Chemistry lessons start for Panthers’ Legette and Young

CAROLINA PANTHERS

Xavier Legette, the Carolina Panthers’ 2024 first round draft pick catches a pass during a workout session last week at Bank of America Stadium. Legette is expected to provide big-play capability to a Panthers offense that was among the NFL’s worst in 2023.

Running a seam route during a passing drill, Carolina Panthers rookie Xavier Legette appeared to break open, but quarterback Bryce Young badly overthrew the ball.

Playing deep, safety Xavier Woods intercepted the ill-advised throw and raced down the practice field at Bank of America Stadium. The defensive players celebrated.
Young and Legette went back to work.

Attempting to rebound from an NFL-worst 2-15 campaign, the Panthers entered offseason workouts with a re-shuffled front office, coaching staff and roster. Helping Young develop chemistry with Legette ranks among the top priorities for coach Dave Canales.

“I love bringing in young talent to raise the level of competition,” Canales said.

Legette’s professional introduction was a bit rough. During rookie minicamp May 10-12, undrafted free agent quarterbacks Jake Plummer (Louisville) And Sean Chambers (Montana State) had trouble connecting with the 2024 first-round draft pick.

Legette posted a 4.39-second 40-yard dash, the sixth-fastest time during the scouting combine in February.

“Xavier’s a big, fast man,” Canales said, “so, there is a change of pace. He’s covering ground like you’re not used to seeing. Just looking at Montana State and Louisville, they may not have had a guy that’s this big, this fast, so, a lot of what I saw was them trying to catch up to the speed and explosion of Xavier coming out of his breaks.”

Plummer stuck around as the third OTA quarterback, behind Young and Andy Dalton. Chambers was released following his three-day audition.

Legette missed Wednesday’s OTA with an injured hamstring. Canales didn’t sound too concerned that it would develop into a prolonged absence.

“With rookies, when they come out here, it’s a different level of work,” he said. “It’s not that they’ve never practiced this long. But everyone’s fast, everyone is going. And of course, with their wheels turning, there’s a strain on the brain and there’s also a strain on the body.

“Just as a precaution, we said we need to pull back a little bit. Want to make sure we’re smart at this at this point in our program and what we’re doing with our sights on training camp and all that.”

Immediately after first-year general manager Dan Morgan traded up April 25 to draft Legette with the No. 32 overall pick, Legette wanted to reach out to Young, hoping to get a jumpstart with offseason training sessions.

Those plans were soon scuttled, however, after Legette said he learned such informal workouts went against NFL and NFLPA rules. Legette was forced to wait until OTAs to begin building on-field rapport with Young, who struggled as a rookie. The 2023 first-overall draft pick earned a 52.6 passing grade by PFF.com, which ranked No. 41 among qualifying quarterbacks. Under pressure, Young’s 21.6 passing grade was the worst in the NFL. He was sacked 62 times, sixth-most in the league history.

“I’m really excited to have some new pieces,” said Young, who showed up for practice looking more muscular than a year ago. “And now it’s on us to put the work in, to build the chemistry, to get the reps on the field and make it translate.

“It’s always good to have new juice, different juice.”

To squeeze all of Legette’s playmaking abilities out of the Mullins, S.C., native, the Panthers are trying to refine his route-running, a skill scouts red-flagged during Senior Bowl workouts and the combine. The 6-foot-1, 221-pounder was labeled with a sub-par ability to drop his hips and fluidly make breaks on curl and comeback patterns.

“A lot of folks say a lot of bigger guys can’t get in and out of their breaks,” Legette said, “but I’m gonna show them (otherwise).”

Canales is confident the duo will create on-field chemistry.

“The way that [Legette] carries 225, it’s pretty incredible,” Canales said. “It’s just really well distributed in his body, so it doesn’t look like there’s this really thick man. He’s just so proportionately built. And then his movement skills — the way he controls his body, the way that he gets in and out of breaks — it’s pretty special.”

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