A look at the stars who could be extended to help the team
The Carolina Panthers are entering the 2025 season with approximately $250M in cap liabilities against a $279.2M salary cap. That leaves them with just shy of $30M in cap space at the moment. Based on future cap projections, they are currently working with about $150M in space in 2026 and $222M in space in 2027.
Half of the Panthers current liabilities are eaten up by their seven most expensive players. $123M of their cap is accounted for by the contracts of Taylor Moton, Robert Hunt, Derrick Brown, Damien Lewis, Jadaveon Clowney, Jaycee Horn, and Bryce Young. With holes all over, plenty of cap space in the future, and few players signed beyond this season, Carolina is likely to extend a few contracts to open up their 2025 team building options. Today we’re taking a look at one of the absolute best players on the team: defensive tackle Derrick Brown
Derrick Brown’s 2025 cap hit: $18,740,00
The question around Brown isn’t what the team can do with his cap number so much as whether or not he can return from his knee injury as the same player.
Brown signed a four year, $96M extension just last year and should be worth every penny of that if he can return to form.
The loss of Brown and linebacker Shaq Thompson early in the season helped the Panthers give up the most points in NFL history over the rest of the year. The team absolutely needs to flesh out the depth of their defensive roster behind and around Brown, but they also need their top line talent back on the field.