Chris Brazzell clarifies he’s no ‘troublemaker,’ something Carolina Panthers knew
The Carolina Panthers knew that Chris Brazzell was going to be sure-handed and rangy and fast when the team selected him in the third round of the draft last month.
He’s proven them right through two days of rookie minicamp in that regard.
But more importantly, the 22-year-old wide receiver has proven the organization right in another regard, head coach Dave Canales said. Simply put, Brazzell is no “troublemaker.”
“Not at all,” Canales told reporters Saturday, when asked whether there were any character-related questions he wanted to have answered through the pre-draft process. “It was just a matter of us getting to know the guy, how he learns, how he relates from a personal standpoint. And we did the work. We had him at the combine in the formal meetings. We brought him in for a 30 visit. We followed up with Zooms. Just to check all those boxes of, ‘This is a guy we would love to work with.’
“Because the football stuff is there. The speed. The ability to track the ball down the field. At his height, being able to drop in and out of breaks, it’s rare.”
Such a question wasn’t brought up out of the blue Saturday. Reports of Brazzell’s “maturity” — a word used by ESPN’s Adam Schefter — surfaced a few days ahead of the draft last month. That wasn’t the only thing that was brought in the pre-draft process, either. Brazzell was arrested in August for driving with a suspended license due to a previous failure to appear in court, reports said.
And Brazzell answered to the latter Saturday.
“Long story short, I just really didn’t know my license was suspended,” Brazzell said. “It wasn’t one of those things where I was driving around with a suspended license like a dummy. In the state of Tennessee, they issue you a suspended license and never tell you. So my license was suspended for like, a year and a half. And I don’t get pulled over a lot. So it took me a year again to get pulled over again, and (realized), ‘Dang, my license is suspended?’
“So I was in jail for like 30 minutes. No bond. Leaving with a ticket. Went in there and walked out.”
He added with a smile: “It was a learning lesson. Just pay your tickets on time. That’s it.”
Forgive him if it sounds like a rehearsed story for Brazzell — the third-round pick with a 3.37 40-yard dash time and the college tape out of Tennessee that made him one of Canales’ “favorite” prospects in the 2026 draft class. The story is something Brazzell has had to explain to teams a few times throughout the pre-draft process. He said no teams paid it much mind.
“Yeah, they asked me,” Brazzell said. “But they understand. I’m not a troublemaker. I’m 22 now, and that’s my only experience with the law. … Like I said, pay your speeding tickets on time.”
Chris Brazzell proves Panthers right in other ways, too
On the football field, Brazzell didn’t have much resistance to establishing himself early.
On Friday, he showed off his receiving radius in the middle of the field. On Saturday, he did that again. But this time, it was everywhere: in the back of the end zone, where he skied for a crossing route and hauled in a high pass from rookie undrafted free agent Haynes King and tiptoed on a corner fade route.
He was so fast on Saturday that King at times appeared to throw the ball on target on the release, but it ended up being a tad behind the speedy receiver.
That’s not a bad problem for him to have, King said.
“Just get it in his area,” King said of Brazzell. “Just give him a chance with the ball, and he’s going to come down with it for sure.”
Rookie minicamp has also afforded Brazzell the opportunity to show off what scouts and coaches in the building call the most “underrated” part of his game: his route-running — at all levels of the defense.
“Everybody knows Tennessee as run-and-gun, which they’re right, I’m not going to sit here and lie,” Brazzell said. He added, “But this year, if you really watched my film, I’m running dang near every route in the playbook. Every route I (ran) here, I ran at Tennessee.”
Quick hits
- Housekeeping: Cornerback Blake Cotton was the only minicamp tryout invite who wasn’t on the field Saturday. Also, second-year player Mike Reid was listed as a safety on the roster after spending 2025 on the Panthers’ practice squad as a cornerback.
- Offensive coordinator Brad Idzik spent a lot of time with the quarterbacks Saturday. That’s a product of a lot of things, Canales said. The coach’s words: “Getting into the quarterback room — especially now as he’s calling plays — and being in charge of the offense (is important).” He also considered it a development opportunity for Idzik, who has a lot of familiarity with the wide receivers, to continue to “look at the whole group and impact it that way.”
- Three things about Brazzell you might not know: He grew up a massive Panthers fan and said he “wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.” He’s been compared to Robbie Chosen (previously Robbie Anderson, who was a Panthers receiver for a few years), who he called a “baller.” And he’s learning a lot from Ja’seem Reed, who spent the season in Carolina on the practice squad and has had a few good days in front of the team.
