Jalen Coker is putting himself into rarefied air with the way he has begun the 2026 NFL season for the Carolina Panthers.
Coker is an undrafted wide receiver in just his third yet in the NFL, yet he’s been an absolute star through two weeks as the Panthers have put up a combined 71 points in two games.
The 24-year old who played his college ball at Holy Cross is showing that he deserves consideration as one of the top undrafted players in recent memory.
In Week 1, he caught eight passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns. That included a 51-yard score.
Then in Week 2, Coker caught another eight passes, this time for 66 yards.
In both games, Coker caught 8-of-9 targets that came his way from QB Bryce Young.
It’s not a guarantee that Coker keeps this up, but it seems very possible. He’s at worst the second-best target on the Panthers, along with Tetairoa McMillan. Young is throwing a lot, and he seems to trust both of them.
That could allow Coker to keep putting up big numbers.
Regardless, though, he’s already made some history.
Jalen Coker Panthers History
There are two pieces of NFL history that Coker has joined, and the first is specific to Carolina.
The Panthers shared on Tuesday that Coker is the first player in team history with eight catches in each of the first two weeks of the season.
That’s not a stat about undrafted players. That’s a stat about all players who have suited up for the Panthers.
Coker’s back-to-back eight-catch games already stand alone for Carolina.
Jalen Coker Undrafted History
Maybe even more impressive is where Coker resides among the ranks of the undrafted.
He’s the third undrafted player since 1967 to go through two games with at least 15 catches, 200 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Coker, with his 16-204-2 line, is the first to do this since 2011. That’s when Wes Welker did it for the Patriots.
The impressive Rod Smith also did it in 2001.
Smith and Welker made waves as two wideouts who were never expected to last in the NFL yet did anyway.
Coker is looking like he’ll quickly join that category.
A Miss on Jalen Coker
The reality is that it seems like teams just whiffed on Coker.
He’s 6-foot-3 and runs well, and while he played at FCS Holy Cross, he was an FCS First-Team All-American, and he set the Holy Cross program records for receiving yards (2,715) and TD receptions (31).
Coker couldn’t have done anything else in college to grab NFL attention.
The Panthers clearly saw what he could do, but even they likely couldn’t have imagined the way it has translated to the NFL.
Coker is making history, and Carolina sure wouldn’t mind if he simply kept doing that.
Panthers’ Jalen Coker Makes NFL History, Joins 2 Legends