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The Carolina Panthers opened training camp on Tuesday with two starters already absent. Cornerback Jaycee Horn and right tackle Taylor Moton have both been placed on the non-football injury list, per Cameron Wolfe of NFL Network. The circumstances surrounding each player are entirely different in severity.
Horn cut his foot while running in July and needed stitches. The Panthers expect him to return early in camp, with veterans Mike Jackson, fourth-round rookie Will Lee, Corey Thornton, and Chau Smith-Wade handling cornerback reps in his absence. Horn’s two-time Pro Bowl credentials and his 2025 season, featuring five interceptions and eight pass defenses in 16 games, make his return the only question worth asking about his situation.
Moton is a different matter.
Moton’s Timeline and NFI List Rules
The 31-year-old right tackle was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung in late June. He was
immediately placed on blood thinners and has been under daily assessment by the Panthers’ medical staff. Per Joe Person of The Athletic and Wolfe, the team believes Moton is responding well to treatment and expects him to play in 2026, but he will miss the start of the regular season.
Players placed on the Active/NFI list during training camp can be activated at any time, but if Moton is transferred to the Reserve/NFI list at the start of the regular season, league rules mandate he must sit out at least four games.
The broader context makes Moton’s absence a significant problem. Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu is already out after rupturing his patellar tendon in the Panthers’ Wild Card loss to the Los Angeles Rams in January. Carolina addressed that situation in the offseason by signing former Packers starting left tackle Rasheed Walker to a one-year, $4 million deal and using a first-round pick on Georgia’s Monroe Freeling.
Moton was the stable presence on the right side for whom no similar precautionary depth move had been made, because no one anticipated this.
Moton has started 128 of 145 career games in Carolina since the Panthers drafted him in the second round out of Western Michigan in 2017. He started 15 of 16 games in 2025. He had delayed retirement during the offseason and signed a two-year, $44 million extension before the 2025 season that runs through 2027.
Several NFL players have navigated blood clot diagnoses and returned to playing, with Chris Olave, Trey Smith, and Christian Barmore among recent examples, but each case is managed individually and the timelines vary.
Carolina enters camp coming off their best run in years, reaching the playoffs as NFC South champions in 2025. The offensive line protection for quarterback Bryce Young in 2026 is now the largest immediate question the organization faces as camp opens without both of its starting tackles active.
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The post Panthers face serious health concern with Taylor Moton as training camp begins in Charlotte appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.
