CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For the second year in a row the Carolina Panthers’ list of unrestricted free agents includes 21 players.
The difference? This year’s list lacks some of the sizzle of last year’s, even if several of the guys at the top of it ended up elsewhere.
The Athletic’s rankings of the Panthers’ 2024 free agents were highlighted by four defensive players, none of whom re-signed with Carolina: edge rusher Brian Burns, linebacker Frankie Luvu, safety Jeremy Chinn and edge rusher Yetur Gross-Matos.
Panthers general manager Dan Morgan traded Burns to the New York Giants for a pair of draft picks (a second in 2024 and a fifth in ’25). Luvu and Chinn signed with Washington and will start in the NFC Championship Game this weekend, while Gross-Matos had four sacks in 11 games in his first season in San Francisco.
This year’s group of UFAs includes a veteran quarterback, all three specialists and two veterans who had each of their last two seasons cut short by injuries. The Athletic asked three veteran personnel officials to rank the Panthers’ top 10 free agents and their responses were kind of all over the board, perhaps reflective of the group’s lack of star power.
We combined their responses and took the averages to come up with these rankings, which reflect the level of interest the personnel vets anticipate the Panthers’ free agents would get on the open market.
1. (tie) S Xavier Woods
Woods has been a mainstay on the back end of the Panthers’ defense since signing a three-year, $15.75 million contract in 2022. Despite starting 46 games over the past three seasons, Woods could be part of a mass exodus as Dave Canales and defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero look to remake the safety room. Woods is the most accomplished of the five free-agent safeties (Jordan Fuller, Nick Scott, Sam Franklin and Lonnie Johnson are the others). The 29-year-old finished among the top four safeties in 2024 when he played every defensive snap and led Carolina in total tackles (119), solo tackles (72) and interceptions (three).
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1. (tie) S Sam Franklin
Franklin’s teammates voted him the special teams captain before the season when he was out with a broken foot. When Franklin returned in Week 8, he quickly resumed his place as a gunner and trusted special teams player. Franklin finished third on the team with eight special teams tackles despite missing seven games. He also was among the league leaders in a more dubious category. The emotional Franklin’s three unnecessary roughness penalties were tied for second in a group that also included Woods. One of the personnel executives called Franklin “a top-5 gunner” across the league.
3. TE Tommy Tremble
Tremble, veteran Ian Thomas and special teams ace Feleipe Franks are all free agents. Thomas has seemingly had nine lives in the organization, but Tremble is four years younger than Thomas and the easy choice if the Panthers plan to retain one of the TEs. Tremble battled back issues for much of 2024 but still put up receiving numbers (23 catches on 32 targets for 234 yards and two TDs) nearly identical to those from his previous two seasons. Tremble may not be a Pro Bowler, but he can block and catch, works hard (and is Chuba Hubbard’s partner on the JUGS machine) and is worth bringing back to pair with Ja’Tavion Sanders.
Despite playing just 12 games, Tommy Tremble had career highs in receiving yards (234) and yards per reception (10.2). (Bill Streicher / Imagn Images)
4. QB Andy Dalton
Dalton has seen a lot over his 14 NFL seasons. And yet he’d never been through anything like 2024 when he replaced a struggling Bryce Young in Week 3 and held the starting job for five weeks — only to lose it when he sprained his thumb in a two-car accident in south Charlotte on an October off day. “It felt like I’d experienced a lot of things,” Dalton told The Athletic in December. “Add it to the list of things that I’ve gone through.” The 37-year-old Dalton has been a valuable mentor to Young and has said he’d like to stay in Charlotte in that role. Canales respects Dalton’s professionalism and approach. So unless the organization wants to go younger behind Young, Dalton could be back.
5. (tie) OL Brady Christensen
Christensen started six games last season — four at center and two at left tackle. The third-round pick from 2021 also can play guard. And while Christensen’s Swiss Army Knife abilities are useful in terms of depth and position flexibility, Canales and his staff view him as a backup. That was evident when the Panthers went with Cade Mays over Christensen at center. With the Panthers expected to place a restricted free-agent tender on Mays, Christensen will see how other teams value his versatility.
5. (tie) CB Mike Jackson
The late-August trade for Jackson turned out to be one of the shrewdest moves of Morgan’s first year as GM. Jackson started 17 games and had a career year, while LB Michael Barrett — traded to Seattle for Jackson — lasted less than a month with the Seahawks and was with four teams as a rookie. The 28-year-old Jackson established personal highs in passes defensed (17), interceptions (two) and tackles (76) while finishing third in the league in passes defensed. Jackson would like to be back in Charlotte, where the more pressing positional issue is getting Jaycee Horn signed to a long-term extension.
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7. (tie) P Johnny Hekker
Hekker’s numbers were down in both punting average (45.7 yards) and net average (41.9) from his first two seasons with the Panthers, though he still finished in the top half of the league in net punting. Hekker passed Matt Turk for the 11th-most punts inside the 20 (378) in NFL history and is two away from climbing into the top 10. Though he’s no longer the force he was in the 2010s (when he made the NFL’s all-decade team), Hekker is still an effective field-position weapon.
7. (tie) OL Austin Corbett
After winning a Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams, Corbett arrived in Charlotte on a three-year deal in 2022 and was an OL mainstay as the Panthers made a push for a playoff spot under interim coach Steve Wilks. But Corbett tore his ACL in the final game that season at New Orleans — the first of three significant injuries that sidelined him for 25 of the team’s 34 games over the past two seasons. With Mays handling the center spot between big-money guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis, Corbett doesn’t appear to be in the team’s plans.
9. K Eddy Pineiro
When Justin Tucker was struggling in 2024, Pineiro briefly held the title of most accurate field goal kicker in NFL history. By season’s end, Pineiro’s 88.1 percent FG mark was third behind Tucker (89.1) and Harrison Butker (88.6). But that stat comes with the caveat that Tucker and Butker have attempted a ton more kicks than Pineiro. The Panthers don’t seem to have much faith in Pineiro’s leg strength: He tried only two kicks of 50-plus yards last season. After the Panthers declined to give Pineiro the extension he sought last spring, the sense is he’s headed to free agency.
10. (tie) LB Shaq Thompson
The Panthers drafted Thompson’s successor last year in third-rounder Trevin Wallace, whose development was expedited when Thompson tore his Achilles in a Week 4 loss to Cincinnati. It was the second consecutive year Thompson went down with a season-ending injury in September and cast doubt on his future with the franchise that drafted him in the first round before its Super Bowl season of 2015. Thompson is the Panthers’ longest-tenured position player and was off to a good start before getting hurt. He agreed to a pay cut last year, so maybe there’s a scenario where he returns on a team-friendly deal.
10. (tie) S Jordan Fuller
The former Rams safety was one of several free-agent acquisitions on defense who had ties to Evero. And while ex-L.A. defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson had an excellent year, the two former Rams safeties — Fuller and Scott — both struggled. Fuller was on IR for six weeks with a hamstring injury, then was a healthy scratch for two games in December after giving up touchdowns in losses to Philadelphia and Dallas.
Also receiving votes: LS J.J. Jansen, S Nick Scott, TE Feleipe Franks, TE Ian Thomas.
(Top photo of Andy Dalton: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
