Course it is the end of an era, the end of an era. How do I, I say goodbye to all and dry. Let’s get this sucker started, get dialed in. Panthers fans. Here comes an in depth. Look at your team exclusive interviews, locker room in sight. Let’s huddle up. Let’s just do it. Ok. For 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. Uh Make sure you subscribe here on the fans youtube page and most importantly, leave your thoughts in the comments because we’re breaking down the 53 man roster, the initial 53 man roster for the Carolina Panthers here on Panthers playbook sponsored by Carolina Ford Dealers, wherever you go, whatever you do with the power and technology of A Ford F 150 on your team, it’s game Monte, your Carolina Ford dealer today. Chris, I know we were pretty close. We’re roughly, you and I were both around 4546 names, right when it comes to the 53 man roster. But let’s be honest, I think the 53 man roster that we saw released on Tuesday is not gonna be the same that we’re gonna see Wednesday or even Thursday. This, this, this process is far from over, far, far, far from over. Um, you know, of course, you know, we’re, we’re gonna have to see, of course, you know, tomorrow, uh, as we’re recording this on Tuesday, tomorrow, there could be some new additions claimed from, uh, the Waiver Wire and then also like at a, at a certain point, we also knew that there are certain guys with injury designations that are gonna have to be brought back at some point this season. Uh You got a few guys like that. So there’s uh some names here that are definitely expendable, uh in those cases. Uh So I, I think this is a good start to the roster. We also didn’t know as far as uh from our projections who uh the coaching staff, I guess, uh, put more value in than others. And so clearly, they see something in Jalen Coker even though I think he could eventually end up on a practice squad. Um, you know, once, you know, other guys are either claimed or guys come off of uh their inju injury designations. Um But, you know, those are the things that we couldn’t have, you know, uh predicted, but it’s interesting to see how all of that is, uh happened. I think somebody like Andrew Ram, the backup center played his way on the initial 53 man roster. Um You know, so, you know, you just, there’s different things that kind of factor in, but I’m excited to see what the Panthers do with this group. There are a lot of different things and the, the big one that’s a surprise hit. Not a surprise is Terrace Marshall Junior getting cut. That’s what we talked about. The end of an era, the end of an era. Terrace Marshall Junior, uh again, surprised but not surprised because you and I talked about it. If you’re fifth wide receiver on any roster, you want your fifth wide receiver to be able to play special teams. That’s something Terrace Marshall Junior doesn’t do, he just doesn’t do it. So that’s why Emir Smith Marcet more valuable as your fifth guy David Moore more 5th 6th guy Jalen Coker. That one was probably the most surprising to me amongst the wide receiver group because they kept seven. I was kind of shocked by that, but maybe they kept seven knowing. All right, depending if, if there’s a wide receiver out there that we don’t like and we don’t wanna really wanna make any claims. At least we have this group going forward. But that, that one’s probably the biggest shock to me was the fact that there are seven wide outs and only three tight ends. Yeah. Um at least on the offensive side of the ball defense, we’ll get into that here in just a sec. That was definitely one of those, uh, one of those things that, you know, because we thought that, you know, uh, Jordan Matthews had done enough to play his way on a roster. I think when I was initially doing my roster cut down, I thought about seven wide receivers, but the way Jordan Matthews was playing, it was like, he’s got to be on the roster, so I chose four tight ends to six wide receivers. But, um, Jalen Coker is somebody, they were clearly high on, been high on for a while. Steve Smith really likes him, calls him, you know, basically one of the best route runners that came out of this, uh, this, you know, rookie class, somebody that they probably can look towards in the future to, to lean on. It feels like maybe a future Adam Thiele replacement, um, with the way that, uh, he plays and all that, he’s not a speedy guy, but if he’s a precise route runner, he’s somebody who could probably get open in different situations and maybe play well out of the slot. So we’ll see what ends up happening with him, uh, there. But again, that’s somebody I think eventually, uh, moves to the practice squad. Um, and just really the, the big surprise for me TMJ wasn’t as much of a surprise, but the big surprise was definitely, uh, Jordan Matthews not being on the first three man roster and we made a post on the fans youtube page. This again, this is where you gotta subscribe. You got to know these things, folks get that, make sure you hit that notification bell. So you don’t miss anything. We post, we asked the question of what’s your biggest surprise is? And we actually had a few people chime in because we were going to use it on the show today, including VB Davis saying the one that disappoints me most was Jordan Matthews. I feel like he did everything he could do this off season. Can’t believe we cut him and we were continuing to hold. Ian Thomas, same thing comes from PKM 3096. Jordan Matthews being cut but Ian Thomas once again survives. We’re seeing this a lot from Panthers fans. Like, wait a second, we saw Jordan Matthews on one drive with the starting offense in a preseason game and he looked far more competent in terms of pass catching than we’ve ever seen from. He and Thomas probably ever. And then all of a sudden, Jordan Matthews is gone, but Ian Thomas sticks around with Ian Thomas dealing with a calf injury. I thought that’s actually the reason why they’re gonna keep Ford just to have that little bit of insurance. So Chris, a lot of fans are thinking the same thing that we are. Well, I, I never thought that Ian Thomas was one out, right? Like it’s, it’s, I thought he was gonna stay but Jordan Matthews is not coming. Yeah, Jordan Ma, yeah, they’re, yeah, they’re thinking the same thing we’re thinking about Jordan Matthews. But I, I just want to address Ian Thomas really quick. Um, pass catching is definitely a huge part of being a tight end, but it’s not the only part about being a tight end. Ian Thomas has been a spectacular blocker over the last few years. I mean, if you look at, especially during that little stretch where we had, uh, Steve Wilkes as the interim head coach. If you look at some of the long runs that have, that were there and a lot of the big plays that ended up happening during his tenure, Ian Thomas was there as like one of the big blockers, like literally pushing people like 1023 30 yards down the field. Um, you know, he has a skill set that is valuable to any team. No. Is he the best, uh, receiving tight end? He’s not. Um, but I, I think that, uh, he’s definitely somebody that’s valuable. I don’t want to look at this as a Ian Thomas over Jordan Matthews type of thing. It feels like they wanted to. It was another position that kept Jordan Matthews off of the team, whether it’s one of the 10, uh, offensive linemen or one of the seven wide receivers. I don’t, I don’t think it was anybody in that tight end room that kept Jordan Matthews off of the, the 53 man roster. By the way, Ian Thomas is in the last year of his contract. And if you’ve released him, the, the cap hit would have been the same. You’re not gonna save any money by letting him go. So that’s also plays a factor into this too. Uh, but I was a little bit surprised by that, but nonetheless, they can still bring Jordan Matthews back on the practice squad. Another guy that could potentially be brought back to the roster hearing is running back, Mike Boone. This also kind of applies to Jordan Matthews as well. My guess is there are a couple of guys on the roster at this moment that they might look to put the can the Panthers being might look to put on injured reserve with a designation to return. Now on cut down day, you’re allowed to use two players put on injured reserve with a designation to return. That way you don’t have to put them on the 53 then put them on ir wave a guy resign. So you’re allowed to do that with two players Panthers did that with Dane Jackson the corner and Sam Franklin at safety. I think there are a couple of guys on this roster on the 53 that might look to go to injured reserve, which in that case, you can bring back a Mike Boone, for example, Cade Mays has been dealing with a shoulder injury I remember correctly. He didn’t play in that Bills game, depending on the extent of that injury, they might put him on Ir so he can be on the in, uh, inter reserve for 34 weeks till he’s healthy, which allows you to bring back Mike Boone until Jonathan Brooks is healthy after four after the first four weeks of the season because he’s on the no football injury list. Same thing goes with a guy like Jaden Crummy. We haven’t seen Jaden Crummy the rookie six round pick out of Mississippi State since the first preseason game against the new England Patriots. I wonder if he’s a guy that also gets put on IR and they can add a waiver claim possibly as well. I think that’s the reason why they kept seven defensive linemen, which was another shock for me. I was like, wait a second seven D linemen and one of them wasn’t TJ Smith. That one kind of actually surprised me a little bit to see PV, make it over TJ Smith and seven defensive linemen being kept. Yeah. Um, you know, we were thinking about five of those guys and I think, uh mine put, um I think I had an extra person for outside linebacker as well with I was saying like the last person that could be cut for that position was Luigi villain and he wasn’t there. Uh So, you know, that doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but yeah, I mean, those are, those are the areas that you look at um easy to cut when guys like Amari Barno or, you know, DJ Wham um are able to return. You talk about Dane Jackson and, and Sam Franklin, you see these areas where there’s some easy guys to kind of move around and, and cut um when those guys return. So, uh I was uh surprised though that it was that many uh defensive linemen. I do remember though that they wanted to try to really, um we talked about this earlier uh in the uh training camp where uh Knaus was saying they wanna like trade those guys in and out so that they’re fresh on the defensive line. So maybe that’s some of the thought process, but I, I just don’t know if they’re gonna keep that many throughout the duration of the season on the defensive line. So we’ll, we’ll see how they end up massaging that as uh as time goes along. Yeah, I know, e uh eo the defensive coordinator likes to rotate a lot of guys in and out throughout the game. So the fact that they added a Shawn Robinson, we saw Nick Thurman and, and lebron Ray do some good stuff as, as depth players like, hey, go for like four or five snaps, you know, at a time and then you can rotate guys through. I think that definitely is gonna help the depth on that defensive line. Um by the way, real quick. The Panthers kept every single one of their draft picks from last year. All five of them, Bryce Young Jonathan Mingo DJ Johnson Chandler, Zavala Jamie Robinson, and they have six of their seven picks on the roster this year, which hopefully that’s a turn from what we saw the previous three drafts. Here’s a note from 2020 through 2022. Those three drafts, the Panthers selected 28 players. I’m sorry, 24 players, only eight of them are still on the roster right now. 08 of 24. That’s it. And III I even included Amari Barno because he’s not physically only I I still accounted Amari Barno but you’re looking at Derek Brown is the only player from 2020 still left. That’s it. 2021 JC Horn, Brady Christensen, Tommy Tremble Tuba Hubbard no longer Terrace Marshall Junior and then from 2022 it’s a awu it’s Cade Mays and Amari Barno. That’s it from those three drafts. That’s it. And you know, it’s, it’s one of those things, it shows I, I think that Matt rule and his regime did a decent job of drafting for what they wanted, but they were also running a college program in the NFL. So when two other coaching staffs come in after you, um A lot of those guys are just gonna be gone, right? So it’s uh it’s kind of shocking, kinda not shocking at the same time. Um But you know, hopefully with this new regime, whether they’re here in five years or not, that the draft picks that they make over the next few years are people that could stick around and that can, you know, help this team move into the right direction. That’s really what you want from any team. And hopefully you find some diamonds in the rough undrafted free agents. You mentioned Jay La Coker, you and Drew Ram Richardson, Richardson making. Yeah. Demon Richardson making the roster as a safety. You’re talking about a guy that played his way on to the roster. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like props to you man, he was catching everything man. They might need to move him to, to receivers. Do you need another one? Do you need another one? Another one? Who are some players that you think? Or what positions do you think are out there where you see the Carolina Panthers making waiver claims or they get first dibs on players that have to go through waivers? Now, there’s a difference between players that you go through waivers and free agents, for example, a vested veteran like Mike Boone like Jordan Matthews, those guys are automatic free agents. A team can sign them immediately right now don’t have to do a waiver claim. But players who have less than four years of experience in the NFL like a Terrace Marshall Junior, they have to go through waivers and teams can make a claim on them. Panthers have first dibs on claims for players that have to go through waivers. They get number one, a player that got released today that I’m kind of excited about potentially make the team from West Forsyth high school boy, your old neck of the woods and went to Salem KJ Henry. Let, let’s go. Let’s go. I want to see KJ Henry on this roster. Listen, if the Panthers pick up KJ Henry, I’m legit, calling his mom and having her come on this podcast. Let’s go. I am friends with KJ Henry’s mom. Um Just, just for a background for people to know this isn’t just because I, I know KJ Henry and I like KJ Henry. He’s legit a good player. And, uh I was watching the Washington, uh Commanders game versus, uh, who is it? The Bengals? I can’t remember who they went against on sat Sunday night. It was the Patriots against the Patriots. KJ hopped off the screen a few times and I hadn’t, I didn’t get a chance to really watch him a lot with, uh, the Washington Commanders last year. So I didn’t, you know, I was kind of keeping up from afar, but I didn’t get a chance to actually sit and watch him play in an NFL jersey. Sunday was a, was my first chance to really see that. And when I tell you that this guy got to the quarterback, he was around the ball, like I thought that the the system that he was um you know, playing in, in Washington kind of suit him better than what he did at Clemson honestly, because I felt like I saw him um show what he could fully be potentially uh in the NFL in that particular game. And so when I saw that the commanders let him go. One, I was shocked. But then secondly, it was like, all right, Panthers fans have been asking for a while. When are we gonna get our big time Clemson player? We always get South Carolina players. We draft uh South Carolina players. The Panthers have never drafted a player from Clemson. And uh so now this is the opportunity to do that and he’s from North Carolina. Uh you know, grew up in, in Winstonsalem. Uh his dad is a former assistant football coach at uh UN C Charlotte, former assistant football coach over at NC State, former assistant football coach at Catawba. Like, you know, the, the, the, the Henry family, they are athletes out here like his little, his little brother, Isaiah. Uh Henry is uh coming up, look at him, he’s uh up and coming young basketball player. I think he’s going into his senior season. He’s gonna be playing for overtime elite. Uh And so he’s gonna be playing probably for an AC C school, you know, in the next coming years. So I’m just saying all that to say that the, the Henrys are athletes and KJ Henry is somebody that you would love to have on your team. One because he plays hard two because he, he’s uh he’s smart three. He’s a great teammate and four. He’s great in the community. Here’s somebody who his dad was going through. Uh some really big health issues, need a kidney replacement in the first year. That uh nil was a thing. He used his name image and likeness to raise over six figures uh for his father to get a uh, kidney replacement. Listen, this guy is selfless. He’s a, he’s a teammate, right? And he’s gonna be good for the roster, he’s good for the team. Um And I just, I know this because I’ve known him since his sophomore year in high school and right now with the guys who are currently on our team, uh, as far as like outside linebacker, I hate to say it, I hate to say it, we can make room for him by cutting a cool OTA. I might even say, I might even say Klavon Chason, you know, as, as maybe a future replacement for him because he’s on a what, a one year deal, one year deal. And if he doesn’t approve it this year, KJ Henry is a cheaper option and it probably could get you the same, um, you know, the same, uh you know, production value uh that K Leon Chason would give you and KJ Henry in Washington last year, the, the limited games that he did play, he did play special teams as well, which is something that again, not everyone is willing to do or capable of doing. So he’s willing to do that as well. I think that that is certainly an option because again, teams just generally don’t give up edge rushers too easily, but I like him as a potential player to be on this roster. I also think that there’s a chance that they still go for a corner. Now. I think the trade for Michael Jackson changes things because now you have Michael Jackson who’s probably gonna start for you week one opposite of JC Horn. Then you have Troy Hills and nickel. You have Shaw Smith Wade uh in the mix as well. We also look at corner, uh Deshaun Jamison as well. I still think there’s a chance that they might make a play for a corner if there’s someone that they really like, that’s where a guy like Jaden Peeve might be a guy that gets sacrificed as a result of that or again, guys that might go on into reserve. I still think that there’s e edge rusher slash outside linebacker. I think corner is a possibility, tight end is a possibility. I would not be shocked if at least one or two offensive linemen make the team as well through waiver claims. Yeah. Um you know, shout out to our guy, Mike K um Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, observer Pro wrestling fan. As well. We talk wrestling whenever I’m around him. Um, he had a list of guys and, and his, one of the guys he listed of course is KJ Henry, uh Andre Carter, outside linebacker Keenan Isaac’s cornerback, uh Zach mcpherson as a cornerback. And then we talked about these two positions, wide receiver tight end Isaiah Hodgins as somebody possibly to have there, maybe even Alec Holler and here’s somebody to bring up tight end from Dallas. Here’s somebody I was thinking about right here. The Chiefs cut your boy. Ca Darius Tony today. No, no, for speed. Take, take the top off. You, you wouldn’t want it. I like the skill. I don’t like the, the, the head case. I mean, I don’t like the Ted Ginn Junior two point. Oh, you know what I’m saying? He’s gonna get past the defense. Will he catch it? I don’t know. But that’s the thrill of it. You know what I’m saying? So, but it was a but, but maybe that’s somebody they consider it’s a possibility. I, I think, uh I uh I would stay away from Ca Darius toy. I would stay away. I’d stay away. No, thanks. No, thank you. You don’t want him. No, no, I mean he’s not needed. But if you felt like there’s a weak spot um, in your wide receiver room, which by the way, um Dave Canals called it the strongest position group on the roster. I don’t know if I agree with that coming out of camp. Yeah. I don’t know if I agree with that, but that’s what he said. Um, you know, but if you’re looking to upgrade, you know, that’s maybe one of the guys to look at. I think their strongest group right now, probably middle linebacker, probably might be their strongest group actually. Or safety, safety might be their strongest. I was just gonna put the D BS in all together. I mean, especially now having, uh Michael Jackson there because like, like legit, once Dane Jackson is, it comes back and like, and if Michael Jackson plays to the level that we think he can play, he’s a former starter in the NFL. Who do you cut? Probably Deshawn Jamison, but really Deshaun Jamison because you have a draft pick tied up with Shaw Smith Wade. It’s, I mean, but that’s even, that is a hard decision. So, um, I, I definitely think that, you know, for me, I think the, the DB room, uh, in general and I agree with you on inside linebacker. I’m excited about inside linebacker room. There’s a future there with Trevor Wallace for sure. Now, here’s the thing, a couple of things to keep in mind, folks, noon Wednesday. So depending on what time you’re watching this noon, Wednesday is when waiver claims have to be made. And that’s what generally we’re actually when basically we learn what, uh, you know, who’s going to be claimed by what team and where people are gonna go. So we’ll know that by noon on Wednesday, one pm, Wednesday is when you can start signing players to your practice squat. So some of these guys that we saw got cut might get added back to the team like our, like our guy Dicaprio Bootle, maybe potentially uh Jack Plummer, uh Jack Hammer as you would like to call him, uh maybe it’s uh someone else like Michael strong practice squad. Mike might be a perfect fit over there as well. So there are guys that might be added back to the roster to the practice squad. Alex Cook, Felipe Franks. There’s a lot of different guys that potentially could be back on the team in a practice squad capacity. We’ll start figuring that out at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. Here’s one thing I’ll be interested to see how things shape up and, you know, we talked about some of the, uh, guys with injury designations. Um, they have Jonathan Brooks on reserve non football injury. Yes. The reason for that is because his injury came outside of the NFL because this injury happened. That’s the reason why it works like the PUP list. That’s, that’s what it is. I was, I was, I was wondering what the non football thing was about because. Ok. Ok, cool. So it’s because he’s not an NFL but all of those guys and on those lists basically, uh, we know that they’re, he’s gonna be out for four weeks. Um So we’ll be paying attention to that running back room, right? Like who’s gonna look weak because, uh, after four weeks, if Jonathan Brooks is ready, I don’t know if he’ll be ready in four weeks, but that person is probably the one to go. Uh, you talk about Aari Bono, Bono and DJ Wham. There’s gonna be some, probably some places to trim some fat. Uh, once those guys are ready, if they’re gonna be ready. So, uh we’ll be watching all of that. That’s something that uh I’ll be interested to see how things end up shaking out. Make sure you subscribe here to Panthers playbook, sponsored by our friends at Carolina Ford Dealers with Ford F 150 on your team. It’s game mod. See your Carolina Ford Dealer today. Uh We’ll have another episode for you all next week because there’s no game this weekend. But make sure you leave your thoughts in the comments section below. We’ll see you guys next time.

Source: wralsportsfan.com