Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette had a sophomore season to forget in 2025 after posting decreased stats all across the board. But, beyond the stats, Legette was a hard player for the Panthers to consistently rely on, mainly due to his own fault.

Legette had a few mental lapses last season involving his awareness on certain plays that turned would-be explosive gains into incomplete passes. The talent is certainly there for him to be a key play-maker for this offense and he realized some of the issues that have been holding him back after his first two seasons that he aimed to hone in on.

“Stuff like that can get you benched,” Legette explained. “Just can’t do stuff like that… I just had to take a step back, I felt like I was probably a little too loose,” Legette said. “I just had to take a step back and focus on the main thing, for real.”

Panthers have seen a new spark out of Xavier Legette going into his third season

Legette’s attention to detail certainly popped up throughout training camp and he returned to making the explosive plays that a player of his status should be making routinely.

“What I’ve seen him do is just make great plays on the boundary, back of the end zone, just some of those spatial plays where he can go attack the ball, find a way to get his feet down,” head coach Dave Canales said. “He’s really attacked that part of his game. That’s something I’ve seen him really improve on.”

On top of that, Legette has spent plenty of time in and out of the building with Bryce Young, just continuing to build that trust and chemistry with his quarterback.

“I’m talking to him a little more, going up to him and asking him things like how he feels about this and (does) he like this? Am I in the right spot?” Legette said. “So we’re getting it right.”

Panthers are finding new ways to feature Xavier Legette going into Week 1

All of this has given the Panthers a lot more confidence in their former first-round pick going into what could be a make-or-break season. The Panthers might not see it that way right now, but it is certainly the reality of his situation. However, from what they’ve seen the last few months, Legette has proved to be a player they need to get the ball to in any way, including using him as a returner on special teams.

“Xavier is an excellent blocker when he’s back there. He’s a very strong runner,” special teams coordinator Tracy Smith said. “He had great returns at South Carolina and for us. He had a long return against the Eagles a couple years ago. He’s very comfortable with the ball in his hands; the Panthers would love to have more touches for Xavier on offense, special teams, wherever. So that’s the exciting part of that.”

The idea of featuring Legette as a returner is a fascinating one. You don’t see guys his size often returning kicks, even if it’s something he’s done in his past. It just goes to show that the Panthers are leaving no stone left unturned when it comes to getting him the football.

Now it’s on Legette to turn the preseason hype into more in-season production.