Panthers’ Xavier Legette: ‘I can’t have another year like I did last year’
Xavier Legette didn’t like how he played in 2025, and he knows what’s on the line in 2026 and beyond.
The receiver said as much on Thursday morning, at the conclusion of the Carolina Panthers’ three-day mandatory minicamp. And he didn’t mince his words.
“My main thing is just to have a better year than my first two years,” Legette said. “I can’t — I can’t — have another year like I did last year. I can’t do that.”
When asked specifically about 2025 that Legette can’t afford to duplicate, the third-year Carolina Panthers wideout didn’t delve into too many specifics.
“Receiving yards,” he said. “Just doing the little things that I gotta clean up. Just the mishaps that was happening last year. I can’t let that happen again.”
Legette finished last year’s regular season with 363 yards and three touchdowns on 64 targets. In the Panthers’ playoff game, he caught one pass for eight yards. Those numbers were all down from his promising rookie season — and were dwarfed by the Panthers’ 2025 first-round pick and Offensive Rookie of the Year Tetairoa McMillan, who eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards and recorded seven touchdowns last year.
What’s also notable: The 6-foot-3 wideout who the Panthers traded up for in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft also saw his snaps decrease. According to Pro Football Reference, Legette only started 12 of 15 games played — and by the end of the season, his snap counts were vastly lower than the snap counts of wide receiver Jalen Coker.
Legette pushed back on the notion that he “lost” his starting spot last season. But he was not coy about the urgency he has trained with this offseason.
“I didn’t really lose my starting job,” he said. “They just kind of removed me from one personnel (package). I was still starting at 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end). But I mean, I’m a team player. If they feel like that’s what it takes for us to be in a position to win, then I’ll do it.”
Legette said that he’s made several of the changes the coaching and training staffs have wanted to see from him this offseason. That includes playing at 221 pounds — down from 228-230 from 2025. He also said that he’s “bulletproofed” his hamstrings in an attempt to prevent the soft-tissue injury from dampening his production this season and beyond.
“I’m trying to bulletproof my hamstrings because that played a big part in everything that I’ve been doing my first two years, limiting me,” Legette said. “So I’m just trying to bulletproof my hamstrings, keep my hamstrings intact, and keep my body (strong) from the OTAs, through minicamp. I feel good. My body’s not sore. I’m working.”
Xavier Legette’s mindset of ‘do or die’
Legette said that he’s really comfortable in the Panthers’ system and has thus grown into a leader, something that teammates and coaches have taken notice of over the team’s offseason program to date. He said everything is “trending in the right direction” — but that he still is putting pressure on himself to perform.
“I feel like that I can always hold that pressure whenever the pressure is on me,” he said. “But I kind of just put myself in a mindset of, ‘It’s do or die.’ And that kind of helps me do the things I need to do, and keep that pressure on myself to never take my foot off the gas.”
He continued: “I’ve been playing the game for a long time. I’ve had ups and downs throughout my career. And it’s like every time when the pressure gets high, that’s when I show the most. ... The things that I’ve been going through here with the Panthers, as far as the media and all that, I dealt with all that when I was at Carolina (South Carolina Gamecocks). I love my Carolina fans. But it was kind of the same thing, my early years. I’ve (gone) through that.”
The Panthers will report to training camp in Charlotte on July 22, head coach Dave Canales said Thursday. Before then, Legette will rest his body and also attend a receiver retreat hosted by quarterback Bryce Young in Arizona, he said.
“Me and Bryce, we ain’t never had a problem,” Legette said. “But it’s always room to grow. We workin’. We’re going to stay with each other. Hopefully we’re going to play with each other for a long time.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 11:57 AM.
