The Evolution of the Panthers OL (2023 - 2025)

[Icege]

Several Huddlers mentioned the states of other position groups in the WR evolution thread, so I figured... Why not? Let's throw something about the OL together.

Snap counts btw include ST, but JJ Jansen is not included because it would be an insult to the GOAT for him to not have his own thread (which I'm not making).

 

2023: Revolving Doors

• Projected OL: Ikem Ekwonu, Brady Christensen, Bradley Bozeman, Austin Corbett, Taylor Moton
• Week 1: Ikem Ekwonu, Brady Christensen, Bradley Bozeman, Chandler Zavala, Taylor Moton
• Week 18: Ikem Ekwonu, Gabe Jackson, Bradley Bozeman, Nash Jensen, Taylor Moton
• Snap Counts: Ikem Ekwonu (1,201), Taylor Moton (1,201), Bradley Bozeman (1,149), Calvin Throckmorton (544), Cade Mays (486), Chandler Zavala (403), Nash Jensen (334), Austin Corbett (261), Gabe Jackson (205), Justin McCray (84), Brett Toth (80, Brady Christensen (79), David Sharpe (24), Ricky Lee (24), J.D. DiRenzo (14)
• What Happened?: OL Hell. Corbett was out most of the season and then was reinjured shortly after returning. BC only got to play week one (finishing the game with a torn biceps). The interior became a weekly shuffling of overwhelmed rookies, emergency vets, and waiver claims to try and survive the season. BY9 ended up being the second most sacked rookie QB of all time (now third after Caleb Williams' rookie campaign). The team ended up starting 6 LGs and 7 RGs (in total, they played 8 different LGs and 9 different RGs). There was constant interior pressure, missed stunts, and zero chemistry. This was an insane fall off when the OL looked to be a strength at the end of 2022, but there was a scheme shift from a power run game to a lot more zone.
• Verdict: Icky and TMo were the glue while Bozeman was stuck between a turnstile and a parking cone. These three did their best to be the glue, but there was only so much that could be done with the injury issues and catastrophe that would end up being the coaching staff.

2024: Changing of the Guards

• Projected OL: Ikem Ekwonu, Damien Lewis, Austin Corbett, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moton
• Week 1: Ikem Ekwonu, Damien Lewis, Austin Corbett, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moton 
• Week 18: Ikem Ekwonu , Damien Lewis, Cade Mays, Chandler Zavala, Taylor Moton
• Snap Counts: Robert Hunt (1,022), Damien Lewis (999), Ikem Ekwonu (963), Taylor Moton (899), Cade Mays (502), Brady Christensen (448), Austin Corbett (292), Chandler Zavala (259), Yosh Nijman (255), Jarrett Kingston (25), Andrew Raym (4), Brandon Walton (4)
• What Happened?: Solved the LG + RG issues by reuniting Lewis with Canales and paying the best RG in free agency (Hunt). Corbett again didn't finish the season, but Cade Mays was brought back and he filled in admirably. BC played almost every position on the OL and provided a valuable back-up + OL6. Zavala even looked better and more comfortable. Icky continued to show promising development as well, earning himself the team picking up his bonus option. The team churned the bottom of the group a bit, using special teams as a way to evaluate them.
• Verdict: The team has four of the five OL spots now occupied with true starters for the following 2 - 3 seasons. The results showed on the field as the offense became who carried the team through the season. The team was left in a position to develop depth and find a long-term solution for the center position.

2025: What 2023 Should've Been?

• Projected OL
  • LT: Ikem Ekwonu 
  • LG: Damien Lewis
  • C : Austin Corbett/Cade Mays
  • RG: Robert Hunt
  • RT: Taylor Moton
• What Might Happen?: The biggest question mark is obviously the center position and who comes away as the starter? Icky and TMo have been the only constants on this OL, but there was rumours this offseason that TMo has knee issues. Icky is going to be due a payday soon as well. BC provides a high-quality second-stringer at every position, but the team still needs to develop some young backups. Zavala and Kingston both provide depth at guard, but the team looks a little thin at tackle with Nijman and Walton being the next two up there. If the starting unit can remain healthy, especially the tackles, the team can continue to build off of the progress that they made in the second half of the 2024 - 2025 season.

 

[rayzor]

i think next year we start adding more to the OL in the draft. 

[rayzor]

good job with the write up, btw! 

[Bear Hands]

I’m gonna go out on a limb to say this bc he doesn’t get enough recognition — Hunt is the best player on our team and one of the most impactful locker room guys in the league.

I think he has been a huge reason for how things have changed. Even if the grades you find online aren’t world beating, he is proving to be worth it from what I’ve gathered and seen. And watching how different Miami looked last season without him helps see this as well.

Really hope he can lead this offense into a well tuned machine for 2025. Paving roads for Chuba, giving Bryce time to hook up with McMillan.

[frankw]

Hunt and Lewis were two big swings we hit big on. Credit where it's due. We have Icky on the left and Moton holding down the right and our interior depth is solid. Unfortunately Center looms large. If we are to rewind back to just a few years ago things were pretty damn dicey at that position. While they have improved we are basically hinging the development of the offense this season on Cade Mays because at this point it's only a matter of when not if Corbett misses some time.

Edited yesterday at 04:11 PM by frankw

[kungfoodude]

6 hours ago, frankw said:

Hunt and Lewis were two big swings we hit big on. Credit where it's due. We have Icky on the left and Moton holding down the right and our interior depth is solid. Unfortunately Center looms large. If we are to rewind back to just a few years ago things were pretty damn dicey at that position. While they have improved we are basically hinging the development of the offense this season on Cade Mays because at this point it's only a matter of when not if Corbett misses some time.

I think we will be forced to finally address it when Corbett gets injured again this season. Hate to predict that but it has been very constant.

[Waldo]

Hunt was graded by PFF as 67.7 in 2024. Panther fans have lost all perspective. Hunt only had a 72 run blocking which is supposed to be his strength and a 57.5 pass which is dog poo for what he is getting paid. That's a 10 point decrease from 2023 too.

Spending big on 2 OGs out of need was the first move. Where is the follow up moves? Moton is on a 1 year deal at 30 mil. Ickey just had his 5th year option picked up but also needs to show improvement to justify a big new LT contract. Then at center the hope is Mays will play to his better games vs his average 66.1 2024 grade. BC has done nearly nothing and is back on a 1 year deal after no one else wanted him as even that apparently. 

The oline being the team's strength currently says a lot about the state of the team.

 

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, Waldo said:

Hunt was graded by PFF as 67.7 in 2024. Panther fans have lost all perspective. Hunt only had a 72 run blocking which is supposed to be his strength and a 57.5 pass which is dog poo for what he is getting paid. That's a 10 point decrease from 2023 too.

Spending big on 2 OGs out of need was the first move. Where is the follow up moves? Moton is on a 1 year deal at 30 mil. Ickey just had his 5th year option picked up but also needs to show improvement to justify a big new LT contract. Then at center the hope is Mays will play to his better games vs his average 66.1 2024 grade. BC has done nearly nothing and is back on a 1 year deal after no one else wanted him as even that apparently. 

The oline being the team's strength currently says a lot about the state of the team.

 

Hunt is a little overrated by the fans because he is a bruiser and plays very physically like Andrew Norwell did. 

IMO, Lewis is the more consistent of the two OG's overall.

But, the addition of those two guys turned that unit around completely. That isn't debatable. Remains to be seen how that works out in the long term, given it runs counter to almost all roster building theory to have most of your OL money in the two OG's.

Edited 7 hours ago by kungfoodude

[Waldo]

25 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

Hunt is a little overrated by the fans because he is a bruiser and plays very physically like Andrew Norwell did. 

IMO, Lewis is the more consistent of the two OG's overall.

But, the addition of those two guys turned that unit around completely. That isn't debatable. Remains to be seen how that works out in the long term, given it runs counter to almost all roster building theory to have most of your OL money in the two OG's.

I agree about Lewis. He is the one to keep moving forward when that decision has to be made.

It was a short term patch by buying the most expensive OGs. My thing is that they are not building around what they spent. I just can't see that unit as a long term strength, especially when one of the high cost OGs is already showing a noticable decline.

[Khyber53]

19 hours ago, Bear Hands said:

I’m gonna go out on a limb to say this bc he doesn’t get enough recognition — Hunt is the best player on our team and one of the most impactful locker room guys in the league.

I think he has been a huge reason for how things have changed. Even if the grades you find online aren’t world beating, he is proving to be worth it from what I’ve gathered and seen. And watching how different Miami looked last season without him helps see this as well.

Really hope he can lead this offense into a well tuned machine for 2025. Paving roads for Chuba, giving Bryce time to hook up with McMillan.

If we were going to change the culture, we needed just that kind of guy. Good thing we got him. Stars are great, but cement builds empires.

 

[Icege]

There are a lot of question marks surrounding TMo right now. There were whispers leading into the draft that the team was ready to move on due to a knee issue, but they came away with no real backup plan outside of BC. Maybe the knee isn't as serious as feared… or maybe it was just front office gamesmanship, like we saw with the Jalon Walker rumors. With Icky's second contract on the horizon, the team's probably hoping Moton is open to a team-friendly extension. His consistency over the years has been incredibly underappreciated.

Hunt's grades dipped last season--particularly in pass pro, where he ranked 54th among guards with 500+ pass-blocking snaps. That's not ideal, but when you step back, it's still starting-caliber play. In the run game, he was more effective--posting the 14th-highest run-blocking grade among guards with 300+ run-blocking snaps. DLew, meanwhile, was a warrior. He played through a shoulder injury all season and still ranked 17th in pass-blocking + 10th in run-blocking under those same filters. Context matters here too... in terms of 2024 cap hits, Hunt was the 17th-highest paid guard at $6.45M while DLew was 25th at $4.9M. DLew absolutely outplayed the first year of his deal. Looking ahead, Hunt will carry the #3 highest cap hit among guards in 2025 at $21.65M, while DLew will be #10 at $14.57M. If DLew maintains that level of play and Hunt bounces back in pass pro? Oooh wee mayne.

That said, decisions are coming. DLew can be cut in 2026 for $9M in savings, or in 2027 for $13M. Hunt is more locked in: his contract opens up flexibility starting in 2027 ($14.3M savings) and jumps to $18M in 2028. And then there's the biggest unresolved piece: center. Cade Mays looked solid when called upon, and Christensen didn't look out of place either. Corbett's durability is a fair concern... he hasn't been able to stay on the field the past two years.

If Mays locks down the center job, I think the front office moves quickly to secure RT next. Once the bookends are in place, the interior OL becomes the next long-term focus. Hopefully, they're already developing some of those answers internally.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, Icege said:

There are a lot of question marks surrounding TMo right now. There were whispers leading into the draft that the team was ready to move on due to a knee issue, but they came away with no real backup plan outside of BC. Maybe the knee isn't as serious as feared… or maybe it was just front office gamesmanship, like we saw with the Jalon Walker rumors. With Icky's second contract on the horizon, the team's probably hoping Moton is open to a team-friendly extension. His consistency over the years has been incredibly underappreciated.

Hunt's grades dipped last season--particularly in pass pro, where he ranked 54th among guards with 500+ pass-blocking snaps. That's not ideal, but when you step back, it's still starting-caliber play. In the run game, he was more effective--posting the 14th-highest run-blocking grade among guards with 300+ run-blocking snaps. DLew, meanwhile, was a warrior. He played through a shoulder injury all season and still ranked 17th in pass-blocking + 10th in run-blocking under those same filters. Context matters here too... in terms of 2024 cap hits, Hunt was the 17th-highest paid guard at $6.45M while DLew was 25th at $4.9M. DLew absolutely outplayed the first year of his deal. Looking ahead, Hunt will carry the #3 highest cap hit among guards in 2025 at $21.65M, while DLew will be #10 at $14.57M. If DLew maintains that level of play and Hunt bounces back in pass pro? Oooh wee mayne.

That said, decisions are coming. DLew can be cut in 2026 for $9M in savings, or in 2027 for $13M. Hunt is more locked in: his contract opens up flexibility starting in 2027 ($14.3M savings) and jumps to $18M in 2028. And then there's the biggest unresolved piece: center. Cade Mays looked solid when called upon, and Christensen didn't look out of place either. Corbett's durability is a fair concern... he hasn't been able to stay on the field the past two years.

If Mays locks down the center job, I think the front office moves quickly to secure RT next. Once the bookends are in place, the interior OL becomes the next long-term focus. Hopefully, they're already developing some of those answers internally.

I think we have to eventually get serious about getting a real center. None of those guys mentioned are legit top 15-20 NFL centers. Mays is a BC-esque backup, where is value is maximum. Corbett is really an OG playing out of position and we know BC is a utility depth piece. We have a ton of roster needs over the next 2-3 offseasons/drafts but we should finally get a Day 1-2 center drafted, IMO.

OT's are as you say, we could be set there or we could be heading towards a reset. TBD.

I just hope we don't lose our focus on keeping the trenches strong. On BOTH sides of the ball, for that matter.

I am concerned that with our constant changing of coaches and GM/FO guys that will get fuged up.

[Mistuh Jones]

23 hours ago, Bear Hands said:

I’m gonna go out on a limb to say this bc he doesn’t get enough recognition

Me too. I was SHOCKED he didn't get an offer in FA... on versatility alone

[X-Clown]

On 5/20/2025 at 12:04 PM, Bear Hands said:

I’m gonna go out on a limb to say this bc he doesn’t get enough recognition — Hunt is the best player on our team and one of the most impactful locker room guys in the league.

I think he has been a huge reason for how things have changed. Even if the grades you find online aren’t world beating, he is proving to be worth it from what I’ve gathered and seen. And watching how different Miami looked last season without him helps see this as well.

Really hope he can lead this offense into a well tuned machine for 2025. Paving roads for Chuba, giving Bryce time to hook up with McMillan.

Terron Armstead listed Robert Hunt as #1 on his list of bad ass linemen yesterday. I found it hilarious that the hosts didn’t even know what team he played for.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by X-Clown