The Carolina Panthers haven’t used a first-round draft pick on an inside linebacker in over a decade.
Check it for yourself.
The last time was in 2015. Shaq Thompson. A Top 3 all-time franchise tackles leader who left ahead of 2025. The time before that came in 2012. Luke Kuechly. A Pro Football Hall of Famer. The time before that was Jon Beason in 2007. Then it was Thomas Davis in 2005.
Presented with this history on Tuesday, just as the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis was beginning to stir, Panthers general manager Dan Morgan chuckled: “That’s pretty good.”
Yes, that track record is great, no doubt. No misses.
So why is there a no-first-round-linebacker drought in Carolina?
And could 2026 be the year such a drought is quenched?
Ask these questions to Morgan — a remarkable Panthers linebacker himself in the early 2000s — and he’ll answer them without commitment. He’ll say that “it’s fair we want to upgrade the linebacker spot.” Upon some pressing, he’ll reluctantly allow this: “If you want to, say, find a Luke Kuechly, or find the next Thomas Davis, that’s fine with me.”
Such meekness is understandable from him.
But look elsewhere, and for the first time in a while, using a first-round pick on a linebacker looks like a real possibility.
The quest for the Panthers’ next great linebacker
So what would it take for the Panthers to take a linebacker in the first round of this year’s draft?
First, it would take going against the grain of some notable history. It’s rare, after all, when linebackers go in the first round in the draft. In 2025, only two linebackers were taken in the first round. In 2024, there were none; in 2023, only one.
And for a Carolina Panthers front office that has recently set the free agency market on the “non-premium” positions, that would be out of character, too. The Morgan-led staff has gone out and spent a ton of money compiling a nose tackle here in Turk Wharton, a pair of interior offensive linemen here in Damien Lewis and Robert Hunt, a game-changing safety here in Tre’Von Moehrig — and they’ve more so left the draft for the “premium” positions. (Case in point: The Panthers have spent their last two first-round picks on wide receivers.)
But above all else, what needs to happen for the Panthers to take a linebacker at No. 19 overall?
NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah has an answer.
The catch: It merely requires “the league being dumb enough for Sonny Styles to fall there.”
“Dan Morgan would lose his linebacker card if he didn’t run that pick up there,” Jeremiah said over a Zoom video call earlier this month.
Styles, of course, is the linebacker out of Ohio State who’s expected to beat the odds as an off-ball linebacker to be taken in the Top 10. He’s a 6-foot-5, 243-pound game changer with exceptional dexterity against the run and the pass, reports say, a product of his transition from safety to linebacker. NFL analyst Lance Zierlein himself says Styles is reminiscent of arguably the best linebacker in the NFL at the moment — Fred Warner.
“But I don’t think he’s going to make it there,” Jeremiah said.
So who will?
Maybe it’s CJ Allen, who’s projected to be a late first-round pick. The Georgia team captain was the most trusted player on the Kirby Smart defense, calling the plays, being a leader. He’s a bit undersized: 6-foot-1, 235 pounds, and has the quickness and pursuit speed similar to that of Zaire Franklin, NFL.com’s draft profile states.
Or, maybe it’s Anthony Hill Jr., who’s also projected to be a late first-round pick. The 6-foot-3, 238-pound ILB out of Texas is a reliable tackler and a great run stopper.
“We’re looking for guys who are leaders,” Morgan said. “Who are playmakers. Who are culture fits for us. So we’re excited about attacking that and putting the work in.”
Linebackers are eager to work with Luke Kuechly, Dan Morgan
The number of caveats to this whole premise — of the Panthers using a first-round draft pick on an inside linebacker — are unending.
It’s true there’s no telling what might happen in free agency, particularly with players like the Jaguars’ Devin Lloyd and the Commanders’ Bobby Wagner out there. Maybe the front office will determine it’s ideal for a still-developing Trevin Wallace to play alongside a veteran.
It’s also true the 2026 linebacking draft class, by all accounts, is a deep one — the Panthers very well may be in position to grab Kyle Louis out of Pitt, or Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech, or Josiah Trotter from Missouri in the late second round. Why spend a first-round pick on a linebacker if the LB draft class is really deep?
But there’s compelling news, too.
Talk to any linebacker at the combine this week — and they’ll all acknowledge something unique the Panthers can offer:
They’re eager to work with Morgan and Kuechly and Davis, all of whom are still very connected to the franchise in varying capacities.
Rodriguez discussed how cool it is to be able to talk football with a general manager like Morgan. Clemson linebacker Wade Woodaz shared that Kuechly himself has brought him under his wing after getting connected with him in the summer.
The projected lottery pick, Styles, even brought up Kuechly, unprompted.
“Super-good athlete,” Styles said of the Hall of Famer. “He was so smart people forgot he was such a great athlete. And that’s what I kind of want for myself. I’m a great athlete, but I want my football intelligence to stick out more than my athleticism.”
Styles went on to say that he had goals of wearing a gold jacket one day. He added that “it’s going to take a lot of work to get there, but I just got to start one step at a time.”
If the league is dumb enough, that step could be in Carolina.
And end a franchise drought along the way.