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.