Expectations are high for the Carolina Panthers’ offensive line. Just ask their $100M man
None of this is new to Robert Hunt.
The Carolina Panthers’ newly signed starting right guard heard how important offensive line play would be in Miami last offseason, after quarterback Tua Tagoviola suffered enough head injuries to make him briefly consider retiring from football.
Hunt heard about it immediately upon his arrival to Carolina, too, as the Panthers’ offensive line was cited as the biggest reason for the team’s lack of offensive production in 2023.
It’s part of the reason why Hunt landed with the Panthers on a five-year, $100 million deal this offseason.
But ask the Panthers’ 100-million-dollar man what it’s like hearing all that noise — what it’s like being under a microscope, protecting a player the team has banked their future on — and the 6-foot-6, 335-pound monster-on-the-field will smile.
“You know how it is, man,” Hunt told The Charlotte Observer after training camp practice Wednesday with a shrug. “You gotta find somewhere to look. And they look up front. So there’s a sense of that, man.
“But I think last year (with the Dolphins), we did a really good job of figuring that out. And like I said, we set a standard for everybody. We had a ton of guys get hurt last year, but people stepped up.”
He added: “That’s what we’re trying to build here.”
By his account, Hunt likes what he sees.
And by all accounts, improvement is not optional.
Last year, then-rookie quarterback Bryce Young was sacked an NFL-second-most 62 times in 16 games. Sam Howell of the Washington Commanders was sacked a league-most 65 times but started 17 games and had 85 more drop backs. The Panthers struggled to run the ball, too, finishing in the bottom half of rush yards per game.
The Panthers went about addressing this issue in a variety of ways this offseason.
First, personnel: The Panthers went out in free agency and acquired not only Hunt — one of the top OL free agents on the market in 2024 — but also Damien Lewis, a left guard who signed a four-year, $53 million deal after a stalwart stint with the Seattle Seahawks. Carolina also moved Austin Corbett, Hunt’s predecessor at right guard, to center. And they kept 2022 draft pick Ickey Ekwonu at left tackle and veteran Taylor Moton at right tackle.
Second, scheme: One of the biggest talking points surrounding the Panthers’ moribund offense a year ago was how the team’s personnel meshed with the team’s offensive scheme. The same OL that thrived at the end of 2022 in the power-gap scheme under Steve Wilks struggled in the heavy zone-blocking scheme under Frank Reich.
A lot of that has taken care of itself. Newly hired and offensive minded head coach Dave Canales has spent a bulk of the offseason installing a new offensive system. Results have been good through training camp — from a communication and chemistry standpoint.
Even if it’s new to a lot of people.
“I come from a wide-zone scheme, which everything is wide-zone, play action,” said Hunt, who played on a Miami Dolphins offense that broke records on the ground and through the air in 2023. “Here is a little more mid-zone.”
Hunt added that “once you do a system so long, you learn how to manipulate the system,” and that he personally is “in the process of learning how to manipulate angles, manipulate my body on certain situations in the mid-zone.”
But that adjustment won’t take long, Hunt said.
“It’s not a big adjustment, football is football at the end of the day, you know what I mean?” Hunt said. “It’s at certain points, once you get a lot of reps, you can play guys and understand what you can and can’t do.
“So I usually figure out what I can do and use it to my advantage.”
It’s what made Hunt successful in Miami, and it’s what makes his opinion of the O-Line in Carolina worth listening to. He’s been in an iteration of this noisy time of the year before — and has come out the other side doing what the Panthers are doing now.
In so many words, to Hunt:
This is nothing new.
