Did Carolina draft enough pass rushing help to jettison one of their best edge defenders?
A few noncommittal comments from Carolina Panthers general manager Dan Morgan after the draft is all it takes to spin up the rumor mill to full power. The team reportedly had some conversations about trading Clowney pre-draft that obviously did not go anywhere immediately. That was followed by Carolina drafting two players on Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft at their biggest position of need. Now, the question of the day seems to be where will he play this year?
Where is Clowney now?
Clowney, a Rock Hill, SC native and product of the University of South Carolina, came home to play for the Panthers on the tail end of his career. The former first overall pick was held back from living up to his draft billing by injuries, but he has carved out a remarkably durable, journeyman career as a mercenary free agent.
He is now entering the second year of a two-year contract that he signed with Carolina worth $20M. He is set to count $13M against the Panthers cap. Trading him would leave $4M in dead cap this year and save the team $9.7M.
Clowney put up 5.5 sacks as a starting outside linebacker/edge defender last season for the Panthers. That’s a step down from his career highs of 9.5 sacks (2017, 2023), but not out of line with his average (5.8). He was perhaps overtasked with trying to lead an oft-broken unit against teams that spent much of the season nursing a lead over the Panthers through the second half. At this point in his career, entering his 11th season, he would be best served as a rotational pass rusher and locker room leader.
With the Panthers?
That is exactly the role that Carolina is poised to offer him with D.J. Wonnum and Patrick Jones II set to be the team’s veteran starters at the outside linebacker position and new draft picks Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen pencilled in as young, rotational talent. Clowney could excel coming off the bench as a teacher as much as a leader.
The rest of the Panthers OLB group right now is comprised of once-promising young players who have not made an impact despite ample opportunity. The Panthers defensive shelves are often described as bare and these guys have done little to change that opinion. Clowney, if he stays with the Panthers, would round out a surprisingly deep group if the rookies are able to flash any real promise. Rookies and promises that would, of course, be best served by veteran mentorship.
Somewhere else?
The $9.7M in cap savings is not insignificant this season, however. While edge is a need, it is not the only need. The Panthers are perilously thin at safety, so much so that fans are talking about undrafted free agent rookies making substantial contributions at the position. There are several veteran free agents available. Julian Blackmon and Justin Simmons come to mind, for example. The problem is they will require money for their services.
The Panthers have $17M in cap space available right now. About $7M of that will be required to sign their new draft picks. The remaining space is hardly enough to sign a new starter and have enough room for flexibility through the season.
Carolina has a variety of options to make space, such as extending Taylor Moton’s contract to reduce his massive cap hit, but they may be loathe to follow that avenue given the potential uncertainty around Moton’s own future with the team.
Trading Clowney may be the most prudent move to balance the defense, balance the books, and hopefully get a little extra draft capital for next year.
Will they pull the trigger?
The Carolina Panthers are no strangers to trades. Dan Morgan spun in and out of trades involving Donte Jackson, Diontae Johnson twice, Jonathan Mingo, and Brian Burns just in the last year. He was reportedly also on the phone plenty talking to teams about the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. He said afterwards that he was not “blown away” by any of those calls.
That leads me to believe that there is a good chance that Clowney ends up on the move, but a trade is not guaranteed. Morgan just needs to see the value in trading Clowney exceeds the value in keeping him.