Dave Canales maintains faith in Xavier Legette

Xavier Legette hasn’t lived up to being a first-round draft pick of the Panthers. It hasn’t been all his fault, considering the quarterback play, but he hasn’t helped himself.

Legette was caught on video walking back to the line of scrimmage during hurry-up mode in Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals.

Coach Dave Canales defended Legette, claiming it was fatigue from a high volume of plays. (The Panthers had 85 offensive snaps.)

“We subbed TMac [Tet McMillan] and Xavier out quite a bit in that second half because we were in tempo with the lead that the Cardinals had, and so both guys were pretty gassed during that time,” Canales said, via the team website. “But that’s something in general we talked to his defense, offense, whoever that is, like we want guys to be hustling. We want guys to show up and do their job with urgency.”

Legette, a 2024 first-rounder, has four catches for 10 yards this season. That includes the one catch he had for minus-2 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals. He had 49 catches for 497 yards and four touchdowns last year.

He and McMillan have played 80 percent of the snaps this season.

Canales said he has no plans to change the lineup.

“I believe in Xavier,” Canales said about benching Legette. “This is a guy that I truly believe because of the way he’s wired, the way that he works. The way that he continues to train. He had a great week of practice; he played better. He had some opportunities on the field where the ball didn’t go his way. I tried to get him a few early touches. They didn’t amount to much, but as the game kind of went on, a few of the other targets, they were close plays. He didn’t make them, but I think it’s a matter of just finding opportunities.

“I believe in him. I believe that he’s approached this the right way and just continues to work. So I’m going to continue to encourage him and be in his corner and push him to keep striving for that, and keep working on his chemistry with Bryce [Young], because he’s got the talent. I think at times he can be hard on himself, and he can be really critical of himself, and I wanted to make sure that he knows he’s supported, that we’ve got to play ball, let’s go. And there’s that balance of pushing him, and there’s that balance of also saying, ‘You’ve got this. Remember who you are.’”