NFL Player News

The Panthers opened Coker’s practice window this week. A full practice to open the week puts him on track to play on Sunday, but the team will need to see how he responds after two more practices before making a final decision. Coker was a standout performer during the preseason and had likely cemented himself as a starting wideout for the Panthers before going down with the quad injury. He should reclaim his starting role in the next week or two.

He made all four extra points. The rookie kicker finishes his season 24-of-29 on field goals, with three of his five misses coming from beyond 50 yards. He did miss three extra points on 30 attempts. The Panthers could choose to bring in competition for the 2025 UDFA kicker this offseason, but they never did at any point in the regular season.

Horn often played the shifty, speed receiver role for the Panthers — he was actually used fairly often in Weeks 5-7 before Jalen Coker returned. The rookie wideout dropped the final ball Bryce Young threw in this game, but figures to challenge for a roster spot in 2026 and could eventually bump up against Xavier Legette’s role once the Panthers get tired of watching Legette targets.

Topping out at 3/48 in Week 2’s loss to the Cardinals, Tremayne was mostly a part-time receiver and enters 2026 as an exclusive rights free agent after finally seeing real playing time in his third post-college year. He’ll likely compete for a roster spot this offseason.

Evans was relegated to the background on the rare occasions when Ja’Tavion Sanders was healthy, finishing his rookie season with a 19/171/2 receiving line. He enters 2026 third on the Carolina tight end depth chart, but showed some flashes and wouldn’t be a bad TE2 flier if he had a non-trivial role in this offense.

Outside of Legette’s 9/92/1 game against (of course) the Jets in Week 5, the Panthers’ “No. 1 receiver” per Dave Canales’ NFL combine interview did absolutely nothing of fantasy note this season. He cleared 50 yards just one other time and managed receiving yardage totals of 3 yards, one yard, zero yards, and minus-2 yards (on eight targets!) in four of his 15 games. Legette’s fantasy stock in 2026 is at “A Chipmunk Christmas in a thrift store bargain bin” levels.

McMillan against light Rams cornerback Emmanuel Forbes was an instant smash hit for the Panthers whenever they could manage to create that matchup. The big-bodied receiver won over the middle and had 20 yards after the catch. He’s an interesting receiver heading into his sophomore season — the flashes are obvious and he clearly looks the part of a future Drake London-type. McMillan also failed to really spike a huge target week in Carolina’s low-volume passing attack, managing just four games over nine targets and maxing out at 12. There’s also the (admittedly remote) possibility that Jalen Coker makes a real move on some of his volume after his breakout game in the Wild Card. We’d bet on modest improvements, perhaps enough to hit the WR1 line, in McMillan’s second season.