How good will Panthers new defense be? Analyst lays out floor, ceiling for Carolina

The Carolina Panthers are banking on the defense being better this year. After a historic season in 2024, the Panthers have set the bar basically on the floor for 2025. Anything better than giving up the most points in NFL history is a welcome sight. But how much better can they be? Can they be as bad or worse?

There are a lot of unknowns on that side of the ball. Tons of rookies will be relied upon, and the veteran free agent additions are somewhat questionable, too. Bleacher Report insider Alex Ballentine has the best and worst-case scenarios for the Panthers.

The best-case scenario is that the interior defensive line dominates and helps improve the defense as a whole. "There aren't a lot of position groups on the Panthers defense that even look to have the potential to be dominant. But the interior defensive line is the exception," he said.

Ballentine said the return of Derrick Brown, who had an "absurd" 103 total tackles as a defensive lineman in 2023, should help, and added that the Panthers have a "strong trio" after adding Bobby Brown III and Tershawn Wharton in free agency.

"The Panthers' best hope this season is that those three become elite quickly. Brown is coming back after missing all but one game last season, Brown III is a strong run-defending nose tackle, while Wharton is an underrated gap-shooter," Ballentine concluded. That's how they can have a shot at stopping the run and generate a little more pressure, thereby becoming "much more respectable."

If that's the best-case scenario, what's the worst? That no answers emerge on the edge. "Edge-rusher is still one of the biggest positional question marks for the Panthers. They took advantage of the interior linemen who were on the market," Ballentine noted. "The answers on the edge are more hypothetical at this point."

He called D.J. Wonnum the most significant returner, but also acknowledged the injury risk with Wonnum, who missed half of last year and has already suffered a back injury. "The Panthers are hoping Patrick Jones II can build off his seven sacks as a part-time player for the Vikings last season. But it's hard to parse the production from the system in Minnesota," the analyst added.

"Rookies Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen will also factor in. You'd like to think that at least two of the four will be productive, but there's a scenario in which none of them emerge," he admitted. If that happens, then the Panthers might not have a historically bad defense again, but it'll be one of the league's worst yet again.