CHARLOTTE — The Panthers built a personality, and a significant chunk of the roster.

Now, they have questions in front of them heading into the offseason.

Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu left Saturday's wild card loss to the Rams after eight plays, with what head coach Dave Canales called a "significant" right knee injury. He was replaced by veteran backup Yosh Nijman.

"We'll give you, more of an update," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. "They've got to do all the MRIs and all that stuff, but I think it's a significant injury, and something that we're going to have to go into the offseason with."

The Panthers had picked up Ekwonu's fifth-year option in the spring, so the 2026 season is the last one on his rookie deal.

He was smiling and joking with teammates as he left the locker room on crutches with a brace on his knee, but that belied the uncertainty ahead of him.

"It was hard, man, because Ickey was excited," guard Robert Hunt said. "Ickey was ready to play. Ickey had a lot of juice. Ickey was ready to play, man, and to lose that energy, it was kind of tough, but Yosh stepped in and did a really good job.

"I mean, I love Ickey, man. Ickey came in and joked, you know, he's just being Ickey, so, Icky's all right. Ickey's going to attack it the right way. Ickey's going to be OK, and Ickey's going to come back.

Ekwonu had missed the Dec. 21 Buccaneers game here with a knee issue, and quarterback Bryce Young said that Ekwonu has been battling throughout the year to stay on the field for the 15 games he played (he missed the opener while recovering from a preseason appendectomy.

"I feel for him, so much, such a warrior," quarterback Bryce Young said. "Obviously he's played so much, and probably from the outside looking in you'd think he's just been in perfect health, but he's been battling every week. He's been in the training room, doing all the little things.

"He's been pushing through a lot of pain, and you know he's a warrior. He's a huge part of, of us as a team. I really feel for him, so, yeah, it's tough to see that."

That wasn't the only injury, as Hunt left the game in the first half, but returned in the second after what was announced as a pectoral injury.

"Literally a couple of plays in my right pec pops," Hunt said afterward. "But I don't think it's off of the bone, so if it wasn't off the bone, I was going to play."

As alarming as that thing a football player just said was, he came back and played the second half, and that was impressive considering what he went through.

He went on injured reserve after Week 2 with a torn biceps, but was activated this week to play in a playoff setting.

"I mean, it took a lot, man, but I just attacked it every day, attacked every day," Hunt said. "I never had a question that I wasn't going to play. I mean I'm just a guy that's optimistic."

The Panthers have general reason to be optimistic.

Their core of Hunt, left guard Damien Lewis, and right tackle Taylor Moton are all under contract through 2027.

But they have five unrestricted free agents that make up the bulk of the depth they leaned on this year (Saturday was the 12th different combination of starters in 18 games this year).

Centers Cade Mays and Austin Corbett, guard Jake Curhan, Nijman (who replaced Ekwonu Saturday and started on both sides this year) and injured swing man Brady Christensen are all free agents come March.

So as much as this is their identity and personality, there are still a lot of questions heading into the offseason.