CHARLOTTE — The easiest thing to do on the second day of the draft is look at the list of best availables, count down 19 spots to where the Panthers pick next at No. 51, and start there.
But the key to what the Panthers do the rest of the weekend rang clear while head coach Dave Canales was talking about the selection of tackle Monroe Freeling, whose spot on the depth chart isn't LT or RT but TBD.
"Our philosophy is always, let's challenge our roster," Canales said. "Let's challenge every room with great players."
And that's the target for Day 2 and Day 3 of the draft, rather than specific positions.
As the Panthers have improved as a team, the roster is getting harder to make.
So not everyone who will be chosen this week is guaranteed a spot on the 53, much less all of last year's picks or all the holdovers from a team that won the NFC South title.
That's by design, as they've built this roster deliberately and steadily.
General manager Dan Morgan inherited an offensive line that allowed 65 sacks in 2023 after playing seven different left guards and eight different right guards. So he spent money on guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis to stabilize it. This year, both of his left tackles are on one-year deals, and one of them is coming off a major injury, and his right tackle is turning 32 during camp, so drafting Freeling 19th overall is with an eye to the future.
It's the same way he bolstered the defensive line a year ago after they set all the wrong kind of records in 2024, surrounding the returning Derrick Brown with free agents Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown and drafting Cam Jackson.
Morgan has a type, you might say, and he admitted Thursday night he's not finished looking for linemen.
"I think we feel really good about it; we might not be done there," he said of the offensive side in particular. "Again, we want to make both the offensive line and the defensive line as strong as possible.
"So, we feel good about it right now, but we'll continue to add if we see guys we like the rest of the draft."
| Rank, pos, player | Rank, pos, player | Rank, pos, player |
|---|---|---|
| 15. S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren | 41. DT Lee Hunter | 53. CB Keionte Scott |
| 19. CB Jermod McCoy | 42. LB Jacob Rodriguez | 54. LB Jake Golday |
| 21. CB Colton Hood | 43. CB Brandon Cisse | 55. LB Kyle Louis |
| 23. WR Denzel Boston | 44. OLB R Mason Thomas | 56. G Emmanuel Pregnon |
| 27. OLB TJ Parker | 45. OLB Zion Young | 57. WR Antonio Williams |
| 28. OLB Cashius Howell | 46. DT Christen Miller | 58. S Bud Clark |
| 32. LB CJ Allen | 48. S Treydan Stukes | 59. OT Caleb Tiernan |
| 33. DT Kayden McDonald | 49. WR Germie Bernard | 60. WR Malachi Fields |
| 37. LB Anthony Hill Jr. | 50. CB D'Angelo Ponds | 61. OLB Gabe Jacas |
| 38. CB Avieon Terrell | 52. G Chase Bisontis | 62. WR De'Zhaun Stribling |
That's not to say the Panthers don't have specific needs the rest of the weekend to address with a dwindling number of spots. (They have 76 accounted for on the roster at the moment, including the unsigned Freeling, though they will get a roster exemption for international linebacker Mapalo Mwansa.)
And looking at the roster, some of the needs for depth are apparent. They only have six defensive linemen on the roster at the moment, three or four short of what they want to take to training camp. They could use depth at linebacker, at safety, another center, perhaps some more competition at wide receiver and tight end.
But mostly, what they want to do is find guys over the rest of the weekend to push the ones they already have, and make the roster as a whole better.
Get an exclusive look at the Panthers Draft Room as they made their first-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
