We’re counting down the days until the Panthers open the 2025 season!
Hello CSR! We’re celebrating another July 4th around the sun, and a look at number 65 for the Carolina Panthers as we’ve hit 65 Days until the Panthers open the season. With that, we’ll take a look at offensive guard Ja’Tyre Carter!
Carter entered the NFL as the 226th overall pick in the 7th round of the 2022 NFL Draft, selected by the Chicago Bears. He appeared in 3 games with 31 offensive snaps his rookie season, and 10 games with 2 starts and 176 offensive snaps in 2023. Then, he was waived right before the start of the regular season in 2024. He didn’t find a home for the remainder of the season, but signed a reserve/futures contract with the Panthers in January of 2025.
Carter is going to find himself in an uphill battle to make the Panthers roster, though he does have some valuable experience so far in his career. With the starting 5 offensive linemen set (aside from possible injuries) in 2025, that leaves about 5 backup spots for every position on the offensive line. The Panthers re-signed Brady Christensen and Cade Mays to compete at guard/center during the off-season, 2023 4th round guard Chandler Zavala returns after a much improved 2024 season as depth, and veteran Yosh Nijman was signed last season to fill in as a swing tackle for depth purposes. If all of those guys return (which is what I am projecting), that leaves possibly one spot for the other 5 linemen currently on the roster to fight for, and that’s as long as the Panthers don’t make any additional moves to fill in the back end of the group during Offseason cuts.
I think Carter has a great shot at the practice squad, but anyone who does manage to make that 8/9/10th spot on the 53 man roster should feel accomplished, as the Panthers have a lot of depth pieces with meaningful playing time returning to the roster this season. What are your thoughts on Carter and the back end of the OL depth chart, Panthers fans? And happy 4th to you all!!!