Xavier Legette isn’t just turning heads in the NFL with his play, but he also does so through his speech. The Panthers’ wide receiver, drafted No. 32 overall in 2024, made his name at South Carolina by racking up 1,255 yards and seven touchdowns in his final college season. But once he got to the league, it wasn’t just the speed or toughness that stood out — there was also something else that set him apart.
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Legette was born and raised in Mullins, South Carolina, a town of fewer than 5,000 people. And you can hear it the second he opens his mouth. His thick Southern drawl is impossible to miss — and entirely real. So real that even his own coaches sometimes struggle to understand him.
“Coach Moore can’t understand him,” Panthers teammate Jonathan Mingo said last year with a laugh. “Everybody always looked at me as a country guy on the team… So (when Legette) came in, I just bumped to second place…”
“Every time Legette answers, Coach Moore just be looking at him confused. We all just start laughing every time he has a question. But he’s cool. He’s got good energy, so a fun guy to be around.”
Xavier Legette’s accent has become a part of his identity. So much so that fans are posting compilations of the Panthers WR doing nothing but speaking — something we’re not sure Legette is a fan of. “They’ve been dragging it all over social media,” he said. “They just never heard anybody talk from Mullins.”
Xavier Legette on people loving his Mullins, SC accent
“They’ve been dragging it all over social media, they really just never heard anybody talk from Mullins.”@wcnc #Panthers pic.twitter.com/ooikXQl0Jf
— Nick Carboni (@NickCarboniWCNC) April 26, 2024
That said, Legette’s country roots run deeper than his voice. This is a guy who proudly told Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown on a podcast that he hunts, skins, cooks, and eats raccoons — and loves it. “It’s got its own taste,” he said, even bringing some to share in the Panthers locker room during the holidays. Squirrel is on his menu, too.
Simply put, Xavier Legette is as Southern as it gets — right down to the cowboy hat he wore to the Kentucky Derby and the wide grin he had when dancing with the Carolina Hurricanes’ mascot while attending his first-ever NHL game this spring.
But don’t mistake his charisma for distraction. Legette is serious about his craft. After a rookie season with 497 receiving yards and four touchdowns, he’s focused on cutting down the drops — eight on 81 targets — that held him back at times.
“Getting open wasn’t the problem,” he said. “It was just honing in to really catching the ball on the drops. Mainly just trying to catch it more with my hands and letting it get into my body or crossing my eyes.”
So as he enters Year 2, Xavier Legette remains one of the league’s most unique young talents — a wide receiver who carries the grit of Mullins with him and has no plans to change a thing.
