7, Chris. The number is 7. That is how many more receiving yards Dan Shea has than Deonte Johnson since Deonte Johnson has been traded away from the Carolina Panthers. Hey, congratulations for landing back in Baltimore. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hey, congrats, Baltimore. You got him for nothing this time. What a guy, he, he still keeps finding a job. That’s cool. Good for addition by subtraction, addition by subtraction. Who are the Panthers gonna add this offseason, Chris? Let’s get the sucker started. Get dialed in Panthers fans. Here comes an in-depth look at your team. Exclusive interviews, locker room insight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it, OK. 4 Panthers playbook driven by Carolina Ford dealers. Here are your hosts, Dennis Cox and Chris Lee. Welcome back to another episode of Panthers Playbook. That’s Chris Lee, Dennis Cox here with you. By the way, leave us your thoughts in the comment section on the free agents for the Carolina Panthers that they currently have on their roster right now. Guys that are set to be free agents. Who do you want to see come back? Let us know that in the comment section, but Chris, before we get started, Carolina Ford Dealers, your sponsor here of Panthers Playbook. With a Ford F-150 on your team, it’s game on, so your Carolina Ford dealer today. Chris was roughly close to 30 guys that are gonna be free agents for the Carolina Panthers, 28, if I remember correctly. There are a lot of guys that are gonna be popping on my names or popping on the list of names of like, yeah, definitely want to keep that guy. And also there’s some guys, you know what, if this guy moves on, ain’t gonna cry about it. Yeah, um, you know, there, there’s plenty of those names for, for me, uh, where it’s like, OK, if, if this guy comes back, cool, uh, but also if, if, you know, he doesn’t come back, I’m good. And if you look at it with 28 free agents, that means that if you’re looking at the, the 53 that ended the season, um, there’s only 25 left after that. And for this team to make the jump that they need to make. Honestly, you’re going to have to move on from a lot of these guys, uh, to get better at the positions you need to get better at. So, hey, I’m I’m good with the amount of free agents that that’s there and uh we’re definitely gonna talk about the ones that uh we want to have back, so I’m ready for this discussion right here. When you back up a Two-win season with a 5-win season, there’s gonna be a lot of turnover with your roster. There has to be. You can’t be like, hey, let’s just run it back, guys. That’s not, that’s not how this works, and nor should it work in this league. That’s not how things work. Gosh, teams that win the Super Bowl have roster turnover. It’s just a byproduct of what things are on this league. Chris, just fire off some lists on those names of guys that you say, you know what, I wanna see this guy come back and be in a Panther uniform in 2025. Uh, are we talking about all 11 guys that I would like to. Give me your 11. 123456789, 1011. Alright, so my 11 is quarterback Andy Dalton. Um, do you want me to expound or should we expound later? We’ll expound on a few of these guys. Quarterback Andy Dalton, uh, center slash whatever on the offensive line, Brady Christensen, uh, Tommy Trimble, tight end. Wide receiver David Moore, running back Mike Boom. Linebacker Shaq Thompson. Cornerback Mike Jackson, um, offensive lineman slash center, Cade Mays. Um, safety Sam Franklin, safety Lonnie Johnson, and running back Raheem Blackshear. Those, those are the guys to me that if I were Dan Morgan, and I’m not, that I’d put the most. Um, I’d put the most resources in trying to get those guys back. Now, do, do, if I lose one of those guys, I’m, I’m cool with it, right? Some of these guys absolutely do not want to lose, but some of these guys, if, if they are still very much so replaceable, but um, I feel like some of these guys, like Shaq Thompson, I think he’s replaceable, but I do think that he’s good for the roster, if he come back if he comes back. I’m sorry, I missed one. Let me add in 12. OK, JJ Jansen. Oh, of course, well, yes, JJ, of course, absolutely bring back JJ Jason. I guess I just didn’t think about him. Because he’s just Mr. Panther, but 12 guys, JJ’s, let’s put that there. Uh, him and Shaq Thompson are the guys where it’s like, you know what, they’ve been around for a while, they’ve seen the ups and downs of this team, and you would still want some type of veteran presence that’s good for the locker room, and those are two guys that I would, I think JJ is more of a priority than Shaq, in my opinion, but those are the two guys I would want to have stick around. Yeah, there’s a couple of guys that we want to dive into and Shaq Thompson for me is one of those guys I really want to take a hard look at because this is a player who each of the last two seasons has had his season end in September because of various injuries. This year, uh, was the broken fibula. The year prior to that, he actually played less games in 2023 than he did in 2024 with the Achilles injury. This is, so this is a guy coming as an off-ball linebacker with two lower body injuries. I don’t know if that’s something that someone that you want to keep, especially with someone that’s approaching age 30 in, in terms of their career or is around age 30. That’s, I don’t know if that’s someone that’s gonna be brought back, especially when you put a third round pick into Trevon Wallace. You know, obviously, Trevon Wallace is gonna be coming back and you already have Jozy Jewell in those positions. Yeah, you might start Jozy Jewell and Trevin Wallace. Well, the guys that back up in those positions have to be able to play special teams. That’s something I don’t know if Shaq Thompson can even do at this stage in his career, to be honest with you. That’s a big factor into that. Shaq will be 31 in April. I just want to put that out there. OK, so yeah, he’s going, yeah, going into age 31 season. Maybe you wanna have a veteran, again, like the veteran presence, someone who obviously knows the defensive system. I don’t know if that’s someone that gets brought back, to be honest with you, Chris. I, I think the Carolina Panthers are gonna look and say, you know what, we got to get younger. This was actually one of the older rosters in the NFL. We need to get younger. We need to actually play our young guys a little bit more, and they got to put a lot of resources into the defense to build and cultivate for the future. I, I, to me, I don’t see Shaq Thompson coming back. I don’t disagree with you. Um, I, I think that as I was going through and looking at the roster, I feel like there’s a lot more holes, um, other places, uh, and when you’re looking at just what you’ll need, like, I, I’m essentially looking at them replacing. Um, the entire safety group, right? The two safeties I’m talking about staying are mostly just for special teams purposes. Um, that’s what they do. Lonnie Johnson and Sam Lonnie Johnson and Sam Franklin, I don’t need to talk about them anymore, but that’s, that’s what I like them for, and they bring the juice. Trash talk, that’s really what they do. That’s what they do. They bring it and so that’s what that’s what I want them there for. Other than that, like we’re replacing an entire group, so you’re gonna have to put some money in and maybe some draft picks into that. Uh, you’re probably doing You might be doing a wholesale uh replacement of the defensive line besides Derek Brown, right? And I see Robinson Ahaw Robinson, but maybe also like cutting some guys that are are under contract that I mean because we’re not talking about those guys, we’re just talking about strictly free agents, um, and then there’s there’s a few guys on the edge too that you might have to get rid of. So I’m just kind of looking at that and thinking like, OK, if you’re putting resources towards that plus adding somebody else to um uh to rush the passer with some of the guys that you have there. You, you might wanna try to keep that to have one spot on a defense that has all of their like some guys returning, but at the same time, if he does go, I’m not upset with it. I do love Shaq though, this is not any disrespect to Shaq, but at some point, you know, you do have to move on from from guys and, you know, nostalgia is not enough, right? It’s been a great 10 years, but no nostalgia is not enough. Yeah, and unfortunately again the last couple of years have been just plagued by lower body injuries and when you get older and get lower body injuries, trust me, something I know you get slower simple as that. You just get slower. uh, another person that you mentioned in that list was Brady Christensen and this is one that. Really intrigues me this offseason for Dan Morgan. Brady Christensen showed up multiple times this season. He can start at center, he started at left tackle. We’ve also seen him start at left guard as well in his career with the Carolina Panthers. So knowing that he is capable of starting on multiple positions on the offensive line. Maybe he commands more dollars than what the Carolina Panthers are willing to pay, but this is where I think. Brady Christensen, the decision that Dan Morgan makes with him. Impacts Taylor Moten. Yes, a couple of reasons. Here’s the thing, the Carolina Panthers can save $13 million by letting Taylor Moten go. And this is the first time in really in Taylor Moten’s career that he actually missed time due to injuries. That’s how bad the injuries were for the Carolina Panthers this season. Taylor Moten, the Ironman, dealt with injuries this year, but they could also restructure the contract of Taylor Moten and save about $13 million that way. Yeah. Big question going forward. Are you willing to put money into Brady Christensen and say, hey, you’re gonna be our starting right tackle going forward, or do you let him walk and restructure Taylor Moten’s deal, save money on your salary cap, push that into a little bit into 2026 and still keep Taylor Moten. Taylor Moten, around the same age as Shaq Thompson, 30, 31 years old. Again, for a team that’s looking to build up youth, that’s a major decision that Dan Morgan has to make regarding, again, Brady Christensen has only played 4 years. It’s only played 4 years. It’s a massive decision with Christensen and Taylor Moten. I think those two honestly kind of tie together. Yeah, but I think that there’s a world where they can kind of stay together as well, right? I think you, I think you want to restructure Temo’s deal. Like I, I think at one point I was kind of thinking about maybe moving on from Teo, but then like you, you just see. His worth, the, the games that he did miss, you could Tampa Bay game the end of the year. Tampa Bay when he was out, they just attacked Josh Neiman. They just went straight after him. You absolutely could tell when he was gone, and, um, he was like one of the highest graded, uh, players on the whole roster for the entire season, and he’s one of the best at his position in the NFL. If you are. have that guy on his team, and he likes being here, and he’s willing to restructure, you keep that guy. But then also, what’s something that all teams want? They want depth at offensive line, and that’s really hard to do. And this year, we saw that we did have some depth. It was cool that when guys went down, you could put Brady Christensen wherever, and he did a great Job. Why not try to make it work with that guy? He’s young, as you said, he’s only been in the league for 4 years. Uh, he did have a year where he was injured, uh, so he has that happening. But also, if something were to happen next year, we saw what happened, like Robert Hunt missed one game, Damian Lewis missed a couple of games, you know, we saw it was supposed to be Austin Corbett in the middle of the entire season. He basically has the Shaq Thompson plan going on right now, uh, where he’s just missing seasons, and he’s some guy, he’s one of the guys that I’m cool with moving on with, uh, unless he takes a really steep pay cut, um, but I I look at Brady Christensen as one of those guys, like, try to make it work, and hey, you are a 6th guy, we’re gonna have heavy packages sometimes where we bring you in. If there’s some injuries, you’re the first one getting plugged in. Uh, we see you as an asset here. Maybe they build more packages to have him in mind, and, um, but that’s one of the guys, that’s one of the main guys that I, if I’m Dan Morgan, if you ask me to pick two guys, and I’m prioritizing, Brady Christensen is one, and not even just Because of what he can do, uh, and, and what it does for the offensive line, but what it does for Bryce Young, somebody else that he’s played behind for a couple of years already, and he probably has a trust with him, when if Brady Christensen has to come into the lineup because of injury or if we’re going heavy on the offensive line because of whatever package, Bryce Young is comfortable with that guy. If our center, I think you need to go out. And get a starting center, um, but uh if if that center happens to go down, well, we know that Brady Christensen can do it, and that’s one of the guys that I feel like I trust and I also put Cade Mays down there earlier as one of the guys I named. If you can get maybe if you can get Timo back and Cade Mays, not as a starter but as a depth piece with Christensen and Zavala. You got a lot of your offensive lineback, and I think that is not a worry for next year no matter what happens. Yeah, I, I’m still with you on the upgrade at center. I’m just wondering with Christensen showing that he can start on multiple spots on the offensive line and no one misses a beat, he just might command too much money on the open market. That might be it. His agent is probably gonna say, Hey, look, like, man, you go, go get, go get, you know, mid-level starter money somewhere else. And also with Dan Morgan, again, this, this. This defense needs so much work, Chris. It really does need a lot of work and so much money and resources and draft picks really got to go falling into that, which kind of gets me to defense. Go on, Chris. But I was just gonna say, but if you can make it work, you can make that work. You can’t make it work, but I, I 100% agree with you. Go ahead, what you’re about to say. I wanna know your thoughts on Mike Jackson. When the offseason, or sorry, when the, when the, when training camp ended and we saw Michael Barrett, the 7th round pick from Michigan get traded to Seattle for Mike Jackson, you can tell with a lot of the moves in terms of the waiver claims that the Panthers made. That they’re looking for a certain body type to play at the, at the corner position on the outside. And Mike Jackson fits that bill. It’s 6’2, 200+ pound defensive back. Similar build to what we see with JC Horn. You know I’ve seen and talked to Mike Jack in the locker room many times. He fits that build physically. He had a pretty good year this year. All, all intents and purposes, the defense as a whole was not very good, but him individually, I thought had a pretty decent year for what he was asked to do. And I think with a better pass rush, I think Mike Jackson can even be better. I think he actually be better if there’s a better pass rush. I want to know your thoughts on Mike Jack possibly coming back. Dennis, you are not alone. I think he’s a smooth criminal. You put him out on the, on the field, he’s a bad man. He’s dangerous. I rock with him. You see what I’m doing right here? I’m I’m naming Michael Jackson songs because I want Mike Jack back, uh, pause, but he, I think, as you’re right, he’s a good number 2, I think him and JC Horn, I think you found your starters there. He made some good plays this year, I think one more year in the system, one more year, as you said, um, if there’s a better pass rush. Him, you know, and coverage could do some damage for the Carolina Panthers, and also, if he has better safeties, you know, helping them out, you know, maybe he can do a little bit more with coverage, and I, I think that, you know, I don’t, I don’t think you’re saying that him and JC Horn are the best, uh, corner duo in the league, but with some upgrades of some key positions on the defense. They could be the top 10, a top 10 duo in the league, possibly, you know, you know, so I like him. I really do like Mike Jack. I think that he feels wanted by the Carolina Panthers. He said things similar to that this entire season, and um I feel like he likes being there. I feel like this is a, a, a marriage that you can make happen for sure. I, I’m with you on that. I’m with you on that. Um, I also agree with you about Andy Dalton coming back. I think just the synergy that, that, that, that offense has or just that, that room with Andy Dalton and Bryce Young together, they clearly have a great relationship. Bryce obviously learned a lot from May Dalton seeing him start this year, so I’m with you on that one. But overall, Chris, there really aren’t many names where I’m like, I gotta see this guy back. Like I, like you mentioned Tommy Trimble. I would love to see Tommy Trimble come back. I would love him to be the #2 tight end with JT Sanders. I would love that. That’s my next priority honestly is, uh, him and Brady Christenson number two main priorities, um. I think we saw, I think the 1st 2.5 years of Tommy Trimble, we were just kind of like, mm, you know, yeah, not necessarily what we thought he would, he was. He made a few splash plays, but then there was, he was just one of those jag kind of guys, um, it’s just, he was just a guy. I really think the last half of last year and this year when, uh, he wasn’t injured when he, you know, he was out for a couple of games with that concussion when he knocked himself out, um. He made some splash plays here and there, and I, I really do think, as you said, he could be a good compliment to the passing game. Uh, he’s a great blocker, um, and he can help out JT Sanders, uh, at this point. I think it’s time to move on from Ian Thomas. Um, you know, we, we’ve tried for, you know, every year, off and on to try the Stefon Sullivan thing. Just don’t, I don’t think it’s gonna work. So to have that position, I think we’re gonna need to have not only just a veteran, but somebody who’s a veteran on this team back, uh, in that position, and I think it, it’s good for Bryce and it’s also good for JT Sanders to have Tommy Trimble back. And so I’m 100% with this guy. I, I, I, I wanna see him back on the, on the team. A lot of free agents, but when you go 5 and 12, Chris, very few guys that I’m gonna go pound the table and say that guy needs to come back. Very, very few. Um, like you mentioned, the safety just needs a complete overhaul outside of Damonte Richardson and the special teams guys like you mentioned, Sam Franklin, Lonnie Johnson, totally cool with those guys coming back. But that position needs an overhaul. Fuller, Scott, Woods. We appreciate your services. We’re friendly too. Defensive line needs a massive overhaul. I mean, yes, Derek Brown’s coming back. I would love to keep Baw Robinson, but outside of that, if everything else changes, I’m fine with that too. I’m fine with that too. And even on the edge, like DJ want him, I like to see him come back outside of that. I’m fine with Wum and Clowney coming back for sure. There just needs to be another guy, and if you can get an Abdul Carter as a starter and you’re talking about Clowney being rotated in and out, uh, you know, with Waum or whatever, I think that just, that just adds, you know, to what this team could possibly do. Um, but if we can go back to offense just really quick, um, I just want to highlight two guys, right? And In the grand scheme of things, they’re jags, but I think for this team, they can, they can uh be a good help. I put David Moore, right, and just mainly familiarity with um the system he’s been with uh um uh Dave Canalis in two different stops in Seattle and in Tampa. And I just kind of feel like having this guy who could be a Dave Canalis cheerleader in the locker room helps out whoever is gonna come in. Now, you know, we know that we want to keep the, he’s not a free agent, but hopefully there’s no moves or anything like that, and we love Coker, we love uh Xavier Liguette. Um, so those are three guys for sure. I, I still think there’s room to bring in and we’ve said this, either a #1. And somebody who can take the top off, or #1 who can take the top off, right? So if you’re doing the #1 and somebody who can take the top off and you have 5, it’s good to have David Moore right there as a 6th guy, kicks too, and to help return kicks and all that good stuff like I’m talking about David Moore needs to be fringe. He doesn’t necessarily need to finish next season with the Panthers. You feel like you can finish with the other 5 or whatever, cool, but I think that guy absolutely needs to be there and I’ve said this before, I liked when Mike Boone got a chance to run the ball, I felt like he did a good job with it. Um, we know that we’re probably not gonna have Jonathan Brooks. I hope we don’t try to put Jonathan Brooks on the field at all in 2025. If he can come back, cool, but I would like for him not to take a whole year off, come back in 2026, 100% ready to go by that point, you’d have almost, you’d have what, 20 months off to heal that knee, um, you know, by the time the 2026 season starts. Until then, I think Mike Boone is a is a decent backup for um for Chuba Hubbard and a cheap option because you would need to put some money elsewhere and some into some other places, so. Uh, that’s, that’s my main thing with that, and then he’s already been with the team for the year, uh, so he knows a lot. There’s not a lot of teaching that has to go on there. Uh, so that’s those are two guys I just wanted to mention, uh, and those are my reasons for it. A lot of big decisions this offseason, but next week, Chris, here’s something you and I should discuss. Bryce Young is eligible for a contract extension one year from now. Hm. How is that gonna impact Dan Morgan this offseason? We gotta dive into that next week. You know what we didn’t talk about either? What’s up? You know who is eligible for their 5th year option this year? Ikey. Mm, we gotta talk about that too next week. That we do. Carolina Ford dealer, you’re your sponsor of Panthers Playbook with the Ford F-150 on your team as Gay Monster or Carolina Ford dealer today, Chris. Enjoy the beautiful cold weather that we have here in the state of North Carolina. Beautiful? Yeah, I hate cold weather. Man, well, sick boys like me appreciate it. I can tell you that. Listen, give me 88/38 any day. Any day Any day. Shout out to Terrence Marshall Junior. Give me Terrence Marshall Junior over uh who wore a 38? Did anyone wore 38 this year? or ever or ever who, who’s ever worn around the league is that the most unpopular number ever? It might be actually. No wonder you don’t like 38, Chris. Yeah, well, I’m about to turn 39 and I’m feeling it. Hey, you’re not, that’s right, you’re not about 38. Yeah, we’re 38, we’re 38. See y’all next week.

Source: wralsportsfan.com