After landing on the Panthers’ IR list last October, Kawann Short will be part of such a transaction a year later. The veteran defensive tackle is set to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, Matt Rhule said Wednesday.
This injury is different from the one that ended Short’s 2019 season, per Joe Person of The Athletic (on Twitter), but it will still sideline the productive interior defender for the season’s remainder. Short has missed the past two Panthers games. He will exit the 2020 season having played in only five contests over the past two years.
The Panthers gave the former fifth-round pick a lucrative extension in 2017, and Short initially rewarded the franchise with his second Pro Bowl season in 2018. But injuries have prevented the 31-year-old defender from following up that success. The two-time Pro Bowler missed only two games due to injury in his first six seasons.
Short’s contract, which runs through the 2022 season, would make a 2021 release somewhat disadvantageous for the Panthers. It would save them $9MM-plus while also tagging the team with more than $11MM in dead money. However, the rebuilding Panthers — who have won two games without Short this season — made radical roster readjustments this past offseason, moving on from numerous cornerstone players. Short has been with Carolina for eight seasons and, after the team said goodbye to Luke Kuechly and Mario Addison, is now the Panthers’ longest-tenured defender.
He was a 2nd round pick.
They now have bravvion Roy and Austrian Robinson and Derrick brown Zach Kerr Woodrow Hamilton Bruce hector to replace short
So does that mean they won’t sign a defensive tackle then