Before the draft, Dan Morgan said something that didn’t line up with what everyone thought the Carolina Panthers were going to do. The general manager said that he felt good about the tight end room.
That was hard to believe at the time. The Panthers hadn’t had a 500-receiving-yard tight end since Greg Olsen in 2019. Mock drafts kept sending Oregon’s Kenyon Sadiq to Carolina. Georgia’s Oscar Delp was mentioned as a fallback. The connection felt obvious.
Then the draft happened.
No fewer than 22 tight ends were selected. The Panthers took none of them. And suddenly Morgan’s comment sounded like a plan.Â
Carolina Panthers are placing their faith in Ja'Tavion Sanders to finally come through
A plan that places a massive amount of trust in Ja'Tavion Sanders. If Carolina had even mild doubts about the future of the position, they had ample opportunity to address it. This was a deep tight end class. They passed anyway.
That tells you the Panthers don’t see tight end the way outsiders do. They view the spot as underdeveloped. And the player they believe can unlock it is Sanders.
Morgan said before the draft: “We have guys in our tight end room that we feel are good players… Whether it’s opportunity or whether guys are still developing, I think we have the pieces in that room to be able to do that.”
Late in the 2025 season, when Sanders broke his fibula on the first play against the Seattle Seahawks, head coach Dave Canales talked about what the offense lost.
“We’re going to miss him a lot because he’s been so versatile, a guy that we can really count on.”
In 2025, the Panthers used 13 personnel (three tight ends) on 7.8 percent of snaps, sixth highest in the NFL. Tight ends accounted for 21% of the team’s receiving yards. Nearly half of their catches went for first downs.
This is a team that believes the position is central to how they want to function, especially for Bryce Young. Tommy Tremble is reliable, but he’s also entering the final year of his contract and has never proven to be a consistent receiving threat. Sanders is 23, entering Year 3, and fits the “new age” mold the Panthers keep describing: big, versatile, capable in the run game and as a receiver.
Morgan recently said Sanders has resumed running and cutting and could be ready for OTAs. By training camp, he should be full go.
The Panthers didn’t ignore the tight end position. They put all their eggs in Sanders’ basket.
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