After moving on from Vonn Bell and watching Jeremy Chinn sign with the Commanders, Carolina will need to add to their safeties group in the offseason. Well, they won’t wait long to address that need, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, as former Rams safety Jordan Fuller is set to visit the Panthers this week.
Fuller just finished his rookie contract in Los Angeles and joins an interesting free agent safety market that includes several veterans who fell victim to the salary cap purge last week. Many teams have already jumped on signing safeties as big names like Xavier McKinney, Kevin Byard, Rayshawn Jenkins, and Jonathan Owens have all recently found new teams. The safety shuffle is sure to continue in the coming days.
Fuller is coming off a strong rebound season in 2023. After starting 12 games and intercepting three passes as a sixth-round rookie in 2020, Fuller held on to the full-time starting job the following year and led the Super Bowl-winning Rams in tackles during the regular season with 113 total. Ankle surgery would keep Fuller from the glory of playing in a Super Bowl victory, though, and he would miss all but three games of the 2022 season, as well.
In his contract year this past season, though, Fuller started every game, finishing second on the team in total tackles with 94 and leading the team with three interceptions. If a deal is reached in Fuller’s visit this week, Carolina would likely hope that Fuller would be able to slot in immediately as a starter next to Xavier Woods. If not, both Fuller and the Panthers should have plenty of options in what is sure to be a busy offseason for safety transactions.
Jonathan Owens is a big name safety? Ahead of Darnell Savage?
Neither are big names
Shrug. Savage is a 5 year starter for a team that went to the play-offs four times, and signed a 3 yr deal for about $21.5mm. He won’t get that much, but that’s pretty darn significant. Owens signed for two years, $4.5mm. But he is married to Simone Biles…so he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.