Pro Football Rumors
The Panthers placed stalwart right tackle Taylor Moton on the non-football injury list earlier this week. Moton, who is undergoing treatment for a blood clot in his lung, is likely to miss at least some portion of the regular season. As expected, rookie Monroe Freeling will have first dibs on right tackle while Moton is out, Joseph Person of The Athletic relays.
“I know what Monroe’s made of,” said general manager Dan Morgan said of the first-round pick (via Person). “He’s a competitor. He’s super smart. He’s gonna go out there, he’s gonna attack this thing. We have full confidence in him.”
The 31-year-old Moton is among the game’s most battle-tested right tackles, having started in 127 of 128 games since his second season in 2018. Freeling, on the other hand, only started for a year and a half at Georgia. Most of his work with the Bulldogs came at left tackle, though he did take 257 snaps on the right side during his three college seasons.
Although he doesn’t have a wealth of experience, the 21-year-old South Carolina native soared up draft boards after showing off rare athleticism at the Combine in February. Freeling’s unofficial Relative Athletic Score checked in at 9.99 out of 10.00, second-highest out of 1,512 tackles since 1987 (via RAS.football). The Panthers, who reportedly entered the draft in tackle-or-bust mode, took Freeling 19th overall.
Carolina has known about Moton’s health issues since June, but Freeling was in line to compete with Rasheed Walker for the left tackle spot before then. The job should now be wide-open for Walker, whom the Panthers landed on a surprisingly low $4MM deal in March. Expectations were Walker would do far better than that in free agency after the former Packer amassed 48 starts at left tackle from 2023-25. Walker’s tepid market benefited the Panthers, who needed a capable fill-in for starter Ikem Ekwonu after he tore his patellar tendon in their wild-card round loss to the Rams in January.
The Panthers expect both Moton and Ekwonu to return in 2026, according to Person. In the meantime, though, they appear to have their fallback plans in place at both tackle positions.
Elsewhere on offense, Morgan said he is not planning to add a quarterback to replace the recently retired Will Grier, per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. The club is content with Kenny Pickett and Haynes King behind starter Bryce Young.
The Panthers’ defense suffered a significant loss when outside linebacker Nic Scourton tore his ACL on Thursday. With Scourton already done for the year, Morgan will continue monitoring the edge defender market, reports Person, who adds the GM is not in a hurry to sign anyone. Joey Bosa, Von Miller, Leonard Floyd, Kyle Van Noy, and ex-Panthers Jadeveon Clowney and Haason Reddick are among the established veterans still available in free agency. Four teams are reportedly pursuing Clowney, but it is unclear if Carolina is one of them.
