With every offseason comes roster change, and the Panthers currently have 21 players not under contract for next season.
Now that the Carolina Panthers’ 2024 season has met its usual early end, it’s time to shift gears and focus on the offseason. The first order of business will be assessing the current roster and its free agents and deciding who to prioritize for next season and who the team can afford to let walk. The Panthers enter the offseason with 21 unrestricted free agents:
- QB Andy Dalton
- C Austin Corbett
- C Brady Christensen
- TE Tommy Tremble
- TE Ian Thomas
- TE Feleipe Franks
- WR David Moore
- RB Mike Boone
- DE DeShawn Williams
- OLB Cam Gill
- LB Shaq Thompson
- CB Mike Jackson
- CB Caleb Farley
- S Xavier Woods
- S Jordan Fuller
- S Nick Scott
- S Sam Franklin
- S Lonnie Johnson
- P Johnny Hekker
- K Eddy Piñeiro
- LS JJ Jansen
There are a few names on there that the Panthers will want on the roster next season, but fortunately there’s no one that’s particularly vital to the team’s success. Let’s lump some guys into categories.
Priorities
- JJ Jansen – As good as it gets at the longsnapper position. He should keep getting contracts until his legs fall off.
- Mike Jackson – He is a pretty good number two corner, and it’d be wise to keep that kind of player in the building.
- Brady Christensen – Christensen has played all over the line and played well at each spot. He’s the perfect depth piece on the line that can fill in wherever needed.
- Andy Dalton – The dynamic between he and Bryce Young works. If he wants to stick around, keep him around.
If the price is right, but don’t overpay
- Tommy Tremble
- David Moore
Keep ‘em around for special teams unless the price gets out of hand
- Eddy Piñeiro
- Sam Franklin
- Feleipe Franks
Injuries and age make things complicated
- Shaq Thompson
- Austin Corbett
Both players are good when healthy, but both have missed almost all of the last two seasons. Thompson’s tenure with the team adds some emotion to the decision. The team shouldn’t say no if either wants to come back on like a one year prove it deal, but neither can be trusted to eat up any sort of meaningful cap space.
Free to go
The ten players I didn’t list in the previous sections are free to leave in my eyes. Some may end up back in Carolina during the offseason, but none should be on the list of guys the team should focus on in their first round of signings. I’m sure Panthers fans would gladly escort a few of them out of the building.
Restricted and exclusive rights free agents
The Panthers have five restricted free agents—Cade Mays, Deven Thompkins, Raheem Blackshear, Velus Jones Jr., and Dan Chisena. They have two exclusive rights free agents—Chandler Wooten and LaBryan Ray. It’s hard to predict what the team will do with those since the contracts they typically sign are almost irrelevantly small. Mays and Blackshear seem like sure bets to be back while most of if not all of the rest will at least start the summer on the roster for camp.