‘4 Downs’ with Rich: the Carolina Panthers’ Biggest Questions Heading into the ‘26 NFL Season

The Carolina Panthers went in the Four Downs barrel, and Rich came out of it more optimistic than anyone outside the Carolinas is likely to be.

First down is the defense, because Dan Morgan attacked it. Jaelan Phillips and Devin Lloyd both arrived in free agency, one up front and one on the back end, with the clear intent of making the front seven better. Carolina sat right in the middle of the pack last season in points allowed and yards allowed, which is not a disaster and is not a selling point either. The target is the top ten.

"You get in the top 10 and you start scoring more points and off you go," Rich said.

Second down is the offensive line, specifically the tackles. The interior guard play is settled. The bookends are not, and Ickey Ekwonu simply cannot stay healthy. Rico Dowdle is gone. Whether Jonathan Brooks can run the football, and stay upright long enough to do it, is an open question, and Chuba Hubbard got a nice deal a couple of years ago. It all points back to the same job. Protect Bryce Young, blow open the run game and get to the second level.

If Carolina stiffens the defense and gets healthier up front, Rich said, now you have something cooking.

Third down is where he thinks people are asleep. Nobody talks about the Panthers receivers. Nobody talks about the Panthers offense, or the Panthers at all, which is what happens to a team in the middle of the NFC South.

That group deserves better. Terrace Marshall Jr. is the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year coming off a thousand-yard season, and the question is whether year two turns into 1,200 or 1,300 yards and a Pro Bowl. Jalen Coker was torching people in the back half of last season and could be the number two. Two of those, and Young suddenly has a dynamic duo instead of a depth chart.

Fourth down is the one everybody already knows. Bryce Young, year four. Is it getting late early, or is it never too late?

Rich leans toward never too late, and he made the case by rewinding. A couple of weeks into Dave Canales's first regular season as head coach, Young got benched for Andy Dalton. Canales had been hired off one year of calling plays in Tampa, handed a monster deal, and his first significant move was to sit the quarterback the franchise traded up for. The national consensus, this show included, was that Young needed to get the hell out of there.

He has come a long way from that. Carolina did not finish above .500 last season, but it won the division, and Rich's position is that division titles are the only currency that counts. What happens in your neighborhood is what matters.

The fifth-year option is picked up. A long-term deal is not being discussed publicly, which puts Young in the same holding pattern as C.J. Stroud entering year four. Rich has heard the theory that some team will eventually decide a drafted quarterback is not worth market value and start over from scratch, and he keeps telling Chris to stop waiting for it.

Rich laid out a sunny version at the end, and it is not unreasonable. Phillips and Lloyd had terrific seasons last year and now join what Carolina already had. The defense climbs. The receivers climb. Young gets protected. Brooks finally shows why they drafted him. Then the Panthers win the division again, finish above .500, and keep getting better.