A Panthers Player Said He Had to Change His Life. Four Games Later, It's Working

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A Panthers Player Said He Had to Change His Life. Four Games Later, It's Working

Sep 20, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Cooper Rush (13) throws a pass while under pressure form Carolina Panthers linebacker Princely Umanmielen (3) during the second quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Mark Livingston

Sun, Oct 11, 2026 ·

4 min read

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I don't think Princely Umanmielen had a bad rookie season. He played in 16 games, had 24 tackles and 1.5 sacks, and for a rookie, that's not exactly something I'd be worried about.

Umanmielen obviously felt differently.

He looked back at his first year and decided there were things he needed to change. And I'm not talking about adding another pass-rush move or spending a little more time in the weight room. He started looking at how he was eating, sleeping, recovering, and pretty much everything else he was doing.

"I had to change my life," Umanmielen told Panthers.com.

That's a pretty big statement for a guy coming off his rookie season. When I first read it, I wasn't really sure what to make of it. Now that we're four games into this season, it makes a little more sense.

Maybe He Knew Something Had to Change

Panthers.com went into everything Umanmielen changed during the offseason . His diet changed. Sleep became more important. So did recovery and what he was putting into his body.

We've all heard the offseason stories before. Somebody lost weight, somebody added muscle and somebody is supposedly in the best shape of his life. I usually don't pay much attention to those stories until I actually see something different on Sundays.

Well, I'm seeing something different with Umanmielen.

He already has three sacks through four games. That's twice as many as he had all of last season, and he's gotten a sack in three of Carolina's first four games.

According to Panthers.com , the last Panthers players to do that were Brian Burns and Haason Reddick in 2021.

I'm not saying that puts Umanmielen in that category. Three sacks isn't enough for me to start doing that, but it's definitely enough for me to start wondering what this could turn into, especially when you go back to what he said about changing his life.

I Keep Coming Back to What Happened Against Detroit

I know Umanmielen had already recorded sacks against Chicago and Cleveland, but the one against Detroit probably stood out to me the most.

Dave Canales actually thought Umanmielen was too fired up early in the game. He wasn't playing like himself, so Canales found him on the sideline and basically told him to calm down and trust that his opportunity would come.

"Just settle in, just do your job, your time is going to come," Canales told him.

Later in the fourth quarter, there was Umanmielen getting to Jared Goff for a huge sack.

Maybe I'm reading too much into one play, but I liked that. A young player gets told he's trying to do too much, settles himself down, and then makes one of the biggest defensive plays of the game.

And really, that's kind of where I'm at with his season. I'm not ready to call Umanmielen a breakout player after four games. I've watched enough football to know three sacks can turn into three sacks through eight games pretty quickly.

But I've also watched him get to the quarterback in three of four games. I've seen him already double his sack total from last season, and now I know how much he changed, trying to make sure his second year didn't look like his first.

Maybe this keeps going. Maybe we look back in a couple of months and three sacks through four games was just a nice start.

Right now, though, I'm starting to believe Umanmielen when he says he needed to change his life.

Because something definitely changed.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com/nfl/panthers/onsi as A Panthers Player Said He Had to Change His Life. Four Games Later, It's Working .

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