Which NFL team has undergone more personnel changes over the last few years than the Carolina Panthers?
Which NFL team has undergone more personnel changes over the last few years than the Carolina Panthers? It seems dozens of fan favorites and franchise legends have left the team since the start of 2018. Whether it was retirement, trade or free agency, the team has said good-bye to big names like Cam Newton, Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis, Julius Peppers, Ryan Kalil, Greg Olsen and Mario Addison to name just a few.
This offseason we could see their longest-tenured player finally move on, officially closing the previous chapter in this team’s history. According to David Newton at ESPN, long-time long snapper J.J. Jansen is is the top candidate to get cut before the season begins.
“Jansen has been one of the best long-snappers in the NFL since he arrived at Carolina in 2009. But when a team drafts a long-snapper — especially if it’s in the sixth round, when the Panthers selected Alabama’s Thomas Fletcher — it’s doing so with the mindset that he’ll make the roster. It simply doesn’t make sense to keep two long-snappers, particularly when one counts $1 million toward the salary cap.”
Fair enough. It was a strange flex to use a draft pick on Fletcher, but in any case the pressure is on Jansen to prove the job should still be his. Fletcher should probably be considered the favorite, but we can’t write off Jansen just yet. While Fletcher has that expended draft capital and youth working in his favor, Jansen has 192 games and 12 years of experience on his side.
There will be a lot more than just one cut come the end of the preseason, though. Rosters will be trimmed from 90 to 53 from Aug. 17-31.
Another potential cut is defensive back Juston Burris, who’s been named as a chopping block candidate by CBS Sports.
“But as they’re trying to level up the secondary, it comes time to decide if Burris is a capable starter to protect the back end behind Horn going forward. The Panthers might do well to instead lean more heavily on Jeremy Chin and to see what Sam Franklin can truly do if fully unleashed than to eat Burris’ salary in 2021. The 28-year-old will punch the Panthers cap for $4.83 million this season, but $3.78 million can revert to savings if they divorce him.”
That’s a decent chunk of change for the cap considering Burris’ value. However, it’s not enough reason to cut him.
Last year around this time we pinpointed backup running back Mike Davis as a seemingly obvious roster cut due to the cap savings involved. Instead, Davis stuck around and wound up balling out as a starter in the wake of Christian McCaffrey’s injuries. Despite what the analytics say about paying running backs, keeping Davis turned out to be the right decision.
Heading into 2021, the Panthers are pretty thin at the safety position, especially after the questionable decision to release Tre Boston. Burris may be able to keep his spot for no other reason than Carolina not having any better options to take his place.
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