The Carolina Panthers needed some help in the middle of their defense following the devastating, and likely season-ending, injury to Shaq Thompson. So, they officially added it on Wednesday.
As announced by the team, linebacker Deion Jones has been brought up to the active roster. He had been a member of the practice squad for the past week, signing back to the locker room on Sept. 11.
Jones first joined the Panthers as a free agent during the summer. But, in a bit of a surprise, the former Pro Bowler was released during the team’s cutdown to their initial 53-man roster.
Head coach Frank Reich offered a bit of insight into how the defense may go about replacing Thompson, who underwent successful surgery on his fibula on Tuesday.
“Kamu [Grugier-Hill] played very well,” he said this afternoon. “So, he’s gonna get a lot of play. We might rotate some through. We’re gonna continue to evaluate that. Kamu is also such a great special teams contributor. So we just gotta weight out how we’re gonna approach that.”
Quarterback Jake Luton, who also spent the offseason with Carolina, was signed into Jones’ vacant spot on the practice squad.
The Panthers also swapped out cornerbacks within the group—releasing Mark Milton and signing former Los Angeles Ram Robert Rochell.
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