Carolina Panthers' putrid offensive ranking reinforces why more work is needed

If the 2025 NFL season were to begin today, the Carolina Panthers would be returning almost the exact same offensive personnel they had at season's end. Rico Dowdle has replaced Miles Sanders as the team's primary backup behind Chuba Hubbard. However, other than that this unit looks pretty much identical as it was going into Week 18.

Andy Dalton is still the team's QB2 behind starter Bryce Young, Adam Thielen remains the best and only proven wide receiver on the roster and the entire Panthers offensive line - both starters and backups - is returning, as well. In this last case that's a good thing, but the skill positions still need a whole lot of work.

If you don't believe us just observe the latest offensive unit rankings from Jason Burgos at Sportsnaut, who has Carolina's offense slotted at 24th.

"After being benched earlier in the year and then getting his starting spot back, Bryce Young showed major growth when he was given back the starting job. While he didn’t fill up the stat over the second half of the season, he gave Carolina Panthers management reason to believe the former No. 1 overall pick still can be the future of their organization. They haven’t made any big additions this month, but former Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle could be an impactful player out of the backfield in 2025."

It would be wrong to place the blame on the OL, which is better than average at worst and arguably top-10 in the league. The running back unit is also very strong with Dowdle backing up Hubbard and the quarterback room is on the upswing with Bryce Young finally starting to come into his own.

What needs to change are the weapons around Young, specifically their wide receiver corps and their tight end group, which is arguably the weakest in the NFL.

At this point all the quality tight ends in free agency are gone, so the Panthers will have to address that in the 2025 NFL draft where there's a deep class of them - starting with Penn State's Tyler Warren, who wouldn't be a bad top target at number eight overall.

At wide receiver it's the other way around. While the pool is shrinking every day there are still some really good vets on the market, and none of them are going to break the bank at this point in their careers.

However or whenever they choose to go about it, they have to address those spots. Rolling into the 2025 season with the same WR/TE group minus Ian Thomas would be an egregious mistake when it comes to giving Young the supporting cast he needs to grow.

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