WarPanthers89

lol discussions could be “if he shows out this year and the 5th year, we can talk about it…..if not he walks”. 

The Carolina Panthers selected Texas Tech DT Lee Hunter with the No. 49 overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft.

The phrase "country strong" comes to mind when watching Lee Hunter's tape. 

The 6'3", 320-pound nose tackle has impressive size and strength to be a run-stuffer on first and second downs. However, his lack of athleticism and an effective get-off limits his contributions as a pass-rusher.

Hunter was originally a 4-star recruit in the 2021 class, committing to Auburn out of high school and redshirting as a true freshman. He transferred to UCF the following year and became a rotational player, collecting 17 tackles, one tackle for loss and one sack.

The former Golden Knight developed into a full-time starter and enjoyed a breakout campaign as a redshirt sophomore with 69 tackles, 11 TFLs and three sacks to earn honorable mention All-Big 12 honors. He was a second-team selection in 2024 with 45 tackles, 9.5 TFLs and a sack.

Hunter accumulated 41 tackles, 10.5 TFLs and 2.5 sacks during the 2025 season, earning first-team All-American and All-Big 12 honors.

Fuuuuuuug

We can’t let the Bucs get Rodriguez 

Starting a little run on defense now. Hold strong Rodriguez! 

Good pick for the Texans 

We are going to shock the world and go center with round 2

Guess we are rolling in this thread being that the mods are slacking 

LOL people getting mad acting like he made the 53 man roster. He’s a camp arm?

Good price for him. People can’t complain much based on what we are paying him, he’s a below average starter for cheap and is fantastic depth. 

5 hours ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

This was an excellent production, well worth your time 

Excellent video! The birth of ICE Young

Article:

Bradley Chubb is available to sign with any team right now and the prospect of the Panthers pursuing him came up during General Manager Dan Morgan’s press conference at the Scouting Combine on Tuesday. 

Chubb was released by the Dolphins earlier this month, which means a team can add him to their pass rush options before free agency opens at the start of the new league year. The Panthers had 30 sacks during the 2025 season and Morgan said that he doesn’t think a team can ever have enough strong pass rushers in general before answering a question about specific interest in Chubb. 

Morgan said Chubb is “still playing at a really good level” and indicated the team is looking into the possibility of adding him to the defense.

“I don’t think anything is going to be off the table,” Morgan said, via the team’s website. “We’ll explore that, we’ll talk to his agent, but I wouldn’t say anything’s upcoming, but we’ll definitely stay on that, and we’ll see where that goes.”

Chubb missed all of 2024 with a torn ACL, but returned to record 8.5 sacks for the Dolphins last season. Derrick Brown and Nic Scourton tied for the Panthers’ lead by recording five sacks each during the 2025 campaign.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/panthers-gm-dan-morgan-well-explore-signing-bradley-chubb

12 hours ago, jfra78 said:

Pff says we should go after Leo Chenal, so thats probably what we do

 

Leo Chenal

• Best Landing Spot: Carolina Panthers
• PFF Free-Agent Ranking: 12

After playing a limited role as a situational run-stuffing and blitzing linebacker to start his career with the Chiefs, Chenal is ready to slot in full time elsewhere. He has posted a 70.0-plus PFF run-defense grade in each of his first four seasons. But it’s his improvements in coverage — headlined by a career-best 72.6 PFF grade in 2025 — that should make him an enticing option.  

The Panthers' linebacking corps failed to produce a single player with a PFF overall grade above 55.0 in 2025. Adding Chenal to headline the group as the new green-dot communicator would project well for a defense that ranked 23rd in EPA per play allowed this past season.

Sign them both!

I definitely wouldn’t overpay. He’s an okay fill in, in my opinion he looked better at RT when filling in than LT but if he is willing to come back at a fair deal you absolutely have to. I wouldn’t count on him anything other than depth, he has proven throughout his career he can’t be depended on to be a full time starter. The plus is that he already knows our system. 

2 hours ago, TheBigKat said:

Watching Luke go into the HOF despite a short playing career is a testament to how damn good he was when on the field!

 

how this team didn’t win a SB or even post back to back winning seasons despite having an MVP on offense and a MVP on defense will forever be a pain for me

It’s a pain that will never go away 

He got benched for THE……P.J. Walker 

I would like to have him back (he was solid) but by no means should we consider paying him larger money. We have too much tied up in the line already and need to draft someone 

36 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Trading him was honestly the right move. We needed draft assets to build around at that point much more than we needed a huge money RB that had missed a bunch of games the previous two seasons. That we did a ton of terrible drafting for years on end is totally different conversation.

I respectfully disagree. Pro bowl player, A+ leader and locker room presence who sets the tone for the entire team, 1k rusher, 1k receiver, would be the perfect weapon for Bryce, we later spent a second round pick on a RB, and have spent big money on Chubba who was benched at one point this season, and none of the resources used still don’t come close to matching the production we got from CMC when he was with us. Sure he got injured (although some missed games were the coaching staff protecting him at the end of the season) but he was still young and you cannot replace a guy like him. This team would be a hell of a lot better with him, DJ and even Burns still on the team (we would kill for a double digit sack guy much less 16.5 and he’s #10 highest paid at his position currently 

The Raiders have completed a second interview with Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.

The team has complied with the Rooney Rule after interviewing Evero and former Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, who appears headed to the Chargers as offensive coordinator. That allows the Raiders to hire a new coach at any time.

Evero has served as the Panthers’ defensive coordinator since 2023, first taking the job under former head coach Frank Reich. While Carolina finished at the bottom of the league defensively in 2024, Evero helped turn the unit around to finish No. 16 in yards and No. 15 in points allowed in 2025.

Evero has coordinated two top-10 defenses — first with what the Broncos in 2022 (No. 7 in yards allowed) and then with the Panthers in 2023 (No. 4 in yards allowed).

He has also worked for the 49ers, Packers and Rams.

The Raiders also have Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur, Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, Rams passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase, Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula and Broncos quarterbacks coach Davis Webb among their candidates.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/raiders-complete-second-interview-with-panthers-dc-ejiro-evero

22 minutes ago, strato said:

We have more important holes to fill than to be dropping pick 19 on a TE, I would be upset. 

If he's a game changer like Greg Olsen was for us it’s, a great idea. I'm with you though, I think the odds are much higher that we can get an impact LT, LB, or D-Line player that would fill a much larger hole than the three man rotation we have now in the TE room. 

36 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

He doesn't. He is also one of the extremely few effective pass rushers.

He’s okay….but that’s still a pretty high cap number. He only had 2.5 sacks, and  was 35th in hurries. He’s good at batted passes at 3 which is 13th best but all his stats were basically down year over year. He’s still good at run defense, and I honestly think he’s a good locker room presence, and would be happy with a 1 year extension at a lower salary to level it out. I also would not be surprised if they decide they could use that 9.5 million to upgrade another position group, or use that money to help get a higher profile FA like a top tier LB, OLB, DE, or speed WR

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

He also left for an offensive HC and won there. Not sure if you have paid attention but he didn't exactly have the best Bill Belichick relationship on the way out. Also, this.....

 

Belichick & Brady together: 219-64(0.774)

Belichick without Brady: 83-101(0.451)

Brady without Belichick: 32-18(0.640)

 

Seeing a bit of a pattern?

Yes…..that they had the best results together. Also Brady went to Tampa due to the makeup of the team, not because he wanted an offensive head coach. Hell he basically was the coordinator in Tampa. 

1 minute ago, strato said:

It makes better sense to go offense with a new QB. To me. 
But I wouldn’t mind the distraction of a DC search for some entertainment. 

I agree but if you get a proven coordinator like Brian Daboll (or someone similar as an example) to pair with the #1 pick, suddenly it does not look so bad, especially if they see Evero as someone young who they will be patient with to be the long term guy who builds a program. 

Everyone saying Tom wouldn’t pick a defensive head coach but he played for one and won many super bowls with that formula 

3 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

After the Rams offer was published, we were screwed permanently. It was either pay him an exorbitant price or trade him for nickels. All remaining leverage was completely gone. The return on the draft picks is a larger issue with completely incompetent front office personnel. What can you say that hasn't already been said on that front? It just is what it is.

I will again state he would likely have been very, very underperforming here. This should be obvious when you look at his pressures and sacks which were at career lows for seasons which he started more than 4 games. He isn't the only pass rusher that can immediately show dips in pass rush production when they are playing in Evero's scheme. Clowney, Wonnum, etc.

I gotta be honest, it's going to be hard to find a double digit sack guy in an Evero defense. In his 4 years in the NFL he has only ever had one player break 6.5 sacks for a season and it was Burns at 8.0. 

 

I agree we were screwed when we didn’t take the trade but at that point we should have kept him and signed him to a long term deal. We can only pray to have someone with the production he has this past season and he’s only 27. If he played well after that, we could have traded him later if we really wanted to for more picks rather than nickels. I know the money at the time seemed like allot but he’s only #10 highest paid right now and we have spent more than that trying to get a sliver of that production on people like DJ Wonnun, Wharton, Patrick Jones etc. and are still searching for answers. It’s similar to the CMC trade, we did nothing with the picks, and people complained about what he made, yet we paid Chubba, benched him at one point, spend a 2nd round pick on another RB, and still to this day we would kill to get his production back, much less mentioning his skills as a WR.