The Carolina Panthers selected Texas A&M cornerback Will Lee III in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Carolina Panthers added more secondary help Saturday, selecting Texas A&M cornerback Will Lee III with the No. 129 pick in the fourth round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Lee brings experience, length and physicality to Charlotte after becoming a key piece in Mike Elko’s Texas A&M defense.
He now joins a Panthers cornerback room led by Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson, giving Carolina another developmental defensive back with starting upside.
Lee’s path to the NFL wasn’t a straight line. A former three-star recruit from Missouri, he began his college career at Iowa Western Community College before transferring to Kansas State.
In 2023, he made an immediate impact for the Wildcats with 42 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, eight pass breakups and two interceptions.
After one season in Manhattan, Lee transferred to Texas A&M and quickly became a steady presence for the Aggies. In 2024, he posted 42 tackles, 12 pass deflections and two interceptions.
He followed that with 50 tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack and eight pass breakups during Texas A&M’s College Football Playoff run in 2025.
The production shows a corner who consistently finds the football, even if he wasn’t always a headline-grabbing prospect.
Lee earned a 6.12 prospect grade at the 2026 NFL Combine, along with a 67 production score, 70 athleticism score and 71 total score. Those marks placed him inside the top 21 among cornerbacks in multiple categories.
For the Panthers, the appeal is clear. Lee can compete in man coverage, hold up in zone and play with the toughness Carolina wants on defense.
The next step will be sharpening his consistency, cutting down mental errors and improving against vertical speed. But in the fourth round, the Panthers landed a battle-tested SEC corner with real developmental upside.
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