Panthers GM Dan Morgan still has a long way to climb. But consider where he began

It was two years ago, almost exactly, when Dan Morgan was introduced as the new general manager for the Carolina Panthers. I thought of that news conference several times when I heard Morgan give his latest press conference in Charlotte Tuesday, which came three days after Carolina finished a surprisingly good season with a playoff loss.

Morgan said at that original news conference in early 2024, on the heels of a 2-15 season: “We need some dogs…. We need competitors… We’ve got to bring that back here at the Bank of America Stadium, to where people get excited about coming to see our team…. When teams drive up to this stadium, we want them to fear that (Panther) logo. That logo has to be feared again. Because right now, it’s not feared. So we’ve got to get that back.”

The logo still isn’t feared at this point, either. An 8-10 season won’t strike fear into too many hearts. But the rest of it? People getting excited to see the team? Competitors? More dogs?

All of that has indeed happened under the leadership of Morgan and coach Dave Canales, who will enter Year 3 together in 2026 with a whole different set of challenges.

After winning the NFC South this year for the first time since 2015, the Panthers no longer are a league-wide joke. And they’ve found some really good players. In the past two years, Carolina has acquired wide receivers Tetairoa McMillan and Jalen Coker, cornerback Mike Jackson, safety Tre’von Moehrig, outside linebacker Nic Scourton and several offensive linemen I’d put in the “dog” category.

So while Tuesday was mostly about what’s next, it’s also worth briefly looking back at what just happened. The Panthers went from two wins in 2023 to five in 2024 to eight in 2025 — laudable work that resulted in a stadium Saturday night that threatened to lift off its foundation numerous times in Carolina’s 34-31 playoff loss to the L.A. Rams.

To improve by three wins for a third consecutive year will be the most difficult task, however. Eleven wins is a logical next step, but it’s so tough. The NFL naturally tilts everyone toward the middle, with salary-cap parity and a draft formula that rewards the worst teams.

That’s partly why the league is ultra-successful. Anyone truly can beat anyone. And anyone can have one good year, too.

So Morgan’s next job is to corral another group of fine players in the next few months, and to make sure the Panthers don’t lose the momentum they’ve gained.

“I see even bigger things moving forward,” Morgan said Tuesday, “to where this is going to be a consistent thing and not just a flash in the pan.”

And, as he said in a reference to Canales: “He’s just done a great job of really shifting the culture and making this culture a winning culture, like we’re expecting to win now. We’re not coming into the season unsure. We feel like we know where we are.”

The Panthers certainly had an identity through early December, when they were 7-6 and had started to make a living on a strong running game that set up Bryce Young’s play-action passes. The defense by then was consistent — not great, very middle-of-the-pack, but no longer terrible as it was in 2024.

But the Panthers lost their offensive identity in the final month of the season. They went 1-4 (including the playoffs) over their last five games. The running game mostly went away.

One of the first tasks this season is to rebuild that by making sure the offensive line gets some reinforcements — that’s even more important after starting left tackle Ickey Ekwonu sustained a serious knee injury Saturday that will require surgery and perhaps 6-12 months of rehabilitation.

So there will be new offensive linemen. There better be some more reinforcements at linebacker, too, and the offense still needs another playmaker, preferably a very fast one.

The Panthers also will eventually have to make a decision on whether to give Young an enormous contract extension, but I’d postpone that idea for a while. Young has played three seasons and, with the Panthers picking up his fifth-year option as expected, is now under contract for two more. He’s shown steady progress, but I’d wait to see what 2026 looks like before giving him $40-50 million a season.

All those decisions are mostly going to be made by the people already in the building. Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero isn’t going anywhere — although he will interview for at least one head-coaching job, I’d be surprised if he gets one — and any staff turnover will be minor.

Morgan, Canales, Young — the GM/coach/QB trio will all stay in place. Owner David Tepper did a nice job of staying behind the scenes in 2025. A berth in the playoffs buys you some stability at the top, no matter how you got into those playoffs.

Now is the time Morgan and his staff earn their money. Free agency in March and the draft in April is prime time for teams to get more talented. And with the Panthers playing a first-place schedule next year, the talent level has to improve to even stay at the status quo.

Anyone who was inside the stadium Saturday night can attest to how special it was. Morgan was a starter on the 2003 Panthers, a Cinderella team who won a playoff game against Dallas at home before eventually advancing to the Super Bowl. He thought it was louder Saturday than it was for that Cowboys game.

“The environment was just unreal on Saturday night,” Morgan said. “It kind of gave me chills sitting up there just looking at the crowd, looking at the fans, looking at the excitement, the city coming together, this region coming together, the Carolinas. It’s just amazing what football can do to a community. So it was just awesome to see.”

For a community that hadn’t had a moment quite like that for 10 years, since the Panthers won the NFC Championship before the home crowd, it was also a reminder of what could be. There’s nothing stopping the Panthers from becoming a team that makes the playoffs most seasons. They’re still not close to arriving.

But at least the tracks are clear, and the train is moving again.

Scott Fowler

The Charlotte Observer

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Columnist Scott Fowler has written for The Charlotte Observer since 1994 and has earned 26 APSE awards for his sportswriting. He hosted The Observer’s podcast “Carruth,” which Sports Illustrated once named “Podcast of the Year.” Fowler also conceived and hosted the online series and podcast “Sports Legends of the Carolinas,” which featured 1-on-1 interviews with NC and SC sports icons and was turned into a book. He occasionally writes about non-sports subjects, such as the 5-part series “9/11/74,” which chronicled the forgotten plane crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 in Charlotte on Sept. 11, 1974. Support my work with a digital subscription