Mina Kimes has one brutal word for Panthers WR Xavier Legette's 2025 debut

Out of all the things that went wrong for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, one issue stood out a little more than the rest. Aside from Tetairoa McMillan, the Panthers still do not have any reliable pass-catchers. Trading Adam Thielen might've cost them big time, as did losing Jalen Coker for four games.

That starts with Xavier Legette. He was drafted to eventually be WR1, and now he's WR2 thanks to a trade, and he still struggled immensely. His season debut was awful, and it cost the Panthers offense time and again. It drew the ire of NFL analyst Mina Kimes, too.

💭 Some thoughts on Bryce Young & the #Panthers performance from @minakimes & @Nate_Tice

“Bryce Young wasn’t as bad as the box score”

“Xavier Legette…infuriating”

“The Panthers pass catchers were killing me outside of Tet McMillan”

“TMac looks awesome”#KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/T5XopiHY0L
— Keep Purring Podcast (Ben) (@KeepPurringBen) September 11, 2025

The insider said, "Bryce Young wasn't as bad as his box score. The Panthers' pass-catchers were killing me, outside of Tet McMillan, our sweet baby, who was amazing. Killing me. Xavier Legette... infuriating."

Kimes revealed that Legette was credited with three drops on Sunday per PFF. For comparison, his drop-filled 2024 season had only seven credited drops. He's on pace to shatter that and probably lead the NFL in the stat.

"It looked like more, honestly. There were some pretty bad drops in key situations," she said. That was something Legette said he was working on in 2025, but it failed to show up in Week 1. He had trouble getting his feet down and holding onto the passes. The few times he did catch it, he ended up going backwards by trying to juke defenders.

Kimes added that the offensive line wasn't particularly helpful for Young, either. He faced the most quick pressure in the NFL on Sunday. Kimes said Young was "not good," but that he was not nearly as bad as the score and stats might imply.

Nate Tice chimed in with some support for Young, too. "Looking back, you understand most of his decisions," he said. The exceptions were the interception targeting Legette and the throwaway on fourth down, which coincidentally happened after Legette ran the wrong route and didn't look for the ball.

But through it all, both analysts were thrilled with how good McMillan looked, so that might help offset the fact that Legette might already be a huge bust.

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