The Panthers Won 70% of Their Close Games Last Year. They May Not Get Close Enough to Matter in 2026.

Here is the number that should be driving every conversation about this Carolina offseason: 7–3. That was the Panthers' record in one-score games in 2025, a 70% win rate that substantially outpaced the league baseline. It is the number that tells you this organization has something real at its competitive core — the kind of clutch execution that separates teams with genuine upside from teams that merely look the part. It is also the number that makes the current injury cascade so genuinely alarming, because clutch execution requires getting to clutch situations, and getting to clutch situations requires an offense that can function.

Right now, that offense is being dismantled by the training camp calendar. Taylor Moton, the starting right tackle, is out after a blood clot diagnosis in late July. Ikem Ekwonu, the left tackle, is also out. That is both starting bookends of Bryce Young's protection gone before a regular-season snap. Then on July 29, rookie wide receiver Chris Brazzell II — a third-round pick out of Tennessee, brought in specifically to address a receiver room that was already a structural problem — suffered a moderate LCL tear in a noncontact drill and will miss up to eight weeks. The day before, tight end Mitchell Evans was carted off practice with a lower-body injury. This is not a depth chart absorbing a blow. This is a depth chart absorbing blows.

The receiver situation deserves particular scrutiny because the pre-injury baseline was already indefensible. David Moore, the listed starter, is 31 years old and produced at a fraction of what a starting NFL wide receiver should last season. Behind him, there was essentially no one with meaningful playing-time credentials. Brazzell was supposed to be the answer to that succession question — a young, drafted investment in a position group that desperately needed one. Now he is gone until at least October, and the depth chart at receiver looks as thin as it did when the draft ended.

What makes this hurt more is the context of what Bryce Young built in 2025. He threw for 3,275 yards and 24 touchdowns across 17 games, and the offense leaned heavily on Tetairoa McMillan — 75 catches, 1,095 yards, 7 touchdowns — as its primary engine. McMillan has since been cleared to Active status, which is genuinely good news, and the team cannot afford to lose sight of that. But an offense that was already too dependent on a single receiver is now heading into 2026 with both starting tackles unavailable, a rookie receiver on injured reserve, and a veteran starter at wideout who produced almost nothing last season. Young's ability to extend plays and generate with his legs — 240 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns in 2025 — will matter more than ever, and that is precisely when you want him behind a functional offensive line.

My read is that the front office now faces a triage problem with a hard deadline. The Hall of Fame Game kicks off the preseason, and the regular season will arrive before several of these injuries resolve. The linebacker room lost Nic Scourton to an ACL tear on the first day of camp — confirmed as a noncontact drill injury by the NFLPA investigation that closed July 29 — and Trevis Gipson, the listed starter, was not producing at anything close to a viable level last season. The secondary has a massive drop-off from Nick Scott to anyone behind him. These were known problems entering the offseason. The injuries have simply removed the margin that might have allowed management to address them sequentially. Everything is now urgent at once, and the roster does not have the depth to absorb that kind of simultaneous pressure across multiple position groups.

The 7–3 record in close games is real. The competitive DNA is real. But that clutch capacity was built on a foundation of functional offensive line play, a dangerous primary receiver, and enough complementary pieces to keep opposing defenses honest. Strip the tackles, thin the receiver room further, and you do not just lose games — you lose the conditions under which this team has shown it can win them.