After drafting offensive players for the last four drafts, surely the Carolina Panthers were aiming to add to defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero’s arsenal with the No. 19 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, right? Well, if you know anything about GM Dan Morgan’s draft strategies, then you know that you actually know nothing at all. Seemingly every mock draft had the Panthers taking Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman in the first round. Enter offensive tackle Monroe Freeling.
While it may not be the “sexy” pick, it absolutely makes sense. Free agency and injury has quickly taken the offensive line unit from the most stable on the team to the most volatile. Starting left tackle Ike Ekwonu – the 2022 No. 6 draft pick – suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in Carolina’s wild card loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The injury carries a recovery period of 6-12 months, likely rendering Ekwonu unavailable for the entire 2026 offseason and presumably part of the regular season. We asked Morgan if the injury factored into Thursday’s selection.
‘Ickey’, he’s doing great. He’s making a lot of progress, and we like where he’s headed. I think more than anything, our biggest thing is we want to keep both our fronts strong and to add a big, long, talented tackle here in the first round – it keeps our offensive line strong. Haven’t drafted an offensive lineman since I’ve been here, and to be able to add somebody with the talent that Monroe has, it was just too good to pass up.
Morgan called Freeling the best player on Carolina’s board and head coach Dave Canales echoed the sentiment. “Really just for me, you always start with the athletic profile, and to get a guy that’s 21 years old who’s, for all intents and purposes, hasn’t fully grown into his body completely but to already be 6’7″ and 315 pounds, he’s going to settle into some really good football.” Freeling, who played swing tackle for Georgia his freshman and sophomore seasons, also offers versatility that’s proven to be needed on a unit that played 10 different combinations through the first 13 weeks of the season. “My freshman and sophomore year I was a swing tackle so I was playing a lot of swing tackle, especially my sophomore year. Left and right, middle of the game, middle of the series, it didn’t really matter. I have a pretty good amount of experience on both sides,” he told Charlotte media shortly after his selection Thursday night. While most comfortable at left tackle after playing there exclusively last season as a junior, Freeling is just as confident on the right side and says, “You put me at right and you give me two weeks, I’m going to be the same player there.” He has the athletic profile to do so, with a 9.99 RAS score at the NFL Combine back in February.
Last offseason, the Panthers re-signed centers Austin Corbett and Cade Mays, along with position-less Brady Christensen and backup tackle Josh Njiman, keeping the core 2024 unit together. Corbett and Mays both signed elsewhere in free agency and Njiman retired. Christensen is an unrestricted free agent and has not signed elsewhere at the present moment.
The deeper you dig, the less of a head scratcher the Freeling selection is. Presently, the Panthers have one of the league’s most expensive offensive lines and right tackle Taylor Moton, extended through the 2027 season, is turning 32 in August. They need to get younger and cheaper to be able to continue to build a competitive roster. Canales previously said that the Panthers are not drafting for depth, and on Thursday night, he made it clear that he expects Freeling to be in the mix for a starting role.” Although looked at as a strong move, the free agency signing of Rasheed Walker did not necessarily negate the need to fortify the left tackle position with Ekwonu out. For what it’s worth, the league’s valuation of Walker could be a testament to that. He’s signed to a one-year, $4 million dollar deal.
Some point to Freeling’s 18 starts as a negative, but Morgan and Canales don’t see it that way; with Canales highlighting the opportunity to mold Freeling a bit. “You’d always like guys to have more games, more experience that way. I just know different scenarios happen in the game. But to your point, having a guy that has limited starts when you get them, you really do have a chance to imprint on them just our style, philosophy and techniques and drills and all those things. So there’s a give and take there.” While confident in the current offensive line room, Morgan states that the Panthers “might not be done there”. Freeling is the first offensive lineman drafted in the Morgan-Canales regime, which is in its third year. “Yeah, I think we feel really good about it. I think we might not be done there. I think that’s, again — we want to make both offensive line and defensive line as strong as possible. We feel good about it right now, but we’ll continue to add if we see guys we like the rest of the draft.”
Carolina is back on the clock for the second and third rounds in which they currently hold picks 51 and 83 – but that could change as the night progresses.
