Cat Scratch Reader
After years of turnover, turmoil, and inconsistency, the 2025 Carolina Panthers will likely be starting the same 11 players as they did in 2024.
If the season started today, it’s highly likely the Carolina Panthers offense would be starting the year with 11 of the same starters from their 2024 campaign.
This is an incredible feat for a team that has been engaged in meandering rebuilds for the better part of the past six years. Carolina has had three coaches in three seasons. The team has had five different Day 1 starting quarterbacks over the last six seasons.
The Panthers have repeatedly churned through players, coaches, and front office staff for the past half decade, so returning essentially the same offensive unit this year from last year is pretty remarkable.
Who are the Panthers returning?
Here’s the quick overview of the returning offensive starters from last season:
Quarterback: Bryce Young started 12 games last year and is the clear starter going in to 2025 after his solid play over the second half of the 2024 season.
Running back: Chuba Hubbard started all 15 games in which he played last year and should be starting again, though sharing carries with free agent Rico Dowdle.
Wide receivers: Adam Thielen (started all 10 games), Xavier Legette (13 starts), and Jalen Coker (four starts) made up the core of the Panthers wide receiving options as the season progressed, and each of them are back in 2025. Their familiarity with Bryce Young and the Panthers system should pay huge dividends.
Tight end: Tommy Tremble started 11 of 12 games in 2024, which was the final year of his rookie contract. He was re-signed on a two-year deal.
Offensive line: Tackles Taylor Moton and Ikem Ekwonu, plus guards Damien Hunt and Robert Hunt, started nearly every game last year. The center position was in flux after Austin Corbett was injured early and replaced by Brady Christensen, who was then replaced by Cade Mays. None of the three centers were under contract at the end of the 2024 season, but all three of them were brought back in 2025.
But was last year’s offense any good?
The main way to assess the productivity of an offense is to simply look at the number of points it scores per game.
When it comes to scoring, the Panthers 20.1 points per game last year ranked just 23rd in the league, which isn’t good. But the performance of the Panthers offense was a tale of two halves.
The Panthers spent the first half of last season starting Bryce Young, then benching him, then reinserting him back into the starting lineup. Over the team’s first eight games the team averaged just 15.5 points per game. But then Bryce Young was reinstated in Week 8, quickly found his groove, and over the last nine games the Panthers averaged a more respectable 24.1 points per game.
If Carolina’s offense maintained a 24.1 scoring average throughout the entire season, that would have been good...
