Cat Scratch Reader
The good people at Pro Football Focus spend enormous amounts of time breaking down every player’s performance on every individual play throughout the season. In the end, players can then be given a final rating somewhere between zero (poor) and 100 (elite).
If you want to learn more about PFF’s methodology, you can read their Player Grade overview.
Most of us as fans view PFF ratings this way: “If the grade fits my opinion of a player then it’s credible, but if the grade conflicts with my conclusions then PFF is stupid garbage and should never be trusted.” I’m not advocating for PFF, rather I’m just providing one set of data that’s at least interesting.
Here’s how PFF graded and ranked the Panthers primary offensive players who played at least 300 snaps in 2025.
When looking only at PFF grades, it’s pretty apparent why the Panthers were a perfectly average team this season, going 8-9 in the regular season and backing in to the playoffs by virtue of being members of the lowly NFC South. Most of Carolina’s key offensive performers have PFF grades that fall somewhere between “decent” and “good”, with a few outliers on each end of the spectrum. Here are the key takeaways:
Quarterback
It feels like PFF nailed their assessment of Bryce Young. As Panthers fans we continue holding out hope that he’ll “make the leap” at some point, but the third-year quarterback had another below average season in 2025. He’s not a bad quarterback, per se, as the 23rd-ranked signal caller in the league by PFF, but there’s little confidence he will develop into they type of quarterback that can lead Panthers to the promised land one day.
As evaluated by PFF, Young’s grade of 71.0 this year slightly declined from last year’s 74.4.
Running backs
While Rico Dowdle went nuts in Weeks 5-6, memorably rushing for 389 yards in those two glorious weeks, PFF liked Chuba Hubbard’s season best among Carolina’s two running backs. But even then, Chuba graded out as just the 37th best running back in the league
I take umbrage of PFF ranking Rico Dowdle as the 54th of 59 running backs in the league. That’s hogwash. The guy rushed for 0ver 1,000 yards while averaging 4.6 yards per carry, hauled in nearly 300 receiving yards, and scored seven touchdowns. But, sure, he was one of the worst running backs in the league.
Whatevs, PFF.
Wide receiver/Tight end
The Panthers have two outstanding young receivers in rookie Tetairoa McMillan and second-year stud Jalen Coker. PFF ranked Tet among the Top 20 in the league at his position, and Coker came in at 32. Sounds about right.
Xavier Legette, on the other hand, was graded as one of the worst wide receivers in the league, coming in at No. 123 of 127. The 2024 first round pick has had a slow start to his career and if anything took a step back in 2025 with just 35 receptions for 363 yards in...
