The Carolina Panthers’ first training camp practice of 2026 ended with their best young pass rusher being carted off the field. Second-year outside linebacker Nic Scourton suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during team drills Thursday, sources told NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Cameron Wolfe, according to ESPN. The injury ends his 2026 season before it started and marks a brutal opening blow for a defense that was supposed to take a leap this year.
Scourton went down late in practice on a wet field during 11-on-11 work. Players immediately dropped to a knee around him. He held his hand over his face as he was helped onto a cart, and as he was wheeled off, head coach Dave Canales and the entire roster came over individually to hug him before he headed to the training room, per ESPN.
Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network broke the news on X, writing that tests confirmed the tear and calling it a “brutal blow for Carolina D & Year 2 rising pass rusher who was expected to make huge impact opposite Jaelan Phillips.” He added that Patrick Jones and Princely Umanmielen are the top internal options to fill in, and that Carolina could be a team to watch in the free agent or waiver market for edge help.
Nic Scourton is such an important piece to Panthers D. His production, motor will be hard to replace. You could see impact on teammate reax
Pat Jones, Princely Umanmielen top internal options to fill in. Could be a team to watch for EDGE addition in free agent/waiver market https://t.co/lGpM40TS5m
— Cameron Wolfe (@CameronWolfe) July 23, 2026
The Panthers didn’t wait around. Within hours, they agreed to terms with outside linebacker Cam Gill, according to Greg Auman of FOX Sports, as confirmed by NBC Sports. Gill, 28, spent 2024 with Carolina and won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in 2020. He just finished leading the UFL with 10 sacks for the Louisville Kings, earning the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award in the process.
What Scourton’s Injury Means for the Panthers Defense
Scourton looked like a real building block as a rookie. A second-round pick in 2025, he played all 17 games and started eight, finishing with five sacks, nine quarterback hits and seven tackles for loss while developing into a starter for a defense that ranked 15th in the league. Carolina had lined him up opposite free-agent addition Jaelan Phillips, who signed a four-year, $120 million deal this offseason — the largest free-agent contract handed out by any team, according to CBS Sports. That pairing was supposed to anchor an improved pass rush. Now Carolina has to find answers behind Phillips with a much thinner group.
Patrick Jones II is the most experienced name in line to step up, though he’s working back from a back injury that limited him to four games last season. Princely Umanmielen, a third-round pick out of Ole Miss in 2025, played 16 games as a rotational rusher as a rookie but hasn’t made a start. Gill adds a veteran body with special-teams value and a fresh case for playing time after his UFL breakout.
The injury also lands at a rough moment for Carolina’s depth chart. Starting right tackle Taylor Moton is already out after doctors found a blood clot in his lungs, and left tackle Ickem Ekwonu is still working back from a torn patellar tendon suffered in last season’s wild-card loss to the Rams, according to WRAL/AP. Two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn is also dealing with a foot laceration and didn’t practice Thursday. Panthers general manager Dan Morgan summed up the mood plainly: “I’m just sick about it.”
Canales on the Scourton Injury
Canales addressed the emotional scene after practice, framing it as a moment for the team to lean on each other rather than push through. “I just know how much these guys mean to each other,” Canales said. “And I can go up in front of the guys and preach the fact that we lead with love and respect and connection and relationship. And while we could certainly move the drill and keep the practice going, we had enough time.”
He said the decision to stop and gather the team came from a conversation with VP of football operations Jeff Brown. “Jeff and I kind of talked about how we had enough time in practice to just get a kickoff, and everybody come up, and make sure they send him some love. Who knows what it is with the knee, but it’s a chance for the guys to connect. And I wanted to make sure they had a chance.”
| Player | 2025 Role | 2025 Stats |
|---|---|---|
| Nic Scourton | Starting OLB (17 GP, 8 GS) | 5.0 sacks, 9 QB hits, 7 TFL |
| Patrick Jones II | OLB (4 GP, back injury) | 1.0 sack, 9 tackles |
| Princely Umanmielen | Rotational OLB (16 GP, 0 GS) | 1.5 sacks, 24 tackles |
| Cam Gill | Panthers OLB in 2024 / UFL in 2026 | 2.5 career NFL sacks; led UFL with 10 sacks in 2026 |
Carolina came off an 8-9 season that was still good enough for an NFC South title, and the front office spent aggressively this offseason to build on it. Losing Scourton doesn’t erase that investment, but it does put more pressure on a young edge room to grow up fast — and it makes the next few weeks of the free-agent and waiver markets worth watching closely for Carolina.
