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 a star who may be best served in a rotational role at this point in his career: outside linebacker Jadaveon Clowney.
Jadaveon Clowney’s 2025 cap hit: $13,775,000
At 32-years old, Clowney is closer to retirement than he is to the height of his career. He is also on the final year of his two-year contract with the Panthers. That makes him an intriguing option for the team to extend for a few years with the promise of a rotational role that doesn’t bear the same strains and rigor of a starting edge player.
The Panthers could sign another player to start opposite D.J. Wonnum and then save $3-5M million against the 2025 cap with a multi-year extension for Clowney that lets him spend the end of his career at home in the Carolinas. That would put that the team one top-100 draft pick wisely spent at edge away from an outrageously better outside linebacker room than they had in 2024.
For his part, Clowney, had a slightly down statistical year in 2024 but that was not necessarily indicitave of his age. He was one of the few healthy, talented players on one of the worst defenses in the history of the NFL. It is hard to produce in a team sport without much of a team to speak of. Shoring up his team and giving him the opportunity to play fresh and loose on passing downs only might just be the ticket to unlocking his last years of success in the NFL.