Brady Christensen's Role is Still Undetermined
Brady Christensen has played left tackle his entire football career. That is, until he arrived in Carolina. Since being drafted by the Panthers in 2021, he's seen time at right tackle, both guard spots, and left tackle. Heck, there was even one time several months ago where head coach Matt Rhule said he would be a good center too.
After starting the last three games at left tackle in his rookie campaign, it appears as if he will be kicked inside to left guard, making room for Ikem Ekwonu, who the team chose with the 6th overall pick in this year's draft.
Every time Christensen talks to the media about which position he is playing, you can tell that he really wants to be out at left tackle, but he's going to do whatever best helps the team.
"I love it," Christensen said about competing for a starting position at two spots. "I'm not sure exactly what position I'm going to play but I'm excited to go compete at all of them and they always say best five play, so I'm going to go try and crack that.
"I'm just excited to get out there tomorrow and go play wherever they put me. I'm going to go out there and compete. My goal is to get a starting job. We've got a lot of guys on the offensive line, a lot depth. The competition is going to be awesome."
The plan for at least the training camp portion of the preseason is to let Christensen rep at tackle and guard. Once the team departs from Spartanburg, head coach Matt Rhule and his staff will likely settle him into one spot.
"Brady is going to play left tackle and left guard. We'll have a good battle over there at both of those positions. And like I've said to you guys, I feel like Brady is one of our better football players," said Rhule. "But during this two weeks, we're not going to decide the whole team or anything like that but this will be a little bit of a grind and we'll re-evaluate after these two weeks. Brady, he'll play both and we'll see where he's most comfortable and see where the best combination is."
Although he hasn't "won over" the staff at left tackle, he does have their trust. Back in minicamp, Rhule said that he's developing into one of the best players on the team, not just the offensive line. I asked Christensen what that statement meant to him despite uncertainty surrounding where he'll line up.
"It gives me a lot of confidence. That's the goal, to get a lot of confidence from your coaches in that they can put you out there and trust you to make your plays. And that's who's going to play, the guys that they trust the most. That's half the battle is being where you need to be and doing what you need to do."
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