Carolina Panthers' fatal flaw points to front office's biggest offseason failure

Thanks to Tampa's loss to Atlanta last night, the Carolina Panthers woke up today to find themselves in first place in the NFC South.

That means if the season were to end right now, they would be hosting the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs at Bank of America Stadium.

Now that they're a legit playoff contender, it's a good time to examine what their greatest strengths and weaknesses are - because you can guarantee that their opponents will be able to exploit their flaws. According to Vinnie Iyer at The Spoting News, Carolina's fatal flaw is third down defense.

"The Panthers allow teams to convert at 44.2 percent, 29th in the NFL. This is a problem because they can be inconsistent against run and pass through early downs. This flaw is likely to keep them out of the playoffs."

Dave Canales Dan Morgan — Feb 1, 2024; Charlotte, NC, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales speaks to the media as general manager Dan Morgan looks on during the introductory press conference at Bank of America Stadium | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The biggest reason why they struggle on third down is that their opponents simply have too much time to work in the pocket, because the Panthers once again have one of the league's worst pass rushes.

Heading into Week 15, Carolina has totaled just 18 sacks - only the 49ers have fewer this year.

This represents the third straight season that the Panthers have ranked near the bottom of the league in sack totals, and it's the greatest ongoing failure of this front office.

This year the only positive move that they made in this department was drafting Nic Scourton out of Texas A&M - a first-round prospect who managed to fall to the second.

Every single other decision that Carolina has made when it comes to edge rushers this year has not panned out, beginning with their inexplicable call to release Jadeveon Clowney - who was the best pass rusher on the roster at the time.

With Clowney out of the picture the projected starters on the edge were veterans D.J. Wonnum and Patrick Jones II - neither of whom have worked out. Before Jones went down for the season he managed one sack in four games. Meanwhile, Wonnum is still sackless.

While Scourton has shown great potential, it hasn't been the same story for Princely Umanmielen, who's totaled 1.5 sacks and hasn't made an impact play in weeks.

Whatever else the Panthers do this coming offseason, if they can't add at least two respectable pass rushers to the mix progress is going to be hard to come by in 2026 - and odds are they're in for a pretty harsh reality check if they do host a playoff game.

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