A year ago, the Carolina Panthers couldn’t stop anybody on the ground, giving up a league-worst 179.8 rushing yards per game. Now they've allowed just 50 total over their last two contests, morphing from the league’s softest run defense into one of its stingiest almost overnight.
Yet while the front seven is clogging rushing lanes, it’s doing almost nothing to disrupt quarterbacks. Through six games, the Panthers have just five sacks, three of which came against the Dolphins.
It’s not that Carolina doesn’t have pieces up front.
Carolina Panthers need to trade for an edge rusher before the 2025 deadline
General manager Dan Morgan made defensive trench play his offseason priority, bringing in veterans Bobby Brown III and Tershawn Wharton. They also drafted Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen to add youth and edge depth.
The plan worked, sort of.
Derrick Brown has been a wrecking ball. He’s anchoring one of the NFL’s top 10 run defenses, freeing linebackers like Trevin Wallace and Christian Rozeboom to swarm downhill.
“They’re shutting down the run,” cornerback Jaycee Horn said proudly after Carolina's win over the Dallas Cowboys. “Teams are having to work to beat us.”
That quote tells the story. The Panthers have become one of the league’s hardest teams to run against. The big problem is that opponents don’t have to run. Dak Prescott threw 34 passes, not because Dallas needed to air it out, but because there was no reason not to. Carolina generated seven total pressures and zero sacks.
Tua Tagovailoa had a similar afternoon the week before. In both games, Ejiro Evero’s defense allowed a combined six total touchdown passes without recording a single interception.
That’s not sustainable for a team trying to climb back to relevance. Evero’s scheme is built to prevent big plays and funnel runs inside, and it’s working pretty well. But the pass rush doesn’t exactly strike fear into opponents.
Scourton and Umanmielen are developing, not disrupting. Patrick Jones II is now out for the season with a back injury that required surgery. While Wharton and Robinson have flashed power up front, neither is built to win in key passing situations.
That’s why, as Kevin Patra from Around the NFL noted, Carolina’s most significant need heading toward the trade deadline is obvious. They need edge help.
“The Panthers need help affecting the quarterback,” Patra wrote. “Adding a playmaker on the outside would immensely help a secondary that’s been picked on the past couple weeks.”
He’s not wrong. A defense this sound deserves a closer. Brown can collapse the pocket, but he can’t finish every play. The corners can hold up only so long without pressure. It’s the missing piece between a defense that bends and one that breaks opponents.
Dan Morgan knows this. He’s addressed nearly everything else: the run defense, the offensive line, and even the wide receiver depth. But if this Panthers team wants to stay relevant into November, it needs a closer on defense.