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Have a Coker and a smile

Panthers say Jalen to be No. 2

In a somewhat uncommon piece of January news, Panthers coach Dave Canales says Jalen Coker will enter training camp next year as the No. 2 (across from Tetairoa McMillan) on the depth chart. It's rare you get 2026 depth chart info from coaches this early, but Coker has earned it.

Carolina has 2024 first-rounder Xavier Legette, mentioned in passing yesterday, and he's been a starter his first two seasons. But Coker has regularly outproduced him when healthy, and he finished especially strong last year. Not just in Carolina's playoff game (in which Coker caught 9 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown), but from the second half of the season on.

Using the search tools at pro-football-reference.com, you can look at spans of games during the season (or any season). I looked at a span of 8 games over the past two months; receiving totals from all wide receivers who appeared in that many games from mid-November through the end of their seasons.

Not surprisingly, guys like Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba top the list of qualifiers. Also showing up in the top 15 are guys who were tearing it up late in the year: Michael Wilson, Parker Washington. And Coker.

The list is below, sorted by most receptions in an eight-game span. (Players who played fewer than eight games due to injury, rest or bye weeks aren't included.)

TOP 8-GAME SPANS, WRS, WEEK 9-
PlayerRecYdsTD
Puka Nacua669767
Jaxon Smith-Njigba567525
Michael Wilson567756
Amon-Ra St. Brown537083
A.J. Brown506204
George Pickens446653
CeeDee Lamb405862
Khalil Shakir393441
Jameson Williams386433
Parker Washington376244
Stefon Diggs374751
DeVonta Smith364131
Zay Flowers365864
Jalen Coker354624
Luther Burden344721
Nico Collins345883
Justin Jefferson333620
Keenan Allen322630
Christian Watson304597
Tetairoa McMillan294775
Jauan Jennings283646
Romeo Doubs284023
Chimere Dike272293
D.J. Moore253256
Jakobi Meyers242381
Emeka Egbuka232610
Tre Tucker232411
Isaiah Williams221580
Jayden Higgins223243
Jerry Jeudy222671
Cooper Kupp212261
Christian Kirk202392
Darnell Mooney192531
Andrei Iosivas171991
Demarcus Robinson172452
Tre Harris172190
Jordan Addison162181
Xavier Legette161901

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big believer in Bryce Young. His better games seemed to alternate with lousy ones. But with Coker finishing strong, I'll be interested in him in early best-ball drafts. With Carolina having other needs, I don't think anything will be changing from Coker being the team's No. 2 next season.

--Andy Richardson

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