Pro Football Rumors
As a rookie general manager in 2024, the Panthers’ Dan Morgan went into his first draft without a first-round pick. He changed that when he swung a trade with the Bills to acquire No. 32 overall, the final selection of Round 1. Morgan used it on former South Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette, who has fallen well short of expectations since then. Unless Legette turns it around in 2026, he probably won’t have a long-term future with the Panthers.
Legette entered the pros with a minimal track record of college success. He played 41 games over his first four seasons with the Gamecocks and caught just 42 passes for 423 yards and five touchdowns. But Legette’s production skyrocketed in a dozen games as a fifth-year senior in 2023, when he hauled in 71 receptions for 1,255 yards and seven scores.
The 6-foot-3, 227-pound Legette followed his breakout year with a stock-boosting performance at the Combine, where he ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash and recorded a 40-inch vertical jump. Combining his tremendous 2024 output with an impressive blend of size and athleticism, Legette was widely expected to go in the first couple rounds of the draft. ESPN’s Scouts Inc. rated Legette as a the class’ 28th-best prospect, right in line with where the Panthers took him. So, in Morgan’s defense, Legette wasn’t a reach. He has, however, played like one.
Head coach Dave Canales gave Legette plenty of runway during his rookie campaign. With a 65.76% offensive snap share over 16 games, Legette was on the field more than every other wideout on the team. All of that playing time translated to modest numbers: 49 catches on 84 targets, 497 yards and four TDs. Legette registered a below-average 8.3% drop rate in the process. In fairness to Legette, he was stuck with awful quarterback play. Bryce Young and Andy Dalton led a toothless passing game that finished 30th in yards, 28th in QB rating and 27th in completion percentage.
Young showed improvement and kept Dalton on the bench last season, helping the Panthers win the NFC South despite an 8-9 record. But Legette had little to do with Young’s step forward or the team’s.
While he played over 60% of offensive snaps in 15 games, Legette managed only 35 catches on 64 targets, 363 yards and three TDs. His drop rate fell to 3.1%, but Panthers QBs mustered an awful 67.4 passer rating when they threw Legette’s way. That was the 11th-lowest figure in the league among 197 qualified pass catchers, per Pro Football Reference. In terms of overall performance, Pro Football Focus ranked Legette as the game’s fifth-worst receiver out of 128 qualifiers. Only a couple of back-of-roster types (Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine) and a pair of struggling fourth-round rookies (the Raiders’ Dont’e Thornton and the Jets’ Arian Smith) earned shoddier marks.
Fortunately for the Panthers, the emergence of two other young receivers has helped offset Legette’s lack of progress. Morgan took a first-round receiver for the second...
