Panthers WR Xavier Legette will return Sunday. He doesn’t want a pep talk
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Panthers WR Xavier Legette returns Sunday. Season totals: four catches, eight yards.
- Panthers QB Bryce Young says Legette’s confidence intact; he “doesn’t need a pep talk.”
- Panthers need Legette to produce opposite rookie Tetairoa McMillan, who has shone.
To put it kindly, Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette has struggled this season.
You can hardly tell the difference in Legette’s output between the two games he played and the two games he didn’t due to a hamstring injury.
Total catches so far this season for the Panthers’ first-round 2024 draft pick out of the University of South Carolina: Four, out of 15 total targets. For eight total yards.
Yet Legette and his teammates were insistent Wednesday that his all-but-certain return to the lineup Sunday after missing the past two games with that hamstring issue will be seamless and that he doesn’t need a confidence boost from anyone.
Said Legette: “Nobody can tell me they’re gonna try to uplift my confidence, because my confidence ain’t never left.”
I asked Panthers quarterback Bryce Young on Wednesday what message he would give Legette before this game.
Young’s reaction was interesting. By his mild-mannered standards, he positively bristled at the question.
“X doesn’t need a message,” Young said. “He’s a great player, you know? … People who want to say (negative) things — if everyone could see the work that he was putting in these last couple weeks, him dying to be on the field. … He doesn’t need a message. He doesn’t need a pep talk. He’s ready to go.”
Legette, who is almost always good-natured, seemed irked by some of the questions during his media availability Wednesday. His answers were short and crisp. He said he wasn’t 100% healthy yet but felt “pretty solid.”
Asked whether he needed to prove something Sunday when the Panthers (1-3) host the Miami Dolphins (1-3) at 1 p.m. in Bank of America Stadium, Legette said: “I want to prove to the fans and all the —whoever the doubters is out there, whoever think I ain’t it.” Then he stopped himself. That became a bit of a theme. “That’s a whole another story. I ain’t gonna talk about all that.”
Of those doubters, Legette later said: “There’s a whole lot of folks who are saying. …”
Then he stopped himself again. “What I think it is, more so — they’re just waiting for me to show them,” he said. “That’s what I think. For folks who say I ain’t a good player, I feel like that’s wild to say, but that’s a whole ‘nother topic.”
I think what Legette said there was quite reasonable. Panthers fans don’t want him to fail. They are just frustrated that this season, so far at least, he has failed. They know the team needs him to succeed, and they are waiting for him to show them he was worthy of a No.1 draft pick. If he scores a couple of times against the Dolphins, they will be ecstatic.
To be clear, I am one of the Legette doubters. After the Week 2 game, when Legette was a non-factor, I wrote that the Panthers should bench him for a couple of games to let him clear his head, much like head coach Dave Canales did to Young after Week 2 in 2023.
Legette then did get benched — but due to injury, not a coaching decision. In any case, now he’s back, and the Panthers certainly could use him given their obvious lack of receiving prowess outside of anyone beside rookie Tetairoa McMillan.
In Legette’s opinion, the enforced two-game break didn’t do him much good. He was asked some version of the question, “Do you think it helped you at all to sit out a couple of games?” three times Wednesday. And all three times, he shut down that line of questioning.
“I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily say I sat back and learned anything,” Legette said. “I’m just ready to get back. … I’ve just been sitting on the sideline and all that. But I’m excited to play.”
Canales said Wednesday that Legette’s production could skyrocket if the second-year receiver with the accent everyone loves could just make one big play.
“I’m just waiting for that one play where I can see him smile and just make a play,” Canales said. “Just get the weight off of you. You’re just out here to play football. Just do your part.”
Or, as Legette said: “Whenever it pop, it’s gonna pop.”
The Panthers could certainly use some pop in an offense that hasn’t scored more than 23 points on its own in a game all season (the 30-point total vs. Atlanta was padded by a pick-six interception).
“Man, everybody knows what X can do,” McMillan said. “He’s a big part of this offense. A big part of this team.”
Sunday will also mark the debut of rookie wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr., the sixth-round draft choice whose speed should at least give McMillan and Legette more room to work.
But it is Legette who people will be watching closely, to see if the player everyone calls XL can loom large once again.
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