American Football
Panthers tipped as ‘sneaky’ NFC South winners by Super Bowl champ
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When NFL analysts talk about the NFC South heading into 2026, the conversation, even after the Carolina Panthers won the NFC South title in 2025, often starts with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaking on Good Morning Football, available to Game Pass subscribers on DAZN, a former Super Bowl winner made a strong case for Carolina to repeat in 2026.
“One question mark we used to have about the Carolina Panthers was their offense, and you know that Bryce Young is starting to come along,” said Isaiah Stanback, who won Super Bowl XLVI as a member of the New York Giants.
While Young showed signs of becoming the player Carolina envisaged when they used the first overall selection on him in the 2023 Draft, Stanback points to the Panthers' recent additions as to why he views Carolina as a contender next year.
“Their defense has always been their pinnacle.. their tried and true… their steadfast foundation,” he continued, “and they added to it.”
Stanback heaps praise on Carolina's defense
Stanback walked through the unit from the outside in, starting with the anchor of Carolina’s secondary. “On the outside, you guys have Jaycee Horn out there, one of the few lockdown corners in the league.”
From there, he moved inward to the defensive line, where defensive tackle Derrick Brown has been the heartbeat of the front seven for years.
“On the inside, on the D line, you’ve got Derrick Brown. Big fella. Big nasty up there holding it down. Run stopper and going out there pass-rushing.”
Stanback then turned his attentions to the new additions.
“And then you go out there and put Devin Lloyd behind him? You add Jaelan Phillips from the edge?” It was posed as a rhetorical question, but it opens the door to a deeper dive into why Carolina invested so heavily in adding both players.
What Phillips and Lloyd bring to the Panthers
Phillips’s five sacks in 15 games from 2025 may not immediately justify his four-year, $120 million deal. Some critics have wondered aloud if it was an overpay for the 26-year-old defensive end.
But look closer, and the case becomes clear: in total pressures - sacks, hits and hurries combined - Phillips ranked 4th among all edge rushers, placing him in the 97th percentile leaguewide.
As is the case for many edge rushers, the sack column was a narrow, understated view of what Phillips offers a defense.
Lloyd, a first-round pick in 2022 who has improved in every season since entering the league, has become the do-it-all modern linebacker that teams covet in today’s pass-centric NFL.
In 2025, he tied for the most interceptions among all linebackers with five, held quarterbacks to a 69.2 passer rating when targeted, and remained stout against the run.
While off-ball linebackers are increasingly devalued as teams shift to fielding more defensive backs at linebackers' expense. Lloyd's three-year, $45 million deal looks like good value.
The architect of the Carolina’s retool and a bold take
Stanback credited Carolina's shrewd moves to their general manager, and a Panthers man through and through.
“This team is very, very sneaky right now. What Dan Morgan is creating is a team that has an identity of who he was as a player.”
Morgan, a first-round pick of the Panthers in 2001, was known as an instinctive, physical linebacker who embodied a hard-nosed culture he is now rebuilding in Charlotte.
For Stanback, the results of Morgan’s signings make the Panthers the team to beat in the division.
“I choose them as the NFC South winners,” he concluded.
It is a bold call in a division that won’t be short of competition. But with a developing Bryce Young under centre, a defense built to win, and a general manager assembling a team in his own image, Carolina may not be as quiet a pick as it first seemed.
