Two years ago the Carolina Panthers had one of the worst wide receiver rooms in the NFL. According to Mike Clay's annual rankings at ESPN, Carolina's group ranked 28th in the league, headed by DJ Chark and Adam Thielen. Since then the Panthers have made several big investments in the unit and there's a lot more talent to work with from top to bottom.
At the top Thielen has established himself as the Panthers' best receiver, and arguably the most-potent deep threat in the entire league. After Thielen there are several up-and-coming young athletes who could eventually replace him as WR1, most notably first-round draft picks Xavier Legette and Tetairoa McMilan.
From there the Panthers also have some strong depth pieces like undrafted standout Jalen Coker and sixth-round pick Jimmy Horn Jr, who's blowing observers away this offseason with his speed.
Panthers wide receiers coach Rob Moore has been working at this level since the 2013 season and he's worked with some very special talents, but he believes this is the best overall group he's ever worked with at this level, according to Mike Kaye at the Charlotte Observer.
"Having this undrafted rookie class that we have, to push the room, all these guys have a legitimate chance to make this football team... you can't always say that... I think at the end of the day, this is the best overall wide receiver room I've had from a competitive standpoint - without a question."
There's still a lot of offseason work to get through, but our best guess is that the Panthers' depth chart at wide receiver looks something like this:
Panthers projected WR depth chart
- Adam Thielen
- Tetairoa McMillan
- Xavier Legette
- Jalen Coker
- David Moore
- Jimmy Horn Jr.
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- Hunter Renfrow
- Dan Chisena
- T.J. Luther
- Brycen Tremayne
- Jacolby George
- Kobe Hudson
Historically the Panthers have carried six receivers on their regular season roster - if that's the case then the cutoff is likely at Horn. However, as Moore says this is a pretty talented group overall, which means we could see seven this year - that would open room for Renfrow or one of the UDFAs to also make the cut for the initial 53-man roster.
