snaps, but hes allowed 29 sacks, 150 pressures, and 100 hurries, according to Pro Football Focus.
Moton has been the Panthers starting right tackle since 2018, and his results have been much better.
Hes allowed more than three sacks just once, and hes allowed more than 29 pressures just once as well.
Freeling is still a little green.
He played just 1,368 offensive snaps over three seasons at Georgia, but he surrendered only five sacks.
Standing at 6-foot-7 and 315 pounds, Freeling is a mauler.
Hes big, strong, intimidating, and not easy to move off the line of scrimmage.
With as much as the Panthers have invested in quarterback Bryce Young, they need to do their best to protect him and that just may be replacing Ekwonu with Freeling.