With less than a month to go before the season, Maryland thought its pass rush was in a pretty good spot. Then Zahir Mathis went down, and this one is going to hurt. He was supposed to be a huge part of that unit after showing what he could do last year, including an 11-tackle, one-sack game against Illinois. Now the Terps have to adjust on the fly and figure out a new plan before Week 1.

Zahir Mathis is expected to miss the 2026 season because of a leg injury, Pete Nakos of On3 reported. Jeff Ermann of 247Sports first reported the news, with a Maryland spokesperson confirming the injury. The school has not revealed what exactly happened. For a team coming off back-to-back 4-8 seasons, this is about as bad a piece of camp news as it gets.

Zahir Mathis was already a big part of Maryland’s defense as a freshman. At 6-foot-6, he finished 2025 with six sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss, both second on the team. PFF also credited him with 31 pressures, and he even blocked a kick. What made that production more impressive is that he was dealing with an injury for part of the season.

He missed nearly two games and was forced to leave the field for stretches at other points, but he kept coming back. But this time, there’s no coming back.

And it’s a big blow because Mathis and Sidney Stewart were supposed to give Maryland one of the Big Ten’s more intriguing young edge combinations.

And this one really hurts because Mathis and Sidney Stewart had already become Maryland’s young one-two punch off the edge. They combined for 13 sacks as true freshmen, both earned On3 Freshman All-America honors, and their ability to win one-on-one matchups gave Mike Locksley the luxury of rushing only four.

“When you can rush the quarterback with a four-man rush, which we’re able to do now with the young guys like Sidney Stewart and Zahir … it allows us to have a little more coverage,” Locksley said last season.

Now Maryland has to figure out how to replace that production. Stewart becomes the clear leader off the edge, while five-star freshman Zion Elee suddenly has a much bigger job. He was always going to play, but with Mathis out, the Terps may need him to start right away.

Zion Elee is the obvious name to watch. The five-star freshman arrived as the No. 1 edge rusher in the 2026 class, the No. 5 overall player in the 247Sports Composite, and the highest-rated recruit Maryland has ever signed, passing Stefon Diggs. He also had 24 tackles for loss and 13 sacks as a high school sophomore. The hype is already there too, with ESPN ranking him among the Big Ten’s top impact freshmen and Fox Sports including him in its Top 10 Impact Freshmen for 2026.

Maryland does have other options. Nahsir Taylor had 19 tackles, three tackles for loss, and two sacks as a freshman, while DD Holmes played nine games with one start. Their experience should help keep everything from falling on Elee, but there is no clean replacement for Mathis. The Terps will likely need Elee’s upside, Taylor’s production and Holmes’ experience to make up the loss.

Mike Locksley cannot afford another step back

Maryland has finished 4-8 in each of the past two seasons. For head coach Mike Locksley, 2026 is supposed to be about showing that the program is actually moving somewhere. Losing Zahir Mathis before the season even begins makes that job harder. The sophomore spoke about the growth of the Terps’ young defense when camp opened.

“Last year, we were all pretty young,” he said. “It took time to learn the system. Being back with so many guys and having new faces helps encourage us to be the best we can be.”

That was the plan. Give the young players another year together and let the experience start paying off. Now, Maryland is already replacing one of its biggest pieces. The silver lining is obvious. The Terps didn’t stumble into this problem without an elite prospect waiting behind Zahir Mathis.

Zion Elee has the pedigree to make an immediate impact. But asking a freshman to replace a six-sack, 8.5-TFL sophomore is a serious demand. For a program that badly needs a turnaround, that’s the gamble now sitting on the shoulders of its highest-rated recruit ever.

Maryland needed 2026 to be the year it finally turned things around. Instead, the Terps lost an All-American edge rusher before Week 1 and now have to reshuffle a position that was supposed to be a strength. Whether that means a bigger role for Zion Elee, more snaps for Nahsir Taylor and DD Holmes, or some mix of all three is now one of Maryland’s biggest preseason questions.