NFL rankings just gave two Panthers offensive linemen the perfect fuel to make the league regret doubting them
Carolina Panthers offensive guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis were surprisingly left off ESPN’s top interior offensive line rankings, giving both players more motivation going into the 2026 season.
The Carolina Panthers seemingly turned the corner last season after returning to the playoffs and winning the NFC South, yet the Panthers still have plenty of disrespect within the league to fuel the team and certain individual players.
Offseason disrespect is something the Panthers are used to. In fact one veteran NFL assistant coach recently admitted that players on the Panthers roster are overlooked just because of the team they play for.
That continued over the weekend with two more Panthers players who just got plenty of motivation to prove a lot of people wrong this upcoming season.
Carolina Panthers two offensive guards disrespected in ESPN’s Top-10 IOL rankings
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler has been rolling out Top-10 positional rankings for the last week and Sunday’s edition ranked the top interior offensive linemen in football. So far, only two Panthers players earned Top-10 honors in those rankings in CB Jaycee Horn and DT Derrick Brown. One could make an argument that both guards in Carolina should have made Sunday’s Top-10 list, but that wasn’t the case.
Veteran right guard Robert Hunt was at least listed as an honorable mention, which means a few voters did have him in their Top-10 ballot. The reasoning behind why he was left off is justified to an extent considering Hunt missed the majority of last season after suffering a torn biceps.
“He’s not in the elite group, but as a run-game mauler, there aren’t many better. He just wasn’t healthy last year,” an NFC scout said of Hunt.
It’s clear that, when healthy, Hunt can take his place among the top interior offensive linemen in the league. In 2026, he will have the opportunity to do just that.
As for veteran left guard Damien Lewis, he was completely snubbed from the list and wasn’t even mentioned among the four honorable mentions nor the eight other interior offensive line that received votes.
The omission of Hunt on the Top-10 list was reasonable given his injury situation last season, but leaving Lewis completely off with not a single vote is downright insanity.
IOL rankings will add even more motivation for Damien Lewis, as if he even needed it
Lewis was one of six guards last season to have 500+ pass blocking snaps with one or fewer sacks allowed. In the run game, his 75.2 run blocking grade ranked eighth among guards with 300+ run blocking snaps. I’m not saying he deserved a top ranking, but he certainly deserved some votes.
“For a guy his size, and his anchor as well, coupling with that strength. So the athlete, he’s got everything you’d want to be a phenomenal guard,” Panthers offensive coordinator Brad Idzik said of Lewis. “And then the quiet confidence. It’s something that you go all the way back to his rookie year, he comes off as a quiet guy, but when he speaks, it opens up the world to see like this guy is smart.”
That quiet part Idzik touched on could help explain why the rest of the league overlooked Lewis in this conversation (along with the fact that he plays in Carolina, again a team one coached admitted he overlooks).
“I like to play the back seat — observe, listen, just watch things from afar (and) … sit back,” Lewis explained. “You don’t need to be in the front seat every time. You don’t need the spotlight on you every time.”
At the same time, it’s a great feeling to have you name mentioned among the league’s best and Lewis was robbed of that honor. Quiet or not, he played like a top guard on the field last season and got no respect for it.
“He’s a quiet guy, but he’s funny if you get to know him. He’s really got the dawg in him. I can just see the flip switch in him,” Hunt said of Lewis. “He can be in here and he’ll shoot the (bull), act like it don’t really matter to him. But when he gets on the field, it flips. And he wants to be good, so that right there is motivation.”
Lewis already had plenty of motivation going into the 2026 season with his current contract situation. Getting disrespected like this by people within the league will only motivate him even more to earn some respect.