Carolina head coach Dave Canales liked what he saw when he read to the end of the Panthers’ 2026 schedule.
The Panthers finish with four of their final five games at home, and Canales thinks that gives them a great opportunity to finish strong in what he hopes is a season when his team repeats as NFC South champions.
“That was something I saw right away and was very appreciative of that going into the finish of the season,” Canales said, via Panthers.com. “Being able to be at home, in front of our crowd at Bank of America Stadium, the energy that was building towards the end of last season, it just excites me to be able to see that through the holiday season.”
The Panthers also open the season at home against the Bears, and Canales likes that one as well.
“Right off the bat, get in front of our fan base and really pick up where we left off in terms of where they were showing up with such great energy, coming out early, being out there during warm-ups, and welcoming the players that came out group by group. To feel that energy kind of build into the game, the guys will be really excited to get that started the right way,” Canales said.
Overall, Canales said, he appreciates what the NFL schedule makers gave his team.
Panthers Clips
Panthers defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton is going to need to recover from neck surgery before he’s ready to get back on the field.
Head coach Dave Canales said at a Monday press conference that Wharton told the team he was “feeling a little bit of discomfort” earlier this month and that doctors felt that the condition was something that needed to be addressed surgically. Canales said that Wharton is recovering well, but is likely to open training camp on the physically unable to perform list.
“Obviously, with the timetable of the season and all those things, this is something that needs to be done now, and he’s recovering great, and we’ll just take it week by week and see where he’s at,” Canales said, via the team’s website.
The Panthers drafted Lee Hunter in the second round last month and he’ll join Derrick Brown, Bobby Brown, Cam Jackson, LaBryan Ray, and Jared Harrison-Hunte on the line in Wharton’s absence.
The Panthers will get a chance to work against a couple of other teams coming off of playoff appearances during training camp this summer.
Head coach Dave Canales said at a Monday press conference that the team is going to hold joint practices with the Jaguars and Texans. The team will play at Jacksonville in the second week of the preseason and they’ll be at home against Houston for their final preseason game in August.
Carolina played the Jaguars in Week 1 of the 2025 season and lost 26-10.
The Panthers will be playing four preseason games this year as they are scheduled to face the Cardinals in the Hall of Fame Game along with a game in Buffalo before the two matchups with the AFC South teams.
NFL Network lost its schedule-release show. It’s nevertheless gaining a late-season Saturday doubleheader.
In Week 16, on the day after Christmas, NFLN will televise a game at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET.
The schedule identifies four potential games for the two slots: Buccaneers-Falcons, Bengals-Colts, Commanders-Vikings, and Panthers Steelers.
The decision as to which games will slide from Sunday to Saturday will be made during the season.
Coupled with a Thursday night game and three Christmas Day games, Week 16 will have 10 total windows — one more than Thanksgiving week. That leaves only eight games to be played on the Saturday afternoon windows.
The Panthers took care of some contractual business on Friday.
They announced that they have signed defensive tackle Lee Hunter to a four-year deal. The second-round pick was the final member of their seven-player draft class to sign his rookie contract with the team.
Carolina traded up to take Hunter with the 49th overall pick after watching him at Texas Tech. He had 41 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, and a forced fumble during his final season with the Red Raiders.
Derrick Brown, Bobby Brown, Tershawn Wharton, LaBryan Ray, Jared Harrison-Hunte, Cam Jackson, Aaron Hall, and Parker Petersen are also on the defensive line for the Panthers.
The NFL did the Chiefs a favor, giving them an early off week as Patrick Mahomes works his way back.
The Chiefs and Panthers have the earliest possible bye, getting an off week in Week 5.
The Chiefs quarterback tore the ACL and LCL in his left knee in a Dec. 14 game against the Chargers and underwent surgery the following day. There is no timeline for his return, although Mahomes reportedly is ahead of schedule in his rehab and is shooting for Week 1.
If he’s not ready, Mahomes would miss only four games in six weeks. Those four games are the Broncos, Colts, Dolphins and Raiders, so the start to the season is not nearly as hard as it could have been.
The Cowboys and Cardinals have the latest possible off week, with their bye coming in Week 14.
Here are the other bye weeks:
Week 6 — Bengals, Lions, Dolphins, Vikings.
Week 7 — Bills, Jaguars, Chargers, Commanders.
Week 8 — Giants, Texans, Saints, 49ers.
Week 9 — Steelers, Titans.
Week 10 — Bears, Broncos, Eagles, Bucs.
Week 11 — Seahawks, Rams, Falcons, Patriots, Browns, Packers.
Week 13 — Ravens, Jets, Colts, Raiders.
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Bears were one of the teams under consideration for a season-opening trip to Seattle, but the NFL is reportedly going with a Super Bowl rematch so the defending NFC North champs will be heading elsewhere.
It will still be a matchup of two teams coming off of playoff berths. The Bears will be in Charlotte to face the Panthers, according to a report from Jordan Schultz.
With the Sunday night and Monday night games for that week already announced, the game will be played on Sunday afternoon.
There will always be a link between the two clubs as the Panthers traded with the Bears to acquire the first overall pick in 2023 and select quarterback Bryce Young. The Panthers wound up with the worst record in the league after Young’s rough rookie season, but the first overall pick belonged to the Bears and they used it to acquire quarterback Caleb Williams.
The Panthers went into the offseason knowing that left tackle Ikem Ekwonu is unlikely to be available for some time as he recovers from a torn patellar tendon and they addressed that reality multiple times.
Panthers General Manager Dan Morgan signed Rasheed Walker as a free agent and then used the team’s top draft pick on Monroe Freeling, which sets up a competition that is going to be one of the focal points of the next few months for the franchise.
“In terms of Monroe, he’ll compete with Rasheed,” Morgan said on NFL Network. “We were lucky to get him in free agency, another guy we think highly about, a veteran who’s played a lot of games in this league. We feel like we have a lot of optionality there and looking forward to seeing those guys compete.”
Ekwonu could be back at some point this season and Taylor Moton remains a reliable right tackle, so the Panthers may wind up with more options than places to put them at some point this fall. Given how hard it can be for some teams to find two tackles, Morgan would likely file that as a good problem to have.
The Panthers restructured the contract of cornerback Jaycee Horn.
Joseph Person of TheAthletic.com reports that the restructure will create $13.1 million in cap space for the Panthers to sign their rookie class.
The Panthers converted $16.4 million of Horn’s salary into a signing bonus and added a void year to his deal.
Horn, 26, signed a four-year, $100 million extension before the 2025 season.
He appeared in 16 games and totaled 37 tackles, one tackle for loss, five interceptions and eight passes defensed in 2025.
