Training camp is around the corner and so is the first definitive look at the Carolina Panthers’ fortified defense.
Today’s positional series entry revolves around the defensive line. It’s a group the Panthers poured a lot of free agency and draft resources into in 2025 — one that starts with one guy but requires more than just him to be successful.
Here’s a rundown of the Panthers’ defensive line and its depth chart.
Stats don’t lie: The defense needs help
Derrick Brown saw it with his own two eyes. A’Shawn Robinson lived it. And Bobby Brown III, the splashiest defensive acquisition the Panthers made during free agency, heard about it from afar.
The Panthers defense needs help.
The stats told the story as much as anyone else could. The unit was the only one in all of the NFL to give up over 3,000 rushing yards (3,057). It also gave up the 534 points during the 2024 regular season — the most in league history.
If anything, that’s serious motivation, Bobby Brown III said.
“We got guys who want to work, and there’s no jealousy,” the 24-year-old lineman who played for the Los Angeles Rams a year ago. Bobby Brown notched 49 tackles in 2024. “So I feel like it’s going to be a really good mix, especially in the season and in camp once we get everything really rolling. This is kind of a little tease right now, but I think we’re going to be good.”
Many signs indicate that Bobby Brown’s early words might be true.
The Panthers have 10 defensive linemen on their training camp roster. That will assuredly be trimmed down to seven or eight come cut day and the establishment of their 53-man team.
And with zero doubt, it all starts with Derrick Brown. A healthy Derrick Brown, of course. The 2023 Pro Bowler missed all but one game in 2024 thanks to a torn ligament in his knee. The absence was a brutal one. The defense was rudderless after he went down, no doubt. Earlier this month, Derrick Brown told reporters that he felt good and that he’s looking forward to training camp.
“I expect to be out there in training camp — no load management,” Derrick Brown said on June 12. “Hopefully in the next few weeks, I get cleared. And at the point it’s just getting back in football shape. And being able to go out there and play with the team.”
So that’s Derrick Brown. And unlike the defensive line of yesteryear, this line runs much deeper than just him. There’s going to be a steady rotation of guys getting snaps along the line. And with a promising quartet of outside linebackers — Pat Jones II, DJ Wonnum and rookies Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen — this DL unit might just shine.
Newly acquired free agent Turk Wharton is playing in the position he was meant to — tackle — as opposed to nose guard, which is what he was playing in Kansas City, where the 6-foot-1, 280-pound monster started in 12 contests and recorded 8.5 sacks. He’d prefer to play at the 3-tech spot.
And that goes perfectly well with the boulders of humans in Bobby Brown III and Derrick Brown alongside him. A’Shawn Robinson, a veteran run-stopper who showed his pass-rushing prowess last year, is in the mix, too; he was really the only front-seven defender for the Panthers last year who played well. (A little publicized fact: According to regular-season data compiled by ESPN, during the 2024 regular season, Robinson led the league in tackles among defensive lineman with 80.)
So between the two Browns, Wharton and Robinson, the Panthers have four good defensive lineman. That’s great for a 3-4 base scheme and is even better when you consider this team dispatches a lot of nickel looks, which typically feature four-down lineman. On top of that, Tre’Von Moehrig, the Panthers’ newly acquired safety, can play all over the field. In camp he was wreaking havoc a ton near the line of scrimmage. He’ll help the run defense as well.
There are worthy critiques of this defensive line, surely. Wharton is a bit undersized for a defensive tackle, as he’s been his entire career. And yes, as well as Robinson played a year ago, asking the 30-year-old to play as many snaps as he did in 2024 would be nuts. (He played 762 snaps; that was fifth-most on the Panthers defense. A natural drop in production is coming.)
But ask anyone in last year’s locker room, and they’ll tell you that Ejiro Evero’s scheme was fine — that the team just needed “ballers” to make the scheme work. This year, we’ll see if that’s true. It starts with Derrick Brown; but that’s not where it stops.
Projecting the Panthers’ defensive line depth chart
Projected starters: Derrick Brown, Bobby Brown III, Tershawn Wharton / A’Shawn Robinson.
Projected backups: Shy Tuttle, Cam Jackson, Jaden Crumedy.
Key competition: Tuttle, Jackson, Crumedy and LaBryan Ray. Tuttle took a pay cut to stick with the Panthers in 2025; he was due $6.5 million in salary in 2025 but accepted a reworked deal in march that will pay him $3 million instead. LaBryan Ray played in 16 games and started nine in 2024. Crumedy is hoping to come into his second season with the Panthers with his injury history behind him — which is what limited him to only five games played, 13 tackles and 0.5 sacks. (Sam Roberts and Jared Harrison-Hunte, too, are fighting for roster and/or practice squad spots.)