Carolina Panthers cap space, positional spending update going into 2024 NFL season

The Panthers have a lot of roster needs and not a whole lot of salary cap space to get it done

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - JUNE 04: Dan Morgan, President of Football Operations and General Manager of the Carolina Panthers, attends Carolina Panthers OTA Offseason Workout on June 04, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. / (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Success as a pro athlete does not have any correlation to success as a personnel manager. If you're not sure, just ask Michael Jordan about that. Case in point: Carolina Panthers general manager Dan Morgan was a Pro Bowler for this team 20 years ago. Now he faces a radically different challenge: trying to compete while managing the salary cap in the modern NFL.

To be fair, the roster he inherited when he took over the position earlier this year was unquestionably one of the worst in the league. Morgan deserves some time to try to rebuild it in his own image, so to speak. Unfortunately, he made some questionable spending moves early on in free agency and there's not much cash left on the table to shape this team anymore, at least not this year.

Heading into the 2024 NFL season, Carolina only has a little less than $6.19 million left to spend, according to figures at Over the Cap.

So, where did all that money go?

A huge chunk of it went into upgrading the offensive line unit, which currently stands as the most expensive in the entire NFL, taking up $71.9 million. In a vaccuum there's nothing wrong with spending a lot up front - after all the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are right behind the Panthers in this department, spending $70.64 million up front.

The details matter, though and the specifics of Morgan's spending spree in March are not ideal. The most-questionable items were spending two boatloads of money at the guard positions, giving right guard Robert Hunt a five-year, $100 million deal and left guard Damien Lewis another four years and $53 million. Hunt is a fine lineman but you can make a good case that no guard is worth that much and the Lewis contract is just silly considering how average his play was for Seattle the last few years.

There were some good moves, though. Signing Dane Jackson (two years, $14.5 million) adds depth at corner and trading for Diontae Johnson helped boost the wide receiver corps in a significant but underrated way. (Bryce Young has reportedly developed a quick rapport with the former PIttsburgh wideout). Morgan also deserves credit for a mostly-strong 2024 NFL draft class, even if he did pick a running back too early.

To get a clearer picture of how the whole roster is constructed and what their priorities are let's see where Carolina ranks in spening at each position relative to the rest of the NFL.

QB: $16,361,486 (ranks 19th)

RB: $16,081,337 (ranks 3rd)

WR: $32,692,974 (ranks 15th)

TE: $10,606,942 (ranks 20th)

OL: $71,914,619 (ranks 1st)

iDL: $24,185,772 (ranks 15th)

EDGE: $19,196,363 (ranks 24th)

LB: $13,481,347 (ranks 23rd)

S: $17,852,384 (ranks 11th)

CB: $16,604,330 (ranks 25th)

From a glance, Taylor Moton and Ickey Ekonwu are worth the investment, but the Panthers would have been wiser to spend most of that Hunt/Lewis money at cornerback and edge, which are far more important in the modern game. It also wouldn't have hurt to sign another potent wide receiver.

Oh well, live and learn.

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