Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! We’re about a month from free agency, aka the Christmas of the off-season. Let’s dive into all your questions from this week!
GooseCreek: As free agency truly begins in a month from today, what’s your take on how the Panthers should go about the business of building a new roster for 2026. Do you see anyone worthy of being tagged, which free agents should the Panthers seek to retain and which should they
let walk away? What’s the preferred plan to maximize the limited cap space in recruiting outside free agents i.e. should they prioritize signing a couple of impact players or seek journeymen types to improve team depth in anticipation of the April draft?
I’ll start with the franchise tag; I don’t see anyone worth spending that on. You can find their list of free agents here. I would prioritize signing LS JJ Jansen and punter Sam Martin, just to add some continuity on special teams. On offense, I would bring back one or two of either Cade Mays, Brady Christensen (coming off another injury), Austin Corbett, or Jake Curhan along the interior as they all will make sense for depth purposes. Cade Mays might be outside their price range, but he’d be a viable starting center for a team that will have other offensive line issues to attack, such as what to do in Ikem Ekwonu’s extended absence at left tackle, which also makes bringing back Yosh Nijman a potential priority. Beyond that, I don’t see any names they NEED to retain (sorry Nick Scott), but many of their names would be worth bringing back without a ton of cap resources needed (please, Nick Scott).
I like the approach they’ve taken the last two offseasons, which is to identify a position or two of extreme need, and bring in a guy or two that can realistically solve that problem whether or not the Draft falls the way it does. So I think spending money at the inside linebacker position and somewhere along the defensive line would make sense. If they can ink another safety to start opposite Tre’Von Moehrig that compliments the pieces they still have, even better. But beyond that, don’t overspend too much and just add guys like Christian Rozeboom at positions where someone needs to be added, and then do your best in the Draft to add players that could develop into starters there.
Mozzie11: Don’t have the stats in front of me but it is pretty well documented that late round draft picks making it are few and far between – basically they are UDFA (90% bust rate for round 5-7 iirc). What says thou for taking any and all 6 and 7th round picks (maybe even 5ths) and use them to trade up in the earlier rounds for higher impact players and fill the back end of the roster with FA signings and UDFA.
This particular regime already seems to be doing that. In 2025 they ended up with two 4ths, two 5ths, and a 6th round pick all via various trades. In this upcoming Offseason, they have two 5ths and instead do not have a 7th round pick, like last draft. I think the Adam Thielen trade was actually a way to improve on those later round dart throws, so I’m very much not opposed to using those 6th and 7th round picks to jockey around in the 5th round, or even move up into the 4th round. It worked for them well last draft as basically everyone they drafted contributed in a meaningful way.
Coach_K: been hearing a lot of connections with tight ends, Mayer of the Raiders and Kmet of the Bears to name a couple. Also remember seeing us in mocks during the year getting Sadiq from Oregon. Do we have some tight ends whose contracts are about to expire?
I think the goal is to improve every skill position on offense if possible. They don’t have anybody who played meaningful snaps hitting free agency right now, but Tommy Tremble will be on the last year of his deal, and Ja’Tavion Sanders so far hasn’t amounted to the receiving tight end they wanted him to be. Still a big fan of Mitchell Evans, but adding another tight end wouldn’t hurt things. I’d probably prefer adding another one via the draft rather than spend much on a veteran free agent, since they have a decent room right now if they do absolutely nothing at the position.
@WTMealey: What is a non Panther Super Bowl moment/play that lives rent free in your head?
What is your earliest SB memory?
My earliest real memory that probably sticks with me to this day (as in, not when the game was on and I barely paid attention not being a huge football fan to start off as a kid) would be everyone saying “don’t kick it to Devin Hester”, only for the Colts to actually kick it to him and have it run back to open the game. Devin Hester was just different, man.
PantherBlueBlood: Will the Panthers win the Super Bowl next year.
It is probably not on my bingo card, but I think the Super Bowl being played this weekend just shows how unpredictable the NFL has become. If you can hit some home runs and really draft well, the timeline can shift a lot quicker.
PerpetuallyPerplexed: Assuming no trades of course:
Dallas drafts at 20, what’s the over/under on time spent talking about our pick at 19?
I assume the Panthers pick will happen over a commercial break, so maybe 30 seconds before the networks start talking about Dallas’s pick.
Truthshallsetyoufree: #1 Is mid to solid the panthers ceiling for the foreseeable future?
#2 am I the only one worried about the 2026 cap space? Outside of the teams in the red, Carolina has the 2nd lowest available cap space for 2026. Kicking the can down the road and cutting players to create cap room, in my opinion just keeps them in the same loop they’ve been in for years. With 2027 having substantial more cap space IMO, with this coming schedule, just bite the bullet on a down year to be able to start 2027 somewhat fresh.
I would say mid-to-solid is a realistic expectation for the next couple of seasons, until we see them hammer out another draft class like they did in 2025.
I’m not all that concerned about the cap in 2026, they don’t have a ton of dead cap on the books so they can maneuver around a bit. Their top 5 contracts account for over $100 million in cap against this year’s available balance, so extensions and restructures can clear a lot of it. Plus, most of the free agents they’d sign this year won’t have a high cap hit in 2026 due to how they structure contracts with bonuses, usually.
Panthers75: Is Frank Reich a masochist? He just took the OC job for the jets and previously signed on to clean up Rhule’s mess here. At this point you have to ask the question
I think Reich believes in Aaron Glenn, and they have history together, so I think this was more a loyalty thing (something I’ve seen speculated on Twitter than anything). I think Reich was closer to retirement than taking another head coaching gig, so going to help out Glenn when it wasn’t an attractive landing spot for other potential candidates probably helps. I’m sure the money is good, too.
That’s all for this week, Panthers fans! Enjoy the Super Bowl!
