Cozy nickname won’t stop this Panthers rookie from being a pest to opposing playmakers
Don’t let Will Lee’s nickname fool you. While teammates branded him “The Blanket” during his well-traveled college career, the cornerback’s firm coverage is anything but cozy for opponents.
In the final two years of his college career, Lee amassed 18 pass breakups and two interceptions with the Texas A&M Aggies. Now, he will look to replicate that production within the NFC South with the Carolina Panthers.
And Lee isn’t ready to fold up and put away the endearing moniker he’s had since junior college.
“My first three games playing there (at Iowa Western Community College), I had zero targets the first three games,” Lee said. “We were (at) lunch and my teammates were basically saying like, ‘You locking people up like a blanket out there — it’s crazy.’ Then my (defensive backs) coach heard about it, and we were making jokes saying it was corny. Then a few weeks later I was like, ‘Man, this really sticks — I might take it and run with it — like it’s fire. So I ended up taking it and running with it in JUCO and making it a big thing.”
Lee, listed as 6-1 and 189 pounds, was more than just a long, lanky corner with a cool nickname at Texas A&M. After transferring from Kansas State in 2024, Lee — who was a college teammate of Panthers outside linebacker Nic Scourton for one season — established himself as one of the most physical coverage men in college football.
His physicality leaned into his hard-to-miss bravado. Both traits enhanced each other and led to plenty of success in press-man coverage. The Panthers took notice, eventually selecting Lee with the 129th overall pick in the fourth round of last month’s NFL Draft.
“I feel like I was the best press-man cornerback in the draft,” Lee said. “You know, God had different plans. I ended up falling later than I thought, but I’m ready to showcase my talents and showcase to them that I am the best press-man cornerback in the draft.”
Scouting Will Lee excited the Panthers
Caden McCloughan, the Panthers’ southwest scout, has been around the game his entire life. His father, Scot, served as a general manager in San Francisco and Washington, so he knows a thing or two about scouting cornerback talent. And watching Lee in action more than piqued his interest.
Lee acknowledges that his press-man skills are his strength, but the Panthers heavily favor zone coverage in coach Ejiro Evero’s defense. So, McCloughan needed to project Lee’s fit within the system, which isn’t unusual for an evaluator, especially at the area scout level.
“I think when watching guys, it’s important just to take the scheme out of it a little bit at times, and just look at the traits and what translates,” McCloughan said. “To Will’s point, his confidence is one of my favorite things about him. That dude — you can see it on the field, too. There’s no lack of that, for sure. At the end of the day with Will, it’s hard to find guys with size and length like that, that can move like that, too. So, I think, at the end of the day, you’re just betting on those traits to work in really any type of scheme.”
“And I think something cool about him, too, is the instincts and the feel for the game he has,” McCloughan added. “I think when you see things like that in a prospect, it makes you feel pretty confident that he’s going to be able to have success, whether you’re asking him to play off, press or whatever it may be.”
Lee didn’t just impress McCloughan. He also got on the radar of general manager Dan Morgan.
The former Panthers linebacker saw a scheme versatile player with the personality he wants in all of his defenders.
“I think he’s a guy that, as he continues to grow and mature in the game, he’ll be able to figure out off-coverage and some of the things that we do schematically,” Morgan said. “I think he’s just a really good fit for us by the way he plays, the temperament he plays with, the swag he plays with out there. Just a guy that we really loved.”
The coaching staff, which favors prospects with notable size and speed profiles, also had interest in Lee. The St. Louis native — much like Panthers starting cornerbacks Jaycee Horn and Michael Jackson — offers rare length at cornerback at 6-1.
The coaches also appreciated his physicality against the run and pass.
“We felt like he really fit that mold,” head coach Dave Canales said.
McCloughan understands that Lee’s size and instincts give him a leg up, even as a Day 3 pick. Horn and Jackson will handle the bulk of the boundary coverage work this year, but Lee has the upside to work his way into the mix as he finds his footing in Evero’s system.
“With the frame he’s got — the length — and just the feel for the position, you get excited about using him in different ways,” McCloughan said. “And I think it’s just exciting to add another big and long guy to that room. And you can never have too many of those guys, so it’ll be exciting.”
Don’t sleep on ‘The Blanket’ and his fit in Carolina
On paper, Lee might seem like an awkward fit for the Panthers’ coverage unit. But the rookie cornerback wouldn’t agree with that sentiment.
Lee believes playing for three different college programs helped him adjust to new situations and take advantage of different roles.
“It made my thinking of the game really broad,” Lee said. “Being at Kansas State, we were a really heavy board team, we noted a lot of our defense on the white board. Coming to Texas A&M with Coach (Mike) Elko, he has more of an NFL-style defense. We do a lot of walkthroughs, so it kind of made me versatile in my learning habits. So it made me pick up learning habits easier, to make me learn the playbooks faster and get ahead of that.”
While Lee has thrived in 1-on-1 coverage, he isn’t new to the concept of playing zone defense. Texas A&M and Kansas State, in his own words, prepared him for every and all coverage responsibilities in the secondary.
“With Coach Elko’s defense, we had a lot of hybrid defenses where we would be man (coverage) to the boundaries, zone (coverage) to the field or flip-flop, reverse,” Lee said. “So we had a lot of that in our playbook. Being at Kansas State, we played a lot of quarters, so I was really used to playing quarters at Kansas State. I am really comfortable playing anywhere.”
Lee thought he should have been drafted earlier. His confidence hasn’t waned, but Lee said he felt humbled as he watched other cornerback prospects come off the board before him.
On film, he plays with an edge and a chip on his shoulder. But Lee’s long wait on draft weekend might have made that chip even bigger.
“I always felt like I had to work harder than everybody else to get to where I wanted to go, so I am ready for it — it’s nothing new,” Lee said. “I have been doing this my whole life. I am ready.”
