One Dark Horse Who Should Make the Carolina Panthers Roster After OTAs

The Carolina Panthers begin a long and important offseason section today: OTAs. Now's the time when plenty of key decisions must be made. They have to decide who will make the roster, how to sort the depth chart, and where they must make further moves.

The biggest thing, of course, is the roster. Only 53 players can make it. Everyone else is either cut or lands on the practice squad, where they could be poached by other teams. To keep their talents, the Panthers have to keep them on the 53, but that's an extremely small number given how many players are up for it.

There aren't too many major fringe roster battles going on. Much of the roster is returning from last year, is a high draft pick, or was a marquee free agent addition. There are, however, some dark horses who could sneak onto the roster and surprise us all.

The biggest dark horse for the Panthers' roster is a local UDFA

Duke Blue Devils defensive tackle Aaron Hall (99) takes off his helmet | Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

Aaron Hall is an uber-athletic defensive lineman out of Duke. He went undrafted, but the Panthers snapped him up and have given him a chance to compete. He scored 9.67 on the Relative Athletic Score, which ranks him among the most athletic linemen ever.

Aaron Hall is a DT prospect in the 2026 draft class. He scored a 9.67 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 76 out of 2270 DT from 1987 to 2026.https://t.co/p3wY9wSo9z pic.twitter.com/qWQqqCOI9o
— RAS.football (@MathBomb) April 5, 2026

This alone should be a good enough reason to consider him a dark horse for the final 53. The Panthers have long been one of the least athletic teams in the NFL, but they're working to fix that. Adding players like Monroe Freeling and Chris Brazzell helps, but there's more to be done.

Having Hall up front as someone who can take advantage of their strength and speed to help wreak havoc on opposing offenses is crucial. He could, based purely on athleticism, be a nice chess piece for Ejiro Evero to pull out.

Beyond that, there's a need, too. Hall is an interior defensive lineman, which is exactly what the Panthers need right now. Tershawn Wharton is out for the foreseeable future, though he should return at some point in 2026. A'Shawn Robinson was released.

Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (99) reacts in the third quarter | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

The addition of Lee Hunter in the second round of the NFL draft helps offset that, but that's still a net loss of one key interior defender. Given Carolina's desire to stop the run, Hall is suddenly a pretty important figure.

So is Cam'ron Jackson, a 2025 fifth-round pick, but Hall isn't as assured of making the roster. However, thanks to his athleticism and the new positional need the Panthers have, he's certainly one to watch this summer.

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