Now that the 2025 season is in the books and the preparations for the 2026 offseason are well underway, we're going to take a look at where the Panthers stand for the future at each position. We'll cover one position group per day through the next two weeks, offering a look at where things stand in advance of free agency and the draft.

CHARLOTTE — The Panthers were intentional about creating depth on the offensive line last season.

They needed every bit of it.

Last offseason, they re-signed both centers, Austin Corbett and Cade Mays, along with do-it-all lineman Brady Christensen, who can and has played all five positions in his career. They also retained backup tackle Yosh Nijman, who has started on both sides of the line since coming here, giving them their top nine linemen in snaps played in 2024 back together.

And over the course of the year, they all got a turn, along with others.

With injuries to Robert Hunt, Corbett, and Christensen (torn Achilles in Week 8) that landed them on injured reserve, along with Chandler Zavala who went there twice, the Panthers ran through a lot of dudes.

They used 10 different combinations of starting lineups in the first 13 weeks of the season, used 11 total for the regular season, then had a 12th combination for the wild card game when Hunt came back from a torn biceps suffered in Week 2.

Damien Lewis was the only lineman to play more than 900 total snaps, and the Panthers were one of just nine teams in the league to have a single lineman play that many snaps. Of the other eight, only the Packers also made the playoffs.

They still have a mostly stable group coming back, though that plan was complicated when left tackle Ikem Ekwonu suffered a torn patellar tendon in the playoffs. They still have top-end talent in Hunt, Lewis, and Taylor Moton locked in for 2026, but there are a few more questions than they'd prefer entering the offseason.

UNDER CONTRACT FOR 2026: LT Ikem Ekwonu (2026), LG Damien Lewis (2027), RG Robert Hunt (2028), RT Taylor Moton (2027), G Chandler Zavala (2026), C Nick Samac (2026), G Saahdiq Charles (2026), G Ja'Tyre Carter (2026), G Joshua Gray (2026)

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: Austin Corbett, Yosh Nijman, Cade Mays, Brady Christensen, Jake Curhan.

WHAT WENT RIGHT IN 2025

The guys who had to step in were either known commodities or good system fits like Jake Curhan, who played with head coach Dave Canales in Seattle. Which was helpful, since he had to start a game, and played both guard positions in the Packers game.

Even with all that turnover (the projected starting five played a combined 64 snaps together), the Panthers still performed well last season.

The Panthers ranked tied for 12th in sacks allowed, while the rushing offense ranked in the top half of the league in yards before contact, with only 59 of their rushing attempts having been stuffed (runs for zero or negative yards), tied for the fifth-fewest in the league.

Having a guy like Nijman who could step in at either tackle spot is huge, since he's a proven player who handles that kind of adjustment well. Same with Mays, who started the year as a reserve but ended up starting 12 games at center. Corbett's ability to start all three interior positions, as he did during the second half of the season, was also critical to their first playoff run since 2017.

NEXT STEPS FOR 2026

Obviously, they have a need at center, since both of theirs who started last year are free agents. Nick Samac, a developmental player signed off the Ravens practice squad, could project into someone who could work his way into the rotation, but he lacks experience (only 46 special teams snaps this year, none on offense).

With Mays entering free agency younger (turning 27 on draft weekend) and largely injury free, he could find a healthy market. Corbett's versatility and leadership absolutely have value, but they also have to consider that he's 30 years old and has played 20 games over the last three seasons.

It would also be helpful to layer in some younger depth pieces to the group, particularly through the draft, since they have a number of big-ticket items at this position already. So investing one of their seven picks in some line depth makes sense.

The Ekwonu question also looms large, since it's unclear how long his recovery will take. It seems wise to assume the regular season opener as a rather optimistic goal, so having a plan in place for September (Nijman or otherwise) would be a reasonable starting point. But Nijman is a free agent, so he has a choice in this as well.

But because the anticipation is that Ekwonu returns at some point, if you drafted a tackle with an eye toward the future, you'd likely want that person to be able to play inside as well, to give yourself maximum flexibility in case things come up.

Because as we've seen, that's something they're likely to need.