Pro Football Rumors
Last year, it really started to look like the Panthers had secured the bookends of their offensive line with Ikem Ekwonu finding his form opposite veteran Taylor Moton. After Ekwonu’s postseason patellar tendon tear, the Panthers had to audible this offseason and added two potential starting tackles to the depth chart.
Moton has missed out on five starts over the past two years but has been playing some of the best football of his career. Carolina gave him a two-year extension just before the season last year, and Moton made it clear he doesn’t have retirement on the brain, but the team may see first-round offensive tackle Monroe Freeling as Moton’s eventual successor, either post-retirement or post-extension. Ekwonu’s injury, though, has enlisted Freeling in a starting competition with veteran free agent addition Rasheed Walker.
Freeling does have experience on both sides of the offensive line from his time in Athens, but in his limited experience (18 starts in 37 games over three seasons), all of his starts came at left tackle. While Freeling did play well in his lone season as a full-time starter at Georgia, his lack of extensive experience made him one of the best projects in the 2026 NFL Draft. Carolina felt comfortable drafting Monroe as they find themselves in a position where they don’t need him to be a Day 1 starter.
If he was going to start early, it would likely need to be at the only position in which he has any starting experience, so it makes sense that the Panthers have given him an opportunity to surprise and potentially beat out Walker, but it’s not a surprise that Walker is currently leading the starting competition. In fact, it’s probably for the best, as this will allow Freeling to continue working on both ends of the line, per the Panthers’ website.
If this trend continues, with Walker earning the starting left tackle job across from Moton until Ekwonu is healthy enough to take his starting job back, it will setting Freeling and the Panthers up for a multitude of potential futures. In the immediate future, Freeling will get valuable rookie experience as a swing tackle, learning as much as he can on both sides of the ball in case of injury and providing him with some much-needed versatility and experience.
For the long-term future, Moton isn’t the only player with a potential exit ramp in the near future; Ekwonu is set to play the 2026 season on his fifth-year option, making him a pending free agent if the Panthers can’t work out an extension before the end of the season. Moten doesn’t want to retire and the Panthers want to extend Ekwonu, but with neither issue certain at this time, futures exist in which both players could leave. Taking the time now to develop Freeling at both left and right tackle has the potential to set Carolina up with a solution to any future scenarios that sees a current starter no longer with the...
