The Carolina Panthers are on a bye this week. Normally the having the earliest bye week in the season would be frustrating, but it actually kind of worked out in the Panthers’ favor this time. The team has gotten off to a decent start to their 2026 campaign, including an upset win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football. Amidst the excitement of a fun start to the season, there’s been some uneasiness about mounting injuries all over the roster. The bye week will help some players with nagging
short term injuries, like Jalen Coker, Jaelan Phillips, and Monroe Freeling, get back to full health for the (long) stretch run of the season, and it will also provide some runway for possible long term absentees to make their returns.
In his press conference with the media on Monday, Panthers head coach Dave Canales actually had some good injury news to report for what’s felt like the first time all year. He deemed the injuries that Freeling and Phillips suffered against the Lions to be minor, with both having a chance to be back for the Eagles game after the bye week. On top of that, three players that started the season on the PUP list have a chance to return to the roster. Trevor Etienne, Taylor Moton, and Tershawn Wharton all have imminent returns, and the Panthers already shuffled the roster around to create some open roster spots for them. Etienne looks good to go, and he’ll reprise role as the team’s go to kick returner. Moton and Wharton are awaiting medical clearance, but Canales seems to think they’re both ready and should receive those clearances sooner rather than later. Moton will be a welcome addition to an offensive line that’s struggled to give Bryce Young consistent time in the pocket, while Wharton will give the Panthers some more depth on the defensive interior.
In a less positive but unsurprising bit of news, Canales said that Ikem Ekwonu is further away from making his return, though he is making good progress and there’s still hope that he’ll be ready before the end of the season. He’s progressed to jumping but still has a few more hurdles to clear before he’s ready for game action.
As for the rest of the Panthers injuries, we don’t have a lot of concrete information, but here’s what we know. On the bright side, most of the players currently out seem likely to return at some point during the season.
- Jaycee Horn: Avoided needing surgery on his torn quad. We don’t know the full severity of the tear, but it seems that the goal is for Horn to be back for the last month or so of the season.
- Mike Jackson: Had to have surgery for his groin injury, but the team is hopeful he’ll be back sometime in November.
- Damien Lewis: Injured the UCL ligament in his elbow. He has not been placed on injured reserve, which means the team is hopeful that he’ll be back within the next couple of weeks.
- Xavier Legette: It’s hard to know what to make of his injury. He hurt his knee when it banged into the turf on his 55 yard catch against the Falcons. He didn’t get placed on injured reserve until last week, so whatever it is seems to be lingering longer than expected. That said, it’d be surprising if he still wasn’t ready to go after his minimum of four weeks on injured reserve.
- Jonathon Brooks: Underwent surgery for a core muscle injury with a roughly six week timetable for return. That was two weeks ago, so we should hear some update on his progress in about a month. The team has been cautious with Brooks given his injury history, so it’s possible they handle this injury the same way.
- Brady Christensen: Little news on his progress after he suffered a hamstring injury during the preseason. Without knowing the nature of his injury, there’s no way to predict when he’ll return, though he’ll be eligible to come off injured reserve next week.
- Bam Martin-Scott: Martin-Scott was the team’s other IR designated to return player (along with Christensen) during final roster cuts. Like Christensen, we haven’t heard anything about his progress since he was placed on injured reserve, but he’ll be eligible to come off injured reserve next week if he’s healthy.
