Carolina Panthers' latest moves raise more questions about roster building

If the Panthers have a real plan to improve the worst roster in the NFL, they're doing a good job of hiding it.

Tim Weaver | Sep 18, 2024

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 10: General Manager Dan Morgan of the Carolina Panthers looks on before rookie minicamp on May 10, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. / (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)

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Carolina Panthers

If you don't have any idea what the Carolina Panthers are doing right now, you're certainly not alone. The shocking decision to sit second-year quarterback Bryce Young just two games into the regular season is only one highly-questionable move the team has made lately. Yesterday, the Panthers announced a few more transactions that makes us wonder what the plan is, exactly.

Even though right now Carolina has arguably the worst edge rotation and the worst tight end room in the entire NFL, yesterday the team let go of one player at each position. Specifically, long-time veteran wide receiver and recently-converted tight end Jordan Matthews was released. Second-year edge rusher Eku Leota was waived, as well. The Panthers also signed practice squad tight end Feleipe Franks to the active roster.

What's the plan for the Panthers?

Preseason is preseason, but these moves are especially confusing because these two were standouts last month. It's an extremely low bar, but you could make a strong case for Matthews having been the best pass-catching tight end on this team. Meanwhile, Leota might have been the team's top edge defender outside of Jadeveon Clowney, who isn't exactly setting the field on fire so far this season.

Opinions aside, Leota was the team's sack leader so far this year, and at the moment the Panthers only have three edge rushers on the roster: Clowney, D.J. Johnson and veteran Charles Harris, who just signed with the Panthers last week. We have to think more moves are coming, but to have just three players rostered at this spot at any point in the year is a sign that there's something wrong.

At tight end, we had hoped that rookie Ja'Tavion Sanders might finally give the Panthers some punch in the passing game at this spot for the first time since Greg Olsen left, but it hasn't happened yet. Sanders has earned the second-lowest grade on offense for Carolina, with only Bryce Young below him.

At this point we honestly don't know what to expect from this franchise from one day to the next. It's easy (and fun) to point the finger at team owner David Tepper, but the hard truth is this roster was being mismanaged even before he bought the team - at least going back to former general manager Dave Gettleman's fumbling of the post-Super Bowl 50 fallout. How they climb out of eight straight years of bad roster building is anybody's guess, but we do know it won't be easy.