Xavier Legette On His Goal With Carolina Panthers This Season: ‘Get To The Playoffs'

Forbes

6 hours ago

Carolina Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette is making quite the rounds these days.
The 24-year-old wide receiver is notable for his thick Southern accent — he has ties to Mullins, South Carolina — and his name has grown in popularity in recent weeks due to his appearances at The Kentucky Derby and a recent Carolina Hurricanes hockey playoff game.
His love for Southern culture and foods combined with his fun-natured personality has made him a popular fan favorite.
However, he's also a great football player, having been a first-round pick in last year's draft. The 6-foot-3 Legette was Second-Team All-SEC selection during the 2023 season after posting 71 receptions for 1,255 receiving yards and seven touchdowns during his senior season.
However, he disappointed during his rookie season, posting just 49 receptions for 497 receiving yards. Legette struggled with drops during his first year, posting seven drops, ranking among the top 22 in the NFL.
"No problem's getting open," says Legette in a one-on-one interview. "I just had a couple drops. If I can just turn old negative plays into positive plays, it's going to go the way how I needed to go."
Legette only caught 58.3% of the passes thrown his way, with 84 targets thrown his way. Those number of targets led the team by 22 targets — Adam Thielen was the next closest at 62 targets — as it was clear that young quarterback Bryce Young honed in on him as his favorite target.
While Legette led the team with 49 receptions, he only had one more than Thielen, who finished the season with 48 catches for 615 receiving yards and five touchdowns, with the last two categories leading the team.
"Hone into that ball," Legette says when asked how he can lessen his drops.
Legette is 11 years younger than Thielen, who will turn 35 years old before the start of the season. The two-time Pro Bowl receiver is the oldest wideout in the league.
Although he's only played a year with the veteran receiver, Legette has already learned a ton from Thielen.
"It's a whole lot," says Legette of Thielen's influence. "Ways of how I'm going to read the defense, because the way I was taught, it's a different way of how he was taught. The way he talks about that, the way how he goes about taking care of his body, he's on a different level, he's doing everything. It's a lot that I learned from him."
He says he's already using some of Thielen's techniques at the age of 24.
"It's a lot of machines that he uses that I've never heard of," says Legette. "He does a good amount of stuff to keep his body right. If I can go ahead and get a head start on it, I'm going to jump on it now."
One of the objectives for Legette this season is to make it to the playoffs. It's a sentiment that has also been echoed by his teammate, Chuba Hubbard. Hubbard recently said the Panthers are "sick and tired" of losing. Hubbard's been a member of Carolina since 2021 and they haven't made it to the playoffs or posted a winning season since 2017.
"That's only thing I want to do for the team, we're just trying to work to get to the playoffs and potentially make it to the Super Bowl," says Legette when asked what his season objectives are.
As Legette prepares for his second season, he's partnering up with Lidl US, a premium private-label meat line. Lidl US has 20 new items as part of their Butcher's Specialty meat line – which features beef, chicken and pork.
The partnership makes sense considering Legette's Southern background and his affinity for good protein meats.
'The meat, high protein for the body, high quality meat,' says Legette of why he's partnering with Lidl US. 'Oh, I need it. I feel like it helps me. You can never go wrong with the steaks.'
Legette names "tomahawk" steak as his favorite protein meat and says he's "frying" out the grill with the Butcher's Specialty.
'We're frying out the grill every cookout.,' says Legette. "They're helping me push that out to my people, so it's good vies and good times."