Will any current players on the Carolina Panthers join Luke Kuechly in the Hall of Fame one day?
Carolina Panthers legend Luke Kuechly is making the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year.
In a fun exercise, ESPN senior NFL writer Bill Barnwell went through each of the league's 32 teams and attempted to identify the players who are either on track or have a realistic chance of making the Hall of Fame one day.
For the Panthers, Barnwell put DT Derrick Brown, CB Jaycee Horn and WR Tetairoa McMillan in the "work to do" category.
"After struggling to stay healthy early in his career, Horn has mostly been able to stay on the field and earned back-to-back Pro Bowl honors for the Panthers," Barnwell wrote. "He has been a high-end cover cornerback at his best, although tackling can be an issue for him. McMillan got his career off to a solid start by winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, albeit amid a relatively weak class. Though a 1,014-receiving yard season was enough to earn the Panther the hardware, he'll need to be more productive to set his sights on a gold jacket one day."
Brown enters this season with 13.0 sacks, 169 solo tackles, 33 tackles for loss and 59 QB hits, Horn has 10 interceptions in 53 games for the Panthers and McMillan caught 70 balls in 2025 for 1,014 receiving yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie. The WR won the 2025 Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
Carolina made the playoffs last season for the first time since the 2017 campaign, and even though they lost to Los Angeles, Bryce Young and McMillan showed the NFL world they already have significant chemistry, which is scary for the rest of the league.
"Coming into the season and just coming into the league, I was pretty confident in my abilities and what I could do," McMillan said. "None of that was a surprise to me. I always try to strive to be the best possible player that I can be and I knew that stuff like Rookie of the Year and all that wasn't too far and I knew that I was capable of achieving those things."
McMillan finished last season at 205 pounds. Even though he had an incredible campaign, the youngster felt "weak" at times.
That's why McMillan focused on his diet and the weight room over the last few months.
"Just getting my strength and my power back," McMillan said. "I wasn't used to playing that small. I felt pretty weak. I didn't have my power back, so that was pretty much the main focus this offseason for me."
It will be fascinating to see how McMillan and the Panthers perform in 2026. They will no longer be under the radar after making the playoffs in 2025.
