CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When Dave Canales needed a yard — and then a two-point conversion — Sunday to get the game tied against the two-time, defending Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs, the Carolina Panthers’ first-year coach had a plan:
Keep the ball in Chuba Hubbard’s hands and get right guard Robert Hunt out in front of him.
“When they call something behind Rob,” right tackle Taylor Moton said, “we know he’s gonna move some people for Chuba or whoever’s back there.”
That’s what happened Sunday, when Moton and a tight end blocked down, Hunt pulled around them and headed out on the edge toward safety Justin Reid. It was not a fair fight. Hunt shoved Reid out of the way, Hubbard cut inside of the block for a 1-yard touchdown before following it up with a two-point conversion behind the interior mashing of center Cade Mays and guards Damien Lewis and Hunt.
With Hunt’s penchant for “throwing guys out the club” — Hubbard’s phrase — and the zest with which he plays the game, it’s worth suggesting that Hunt might represent the best $100 million David Tepper has ever spent.
Chuba takes it in from the 1
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/1mdVM7eXwp
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) November 24, 2024
When the Panthers decided to make over an offensive line that allowed Bryce Young to get sacked 62 times as a rookie, they didn’t skimp. The Panthers signed Hunt, the former Miami Dolphin, to a five-year, $100 million deal that made him the league’s third-highest paid guard and raised some eyebrows around the league, as EVP of football operations Brandt Tilis said.
It also raised some eyebrows in the organization.
“I’ve been in the league 20 years and I’ve never seen a guy at that position make that much money,” said Panthers run game coordinator Harold Goodwin, who works with the guards. “It’s a new stratosphere for me. I’m sure it’s a new stratosphere for him.”
Not that Goodwin was complaining. Shortly after arriving with Canales from Tampa Bay in January, general manager Dan Morgan asked Goodwin if he liked Hunt and Lewis, who the Panthers also planned to pursue in free agency.
His response: “Hell to the yeah.”
Goodwin learned the value of interior line play while on Super Bowl-winning staffs in Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. Goodwin thinks the Panthers are in good shape with Hunt and Lewis, who signed a four-year, $53 million deal, flanking Mays.
“If you’ve got three core middle guys that can move s—, you’re gonna be all right in the long run. And right now our three core guys, when they play at their top level we’re pretty good,” Goodwin said. “I think Bryce is starting to learn that he doesn’t necessarily have to fear for his life every time he drops back in the pocket.”
Hunt spent his first four seasons in Miami after the Dolphins drafted him with the 39th pick out of Louisiana-Lafayette in 2020. The Texas native figured he would re-sign with Miami, where last season he allowed just five pressures while finishing with the lowest pressure rate allowed (1.3 percent) among all guards in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus.
The Dolphins were interested in keeping Hunt, but not at the price he and his agent were seeking. “Late in December they made an offer,” Hunt said. “I just thought it was a little disrespectful.”
Hunt declined to get into the specifics, but said “it screamed that we’re not gonna pay.”
So the 28-year-old prepared for free agency and quickly found a suitor in the Panthers, who were looking to fortify a guard position that had been a black hole in 2023 after season-ending injuries to starters Austin Corbett and Brady Christensen.
“I thought I did everything right (in Miami). I treat everybody with respect. I honor everybody. I work my butt off. I play the game the right way and it didn’t work out,” Hunt said. “It’s worked out the way it needed to work out.”
Moton, the elder statesman on the O-line, didn’t know much about Hunt other than his touchdown catch in 2021 that was nullified by an illegal touching penalty on him. So when the Panthers signed him, Moton watched some tape of him and concluded: “This guy’s the real deal.”
That was confirmed when the two started lining up next to each other in the spring. Moton started calling the 6-foot-6, 323-pounder “Big Rob,” for obvious reasons.
“He’s a huge person,” Moton said. “You see someone that size, it’s hard not to call him big.”
But Hunt isn’t just a big lummox, as he demonstrated on his would-be TD in Miami and during his third game with the Panthers when he ran out toward the sideline on a screen play and put Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane on his back.
Just a nasty block by Robert Hunt 💪
📺: #CARvsLV on CBS/Paramount
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/Uc6E1dPsnu— NFL (@NFL) September 22, 2024
“For his size, pound for pound, he’s a very tremendous athlete,” Moton said. “The way he can move in space. How quickly he can get his feet in the ground. The way he can cover guys up in pass protection. … It’s very impressive.”
Hunt’s pass protection metrics have dipped a bit this season, and he gave up a couple of pressures to Chris Jones, the Chiefs’ All-Pro defensive tackle.
“Rob had some good battles with him. Rob won some. He won some. So it was good ebb and flow to the competition,” Goodwin said. “We’ve just gotta get Rob’s hands and feet more coordinated. I think a little bit (Sunday), Rob was pressing because he knew who it was.”
But the Panthers have been pleased with their investment in Hunt, whose work ethic and enthusiasm remind Hubbard of himself. After Eddy Pineiro’s game-winning field goal in Munich, Hunt took off sprinting after Pineiro when the kicker ran to the opposite end of the field to salute his mother.
“Yeah, he’s crazy,” Hubbard said of Hunt. “He’s a maniac. But that’s something you can appreciate — just true passion for the game. He loves it. I love this s—, too. So we see eye to eye.”
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Hunt splurged on a Tesla Cybertruck after signing his mega-deal, but Goodwin said he’s not a flashy guy. He wears vintage clothes, goes to hole-in-the-wall barbecue spots and watches practice tape with Lewis on their tablets while sitting at their lockers.
He’d love to make his first Pro Bowl but knows that might be tough given the Panthers’ 3-8 record. After taking fans to task for wearing bags over their heads at the first home game, Hunt has enjoyed seeing the team make strides in the past few weeks.
“I think people can look at this team and see that we are coming. It’s not like we’re just a bad football team,” he said. “We’re young. We’re working. It’s a new staff. I think there’s a lot of positives going on. I think we’re heading in the right direction. We’ve all been saying that, but I really believe that.”
(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
