The Carolina Panthers didn’t even make it through one practice before disaster struck. Outside linebacker Nic Scourton went down on a wet field during team drills on the first day of training camp Thursday, and by Friday morning the diagnosis was official: a torn ACL in his right knee that will end his 2026 season before it starts.
Scourton was carted off in tears. Every player on the roster and head coach Dave Canales walked over individually to hug him before he was taken to the training room, according to ESPN. The cart didn’t move again until every hug was finished.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirmed the diagnosis on X. “Nic Scourton will seek a second opinion and if the ACL is confirmed, he’ll have surgery in the coming weeks. The Panthers are high on Scourton, who is just scratching the surface,” Rapoport wrote —
Nic Scourton will seek a second opinion and if the ACL is confirmed, he'll have surgery in the coming weeks. The #Panthers are high on Scourton, who is just scratching the surface. https://t.co/vE8NHyxYnI
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 23, 2026
ESPN separately reported that sources told both Rapoport and colleague Cameron Wolfe the tear is season-ending, with Scourton set for injured reserve.
A Rookie Season That Promised More
Scourton wasn’t just a rotational piece. Carolina took him in the second round of the 2025 draft out of Texas A&M, and he answered by starting eight of 17 games as a rookie, finishing with 47 tackles, five sacks, a forced fumble and nine quarterback hits. That production came on a defense that finished 15th in the league, and Scourton was one of the reasons it climbed there.
This year, the plan was to hand him a full-time starting job opposite free-agent addition Jaelan Phillips, pairing a proven pass rusher with a second-year player the coaching staff believed was still improving. “The Panthers are high on Scourton, who is just scratching the surface,” Rapoport’s report noted — a line that now reads as a cruel bit of timing.
| Category | 2025 Rookie Season |
|---|---|
| Games Played (Starts) | 17 (8) |
| Tackles | 47 |
| Sacks | 5.0 |
| QB Hits | 9 |
| Forced Fumbles | 1 |
Why It Happened, and Who Steps Up
Scourton appeared to be engaged in a block with an offensive lineman when his knee gave out on the wet turf, per ESPN’s report. Quarterback Bryce Young was nearby but said he didn’t see the exact moment of contact. “He has a super-high motor, has great energy. He’s fun to be around. He turns into that different competitor when he’s on the field,” Young said of his teammate, according to ESPN.
Canales confirmed the right knee injury to reporters after practice, before the team had full test results back. “We’ve got depth,” Canales said. “That’s why we keep bringing in guys. … If it comes to that, we have guys that we trust.”
That depth will now be tested immediately. Third-round rookie Princely Umanmielen, who logged 24 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 16 games last season without a start, is a candidate to move into a bigger role. So is Patrick Jones II, signed after four years with Minnesota, though a back injury limited him to four games in his lone season in Carolina.
The timing compounds an already rough camp opener for the Panthers’ front. Longtime right tackle Taylor Moton remains out after a blood clot was discovered in his lungs, and left tackle Ikem Ekwonu is still working back from a torn patellar tendon suffered in last season’s wild-card loss. Carolina will open camp without both starting tackles and now without its projected starting edge rusher.
The Bigger Picture
Carolina finished the 2025 regular season 8-9 and won the NFC South before falling to the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card round. The Panthers head into this camp defending a division title, and losing a building-block piece like Scourton on day one is the kind of setback that can shift how a defensive coordinator plans an entire season, not just replace one body on the depth chart.
Scourton is expected to seek a second opinion before surgery, which is standard procedure for ACL injuries of this severity. Recovery timelines for a torn ACL typically run 9 to 12 months, which is why the expectation across every outlet reporting this story is that Scourton’s 2026 season is over before it began, with a return targeted for 2027.
