Panthers rookie minicamp: Draft class debuts, former first-round pick auditions
Monroe Freeling — fresh off signing his first NFL contract — took a walk every Carolina Panthers rookie has taken over the past decade.
Surrounded by undrafted rookies, tryout players and fellow draft picks on Friday, the 6-foot-7, 315-pound lineman strolled from Bank of America Stadium to the soon-to-be-revamped practice facility a half-mile away.
He’ll get used to that jaunt during the offseason program. But right now, the first-round pick is simply getting his timing down during the Panthers’ two-day rookie minicamp.
“A lot of it is just getting used to playing next to the guys,” Freeling said after Friday’s workout. “Like communication is super important. But also just like technique — you can kind of slow down and just work on your technique, especially ‘cause it’s not live. It is kind of live (laughs) but at least there’s no tackling and no helmets and pads and stuff.”
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Rookie minicamp: Monroe Freeling, Lee Hunter work in trenches
Freeling is taking part in the team’s non-contact workouts with his fellow first-year players. While the Panthers can line up in 11-on-11 drills, there’s very little force being used throughout drills. So, the trench play is a bit underwhelming to the outside observer.
“Just a good head start for hearing the language, ball getting snapped, putting the ball in play — simple things as that,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. “Getting your stance, alignment, assignment — it always starts off that way. Watching those guys kind of take to that is part of it and the coaching. Great energy from those guys out there today.”
Freeling, second-round pick Lee Hunter and the rest of the rookies are making the most of being back in helmets. After a long NFL Draft process, the rookies are thrilled to be back in football mode.
“It’s great to be back on the football field,” Freeling said. “I haven’t been on the football field since Jan. 1, so it was great to be back out there, really.”
“It’s a blessing, really,” Hunter added. “I love football, I love this game, and I’m just blessed for the opportunity.”
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Hunter — the lone draft pick without a signed contract — showed off some of his athleticism while working with defensive line coach Todd Wash.
“Wherever I need to be, I feel like I’m going to be successful, and I can help dominate,” Hunter said.
It was a good first step — literally — for the 6-foot-3, 318-pound lineman from Texas Tech.
“He has a real sense for getting up on the snap,” Canales said with a smile. “Feeling the cadence right now.”
Chris Brazzell shows off his catch radius
Wide receiver Chris Brazzell, the team’s third-round pick, showed off his speed and size in drills Friday. The long, lanky receiver had never caught passes from undrafted quarterback Haynes King before, and there were quite a few throws that were off the mark to the playmaker.
Haynes and Brazzell will find a rhythm in time, but the receiver bailed out his quarterback with some impressive grabs in offensive-only drills. Brazzell was able to catch some passes behind him, even while his momentum was pushing him forward.
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Running routes without defenders can make a receiver look good in practice. But Brazzell’s catch radius on some unideal targets earned him praise from Canales.
“Physically, he certainly looked great,” Canales said. “A couple of balls, a little bit behind him — he’s faster than you think — that’s a big guy moving. So, getting used to that type of target, moving across the middle for Haynes today, that’ll be something they’ll be able to work on.”
2022 first-round pick tries out for Panthers
Former Houston Texans offensive lineman Kenyon Green was part of the Panthers’ rookie minicamp roster as a tryout player.
The 25-year-old guard was selected 15th overall in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Texans. Green, who played college football at Texas A&M, appeared in 27 games (23 starts) across three seasons for Houston. He missed the entire 2023 season with a shoulder injury.
The Texans traded Green to the Philadelphia Eagles last offseason. However, Green failed to appear in a game during his stint in the NFC East. He was waived ahead of the cut deadline last summer and bounced on and off the Eagles’ practice squad during the first month of the season. He eventually joined the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad for the rest of last year.
Following free agency and the draft, Green remained unsigned, so the Panthers invited him to compete during rookie minicamp.
“It’s just an opportunity to get better — to get on the team — and I feel like I can help the team out, wherever that might be,” Green told The Charlotte Observer following Friday’s workout. “I’m just here to compete and have fun playing football.”
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Green, a native of Humble, Texas, was the lone tryout player with regular-season experience at Carolina’s rookie minicamp. The 6-foot-4, 323-pound lineman worked at right guard on Friday.
“Just really taking it one day at a time, just focused on getting better,” Green said. “That’s really it. Can’t really do too much thinking about (the past). It happened, it’s part of the game and so you’ve gotta move on.”
The Panthers have a considerable need for depth behind left guard Damien Lewis and right guard Robert Hunt this summer. As of now, Chandler Zavala, Ja’Tyre Carter and Saahdiq Charles are the main offseason depth players at the position.
Given Green’s first-round pedigree, he could be seen as a low-risk, high-reward addition if he can impress during the weekend. Canales said the “movement evaluation” is something the staff is focused on in non-contact practices with the offensive line.
“Really talented guy that (offensive line coach Joe Gilbert) and (run game coordinator Harold Goodwin) had graded pretty highly coming out (of college),” Canales said. “And this kind of right out of Coach (Pete) Carroll’s book of just, ‘Let’s just see if these guys have had enough opportunity over the course of years to figure out how they want to do this and how they want to play the game.’ So, I’m excited for him to have this opportunity and just be able to go in there, look at the film, sit down and see if he’s a guy that can help us.”
The Panthers lost some interior offensive line depth during free agency. Cade Mays signed with the Detroit Lions and Austin Corbett got a deal from the Buffalo Bills.
Veteran linemen Brady Christensen and Jake Curhan remain on the open market, but Christensen is recovering from Achilles surgery. Corbett, Christensen and Curhan all started games at right guard last season with Hunt sidelined with a biceps injury for most of the campaign.
Quick hits
- Prior to Friday’s workout, a league source confirmed to The Charlotte Observer that Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn’s base salary for 2026 was restructured. The Panthers turned the bulk of Horn’s $17.13 million base salary into a signing bonus and spread the charge for that bonus over the remainder of his contract. According to Spotrac, which first reported the restructure, the deal will open up $13.1 million salary cap space. Horn’s cap hit for 2026 will be $10.9 million, per Spotrac, which also reported that the Panthers added a void year in 2030 to the end of the deal. This move enabled the Panthers to sign six draft picks and 10 undrafted rookies on Thursday.
- The Panthers’ draft picks were given their initial jersey numbers during rookie camp. While their numbers are always subject to change, Freeling (No. 57), Hunter (No. 92), Brazzell (No. 19), fourth-round pick Will Lee (No. 24), fifth-round picks Sam Hecht (No. 75) and Zakee Wheatley (No. 38) and seventh-round pick Jackson Kuwatch (No. 46) donned their new digits on the practice field Friday. King wore No. 16 during his first workout with the team.
- Carolina invited these undrafted prospects to try out for the squad this weekend: Memphis QB Brendon Lewis, CB Blake Cotton, Iowa State TE Tyler Moore, Georgia State OT Derrell Bayley, Georgia DB JaCorey Thomas, Purdue DB Tony Grimes, Indiana State WR Rashad Rochelle, Stanford LB Ese Dubre, Toledo DT Martez Poynter and LSU OLB Patrick Payton.
- These practice squad holdovers from 2025 also took part in Friday’s workout: TE Bryce Pierre, WR Ja’seem Reed, RB Anthony Tyus, RB Montrell Johnson, CB Michael Reid, G Joshua Gray, LB Jared Bartlett and OLB Jamil Muhammad. Pierre, Reed and Reid all spent last summer with the Panthers.
- Second-year pass rusher Princely Umanmielen, a 2025 third-round pick, made a brief cameo on the field. He watched practice and greeted members of the staff during an early set of drills.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 3:14 PM.
