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Panthers Have Xavier Legette-Sized Problem on Offense

New stat shows just how little Xavier Legette has been able to produce in his first two seasons with the Carolina Panthers
Preston Palm|
Nov 30, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette (17) looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kinser-Imagn Images
Nov 30, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette (17) looks on before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Kinser-Imagn Images | Scott Kinser-Imagn Images

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Xavier Legette’s tenure with the Carolina Panthers has been nothing short of disappointing. The former first-round pick hasn’t even reached 900 total yards in his first two seasons, and, to make matters worse, his production declined in his second year. 

On Monday, Football Insights released its graph of wide receivers and how they performed versus both press coverage and off coverage in the last two seasons.

The graph shows how many yards each receiver ran per route under both coverage styles. To no one’s surprise, Legette is embarrassingly low among the receivers posted on the graph. 

For context, the farther a player ranges toward the top right of the graph, the better; the best receivers are on that side. Puka Nacua tops everyone, and then the other elites in the league like Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Nico Collins, and Amon Ra St. Brown

As seen on the graph, Legette is floating in the 1-1.5 range on both press and off coverage; he’s in the same range as receivers like Darius Slayton, Juju Smith-Schuster, Tyler Lockett, and more. Two of those receivers didn’t even reach 500 receiving yards, and the only reason Slayton did is that Malik Nabers got hurt. 

All three of those receivers have something in common: they aren’t core pieces of their franchises and are all beyond the third option on their team in the pass game.

That’s the type of territory that Xavier Legette is heading towards, but the difference is that he was drafted in the first round, and those other three weren’t. 

An even more mind-boggling part of the graph is that Tetairoa McMillan has more yards per route in both press and off coverage, despite having a whole season less experience. This graph is based on data from the last two seasons. 

Even considering the fact that McMillan is one of the best receivers in football after his first season, it’s still inexcusable for a first-round talent like Legette to be as behind as he is with a full season more of experience. 

This is a problem for the Panthers that must be fixed either at the start of next season or will be resolved midway through the season, by trading Legette out of Carolina to a team willing to buy low on him and bet on his raw talent, as a fresh start is what he needs to thrive.

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Preston Palm
PRESTON PALM

Preston is an experienced sports writer focusing on NFL, College Football, NBA, and MMA topics. He is a passionate Charlotte and Oklahoma sports fan and graduated from the University of Science and Arts Oklahoma in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications degree with a focus in journalism.

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