Carolina Panthers WR Xavier Legette putting in offseason work to improve in key area

The Carolina Panthers' wide receiver corps has a chance to be one of the NFL's most-improved position groups this coming season. However, for that to happen a few key factors will have to go in their favor. At the top, Adam Thielen and Bryce Young need to pick up where they left off last season with the league's best deep ball connection. Next, rookie Tetairoa McMillan will have to hit the ground running right away and make an immediate impact for Carolina's passing game.

Most of all, the Panthers will need to see some serious improvement from their 2024 first-round draft pick out of South Carolina, wide receiver Xavier Legette. While he flashed tons of potential in his first year, Legette still has a lot of developing to do.

Good news: Legette appears to be hard at work even though training camp is still a month away. Here's a look at Legette working out with Route God.

While this is a good sign, route running isn't really where Legette needs to grow. In fact, creating separation with sharp routes was arguably what he did best as a rookie. It's what Legette does at the catch point that needs to be torn down to the foundation and then built up again the right way.

To some extent drops are part of the business for any receiver, but Legette had too many of them - and too many in high-leverage situations - most notably dropping what should have been the game-winner against the Philadelphia Eagles.

In fairness, Legette may have been suffering from a wrist injury in the second half of the season that contributed to some of those high-profile drops. However, his wrist has nothing to do with the ill-conceived and often poorly-timed leaps that Legette makes at the ball.

Head coach Dave Canales came up in the NFL as a wide receivers coach with the Seattle Seahawks, who set a high standard of developing some special players - even undrafted free agents. Canales will have to break through and get Legette playing at his best if his offense is going to reach its full potential. It wll also require Canales himself to upgrade his play-calling.

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