Friday’s reserve/futures deals:
Carolina Panthers
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
Ajou was a strong high school recruit whose collegiate career didn’t amount to much in two years at Clemson, a season at South Florida, and a season at Garden City CC. After going undrafted, he spent 2024 in the Canadian Football League, where he collected 20 catches for 307 yards and two touchdowns for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Today’s reserve/futures contracts:
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Detroit Lions
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Two weekends of playoff football have come and gone, providing us with 10 more draft slots cemented into position as NFL teams continue to be eliminated from the playoffs. The top 18 picks were already divvied up at the conclusion of the regular season to the teams who failed to make the playoffs, while picks 19-28 have been determined over the past two weeks.
For non-playoff teams, the draft order has been determined by the inverted 2024 standings plus a series of tiebreakers, starting with strength of schedule. The playoff squads are being slotted by their postseason outcome and the reverse order of their regular-season record.
The league’s Super Wild Card weekend resulted in the elimination of Chargers, Steelers, Broncos, Packers, Buccaneers, and Vikings after their respective losses. Tampa Bay benefitted from the three-way tie in record with Denver and Pittsburgh, just as the Chargers did over the Packers.
The divisional round of the playoffs resulted in the elimination of the Texans, Rams, Ravens, and Lions. This time, Houston held the tiebreaker over Los Angeles, gifting it higher draft priority.
We are still at a place that, for the first time since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002, there is a chance that every team drafts in the first round, as no first-round picks have yet been traded. It’s extremely unlikely that this will remain the case, as draft-day trades are a very common occurrence, but it’s still an interesting concept to note this close to the draft.
Here is how the draft order looks following two weeks of playoff football:
Former Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich was hired to rejoin his old coworker, Raheem Morris, in Atlanta as defensive coordinator. This threw a wrench in some other plans in coaching searches around the league. Specifically, two teams that viewed him as a defensive coordinator candidate will have to look elsewhere to fill the position.
After Ulbrich filled in for a fired Robert Saleh in New York, he was likewise being viewed as a backup candidate for defensive coordinator behind Saleh in San Francisco. The 49ers are hoping to hire Saleh back to his old job as their defensive play-caller. Saleh is still interviewing for some open head coaching positions, though, and in case he becomes unavailable, Ulbrich was seemingly the second option.
The second team watching Ulbrich was whatever team ends up hiring former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Johnson had Ulbrich tabbed as the potential defensive coordinator on his first staff as an NFL head coach. Rapoport claims former Saints head coach Dennis Allen is the new name to look out for to join Johnson’s first staff.
Here are a few other rumors in staff conversations around the NFL:
Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson has played just six games in the last two seasons due to a broken fibula in 2023 followed by an Achilles tear this past September.
Thompson led the Panthers in tackles each year from 2020 to 2022 but still took a pay cut to stay in Carolina after his 2023 injury. Rather than a strong comeback to earn another multiyear extension, Thompson went down for the season after just four starts. Now, the 2015 first-round pick is set to his free agency in March for the first time in his career, though he’d prefer to finish his career with the team that drafted him. ‘
“I would love to end my career here. Be one of the guys in history to play with one team,” said Thompson, per Joseph Person of the Athletic. “But it’s up to them. These two injuries … there’s nothing I can do. But it happened. Get better and come back strong.”
Thompson’s injury occurred early enough in the 2024 season that he could be ready for training camp next summer, barring any setbacks. But after two season-ending injuries, teams will likely wait for Thompson to be healthy before they make any contract offers. The 10-year veteran’s desire to stay in Carolina could motivated him to sign a team-friendly deal with the Panthers. That would allow him to stay in his current home and rehab with the team’s familiar medical and training staff.
Here is the latest from the NFC South:
With the regular season in the books, all NFL teams have declared their cap carryover for the 2025 league year. Unused cap space from the current campaign will roll over, a substantial element of many teams’ financial planning.
Last offseason saw a record-breaking jump in the salary cap ceiling (pushing the upper limit to $255.4MM). To no surprise, another spike is expected but a smaller year-to-year increase is likely to take place. It was learned last month that teams are preparing for the 2025 cap to check in at a figure between $265MM-$275MM.
As teams evaluate key roster-building decisions – including restructures and cuts aimed at manufacturing cap space – carryovers are crucial. It it still not known what exactly the cap ceiling will wind up as, but in the meantime every club’s space which has been rolled over will add a degree of clarity with respect to how their offseason will take shape. Several teams (including the top two on this year’s list) have made a concerted effort in recent years to carry unused space through the course of a campaign knowing a spike in cap charges for core players are forthcoming.
Courtesy of Over the Cap, here is the full breakdown of each team’s 2025 cap carryover amount:
The Panthers are making multiple changes to their defensive staff after ranking dead-last in yards and points allowed this season.
Head coach Dave Canales recently reaffirmed his confidence in defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, but the team has moved on from three members of his staff. Safeties coach Bert Watts, outside linebackers coach Tem Lukabu, and quality control coach Bobby Maffei will not return under Evero in 2025, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
Watts was the Broncos’ outside linebackers coach in 2022 and followed Evero from Denver to Carolina in 2023. The Panthers’ secondary allowed the 10th-most passing yards in the NFL in 2024, along with a league-high 35 touchdowns and just nine interceptions. The unit did deal with several injuries, including stints on injured reserve by Sam Franklin and Jordan Fuller.
Lukabu also joined the Panthers in 2023 after serving as Boston College’s defensive coordinator. Carolina’s edge rush struggled to generate pressure without Brian Burns this year, and the team as a whole allowed a league-high 3,057 rushing yards and 5.2 yards per carry.
Maffei started with the Panthers as a defensive assistant in 2022 and received a promotion to defensive quality control coach after Evero’s arrival. His specific role in the team’s defense is not known, but it’s not surprising to see widespread changes after the Panthers’ defensive struggles during the regular season.
Canales and Evero will spend the coming weeks interviewing candidates to join their staff and help the Panthers defense bounce back from one of the worst statistical seasons in league history.
The Panthers will be looking to build onn the late-season resurgence of former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young heading into the 2025 season.
One of general manager Dan Morgan‘s top priorities this offseason is an extension for cornerback Jaycee Horn, per ESPN’s David Newton. Carolina selected Horn with the eighth overall pick in 2021 hoping he could lock down one side of their passing defense. Injuries limited him to just 22 games across his first three years, followed by his first career Pro Bowl selection this season.
His negotiations won’t be as simple as fellow 2021 top-10 pick Patrick Surtain, who reset the cornerback market with a four-year, $96MM extension in September. Surtain has played in all but two of the Broncos’ game since he was drafted with three Pro Bowls in the last three years. He earned a first-team All-Pro nod in 2022 and is poised to earn a second for his work this season, giving Denver no choice but to pay him at the top of the market.
Horn, however, has not been consistently available, and despite his Pro Bowl recognition this year, he allowed career-highs in touchdowns (6) and passer rating when targeted (92.7). Guaranteed money will be a key factor in negotiations; the Panthers may prefer a rolling guarantee structure that kicks in after Horn proves he can stay healthy for another year or two.
The Panthers picked up Horn’s fifth-year option last offseason, so he’s set to earn $12.472MM in 2025. That amount will be paid out as a base salary with no bonus money up front, so the 25-year-old cornerback has plenty of reason to come to the negotiating table. An injury in 2025 could impact his ability to get another long-term contract in his career.
It’s also worth noting that Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley will both be eligible for early extensions this offseason, which could match or surpass Surtain’s contract. If Horn waits until after Gardner and Stingley extend with their teams, he could capitalize on another increase in the cornerback market – if he can stay healthy and put together another solid showing in 2025.
The Seahawks are not set to clean house on offense, but they are not considering anyone from Ryan Grubb‘s staff to be their next OC after making Grubb an one-and-done. Mike Macdonald confirmed as much (via the Seattle Times’ Bob Condotta), while praising the team’s young core in hyping up the job. Although the Seahawks are only preparing to look outside the organization for help, Macdonald added (via ESPN.com’s Brady Henderson) play-calling experience will not be required. This is not too uncommon, as teams regularly hire quarterbacks coaches or pass-game coordinators to be OCs. Those roles generally do not feature play-calling duties. The team has already put in interview requests, per Macdonald, though no names have surfaced yet. Additionally, Macdonald said (via Condotta) the new hire, as could be expected, will not be forced to retain all of Grubb’s staff. More changes should be expected.
Here is the latest from the coaching ranks:
With the regular season having come to an end, many teams have started signing players to reserve/futures contracts. This allows organization to retain (routinely) young, practice squad players. Here are the latest reserve/futures contracts:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Chicago Bears
Cleveland Browns
Dallas Cowboys
Indianapolis Colts
Las Vegas Raiders
New York Giants
New York Jets
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans