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Panthers’ Jonathon Brooks Suffers ACL Tear

December 9th, 2024 at 10:11pm CST by Adam La Rose

For the second year in a row, Jonathon Brooks has suffered an ACL tear. Panthers head coach Dave Canales confirmed the injury for the rookie running back on Monday.

Brooks tore his ACL during his final collegiate season, something which delayed his NFL debut. Now, after only three games with Carolina, the second-rounder will re-start the lengthy rehab process associated with the injury. He will miss the remainder of the campaign and likely time in 2025 as well.

Canales noted Brooks re-tore his right ACL, the one which was affected by last year’s injury. As expected, the Panthers were cautious in their approach to Brooks’ recovery, and he had a lengthy stay on the NFI list prior to being activated in November. He managed to take part in just two full games, seeing a total of nine carries before going down midway through yesterday’s loss to the Eagles.

Brooks’ rookie contract runs through 2027, so plenty of time remains for him to return to full health and establish himself as a key figure on a rebuilding Carolina offense. The Texans product will be faced with surgery and a long rehab process once again, though, and that will be the top priority for team and player as the season winds down. The 3-10 Panthers are out of postseason contention, but they will miss out on the opportunity to get Brooks playing time down the stretch.

In the meantime, Chuba Hubbard will remain atop the running back depth chart. The 25-year-old has enjoyed a career year in 2024, and on Sunday he eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards. One month ago, Hubbard agreed to a four-year extension which ensured he would not hit free agency and has him positioned to continue operating as Carolina’s top back for the foreseeable future. Fellow running back Raheem Blackshear was taken to hospital after suffering a chest injury, but Canales said (via NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo) he traveled home with the team. Depending on his prognosis, Hubbard may be forced to handle a very heavy workload the rest of the way.

As for Brooks, his progress in recovering after the surgery takes place will be a key offseason storyline. The team will no doubt once again take a cautious approach to his return to action, something which will likely not be feasible until midway through the 2025 season.

Panthers G Robert Hunt Felt Dolphins’ Extension Offer Was “Disrespectful”

December 8th, 2024 at 12:30pm CST by Rory Parks

In order to convince Robert Hunt to come to Charlotte this offseason, the Panthers made him just the fourth guard in league history to enjoy a $20MM/year contract, authorizing a five-year, $100MM accord that features $44MM in fully-guaranteed money. While Hunt’s original team, the Dolphins, were interested in retaining their 2020 second-rounder, it sounds as if Miami stopped well short of where Carolina was willing to go.

Although Hunt did not talk details, he acknowledged that the ‘Fins made an extension offer near the tail end of the 2023 campaign.

“Late in December they made an offer,” Hunt said (via Joseph Person of The Athletic (subscription required)). “I just thought it was a little disrespectful. It screamed that we’re not gonna pay.”

Hunt, 28, played in just 11 games last year due to injury, but he established himself as one of the game’s better guards after the Dolphins moved him from right tackle to the interior of the line in 2021. Pro Football Focus considered him a top-12 guard in both 2022 and 2023, and with the Panthers anxious to give second-year quarterback Bryce Young adequate protection and to improve their rushing attack, they were prepared to pay top dollar for Hunt’s services.

At 3-9, Carolina is suffering through another difficult season, but as Person notes, the club is pleased with the return on its Hunt investment. His pass-blocking metrics have regressed to a degree, so he is presently ranked as PFF’s 21st-best guard out of 73 qualified players. Those struggles in the passing game were on display during the Panthers’ recent loss to the Chiefs and defensive lineman Chris Jones, who is one of the game’s most fearsome interior rushers.

Of course, Jones gets the best of many opposing blockers, and the Panthers’ staff is not concerned about Hunt moving forward.

Said run game coordinator Harold Goodwin, “Rob had some good battles with [Jones]. Rob won some. [Jones] won some. So it was good ebb and flow to the competition. We’ve just gotta get Rob’s hands and feet more coordinated. I think … Rob was pressing because he knew who it was.”

Even with the downturn in the pass-blocking component of his game, it appears that Hunt’s efforts this season — to say nothing of his contract status — have entrenched him as one of the foundational pieces of the roster for the foreseeable future.

Panthers DC Ejiro Evero Expected To Receive HC Interest

December 7th, 2024 at 9:54pm CST by Ben Levine

The Panthers defense has struggled to take a step forward during defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero‘s second season at the helm. The team has allowed a league-leading 2,002 rushing yards, and while the passing defense has generally been up and down, they’ve still allowed the fourth-most passing touchdowns in the league (22).

Considering the underwhelming performance, some pundits have questioned if Evero will still be a popular candidate on the head coaching market this offseason. Dave Canales believes his defensive leader will once again be in contention for a head job, with the first-year Panthers HC citing his coordinator’s consistent messaging and next-man-up mentality.

“It’s echoing all through the building,” Canales said (via ESPN’s David Newton). “It’s just the fundamentals and not backing off of those things. If we can keep the principles the same and our messaging simple, then the guys have something that they can really grasp onto.”

There’s a few reasons to believe that Evero will remain a hot name on the coaching carousel. For starters, the Panthers defense wasn’t a whole lot better in 2023, and he still garnered interest for Carolina’s top job (along with head coaching gigs with the Falcons and Seahawks). Further, rival teams aren’t necessarily looking at the stat sheet when determining their next franchise leader. As Newton notes, former Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown guided an underwhelming 2023 squad before earning a promotion to pass-game coordinator in Chicago. When Bears coach Matt Eberflus was fired last week, the organization felt comfortable enough to promote Brown to interim HC despite the lack of track record.

In other words, even if the Panthers defense finishes towards the bottom of the league in 2024, Evero’s reputation should still be intact. Plus, there are recent signs of improvement in Carolina. As Newton notes, the Panthers have allowed 24.3 points per game over their last three contests, down 8.2 points from their previous league-worst standing. This stretch coincided with improved health from the defense, so Evero may be able to end the campaign on a high note before once again entering the coaching cycle.

Minor NFL Transactions: 12/7/24

December 7th, 2024 at 8:17pm CST by Ely Allen

Saturday’s minor transactions, including gameday practice squad elevations:

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Jacksonville Jaguars

Las Vegas Raiders

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

New Orleans Saints

New York Giants

New York Jets

Philadelphia Eagles

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tennessee Titans

Eagles starting tight end Dallas Goedert has been placed on injured reserve, so Jenkins will come up from the practice squad for a little added depth.

NFL Practice Squad Updates: 12/3/24

December 3rd, 2024 at 7:50pm CST by Ben Levine

Today’s practice squad moves:

Atlanta Falcons

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Detroit Lions

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Los Angeles Chargers

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

With Trevor Lawrence currently in concussion protocol, the Jaguars have added some QB depth to the organization. John Wolford brings four games of starting experience to Jacksonville, all coming with the Rams between 2020 and 2022. The Wake Forest product went 2-2 in those appearances, tossing one touchdown vs. five interceptions. He’ll slide in behind Mac Jones and C.J. Beathard in the franchise’s QB pecking order.

The Eagles added a veteran fullback to their roster in Khari Blasingame. The 28-year-old has appeared in 66 games since entering the league in 2019, collecting 131 yards from scrimmage on 24 carries. The Eagles recently lost part-time fullback Ben VanSumeren for the season, opening a role for a handful of blocking snaps per game.

NFL Contract Notes: Henry, Barkley, Smith, Reddick, Hubbard

December 1st, 2024 at 7:25pm CST by Ely Allen

Ravens running back Derrick Henry has been enjoying a phenomenal first season in Baltimore. The team signed him to a two-year, $16MM deal that saw him receive $9MM in cash in the first year. Henry’s deal also came with five $500K incentives.

His incentives are maxed out at $2MM, so he can only cash in on four of those five incentives, per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. So far this year, Henry has hit on three incentives: 1,200 rushing yards, 13 total touchdowns, and 15 total touchdowns.

The remaining two incentives would require him to reach 1,500 rushing yards or would require the team to win the Super Bowl. While the Ravens still have a ways to go in order to get to the big game, Henry only needs 93 yards in the team’s final four games in order to max out his incentives.

Here are a few other contract notes from around the NFL:

  • Eagles running back Saquon Barkley also is tracking down some incentives. Smartly, none of Barkley’s incentives revolve around rushing touchdowns, thanks to the infamous “tush push,” per Garafolo and Ian Rapoport. Barkley will earn $250K if he reaches 1,500 scrimmage yards (he’s 36 yards away from that total after today’s game in Baltimore) and an additional $250K if he reaches 2,000. Additionally, each incentive acts as an escalator for next year’s base salary, adding a potential $1MM to his total contract value. He also would receive $250K for a second-team All-Pro or Pro Bowl selection and $500K for a first-team All-Pro selection. That incentive would act as an escalator for next year, as well. Lastly, Barkley would earn $250K each for victories in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.
  • Jets left tackle Tyron Smith may have just been placed on injured reserve, but his health up to that point had been paying dividends. His recent injury history required him to settle for a heavily incentivized contract with only $6.5MM in base salary and $12MM in playing time incentives. By playing every snap through nine games, Smith essentially qualified for the 50% of offensive snaps threshold that earns him $2.75MM. Every additional game after that would essentially net him an additional $1MM, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini, with the final five games being worth $1.25MM per week. Unfortunately, he only fit one game in before moving to IR. He could make his way back to earn a couple more incentives, but New York may prefer to get an extended look at their tackle of the future, Olu Fashanu, instead.
  • Also in New York, pass rusher Haason Reddick still has an opportunity to earn some playing time incentives after ending his holdout, per Cimini. Through the four games (before today) Reddick has appeared in, he has played 179 of 275 defensive snaps, good for about 43 percent. If he can keep that percentage over 40, he’ll earn a $791,628 incentive bonus, but his last two games have seen him only play 37 percent of the team’s snaps, so that bonus may be in danger. Reddick could also earn a $500K bonus if he reaches eight sacks, but with only 0.5 sacks through five games with only five more remaining, that incentive feels out of reach.
  • Lastly, we saw the Panthers reward running back Chuba Hubbard with a recent four-year, $33.2MM extension. Per our friends at OvertheCap.com, the deal comes with a signing bonus of $7.71MM and only sees the first year’s base salary guaranteed.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/30/24

November 30th, 2024 at 9:34pm CST by Ely Allen

Saturday’s minor moves and standard gameday practice squad elevations:

Atlanta Falcons

Baltimore Ravens

Carolina Panthers

Cleveland Browns

Houston Texans

Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville Jaguars

Minnesota Vikings

New England Patriots

New Orleans Saints

Philadelphia Eagles

San Francisco 49ers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Falcons kicker Younghoe Koo is listed as questionable, but head coach Raheem Morris is confident he’ll play, calling Patterson an emergency option.

Speculation out of Baltimore was that Maulet wouldn’t require a second stint on injured reserve with his calf injury, but that intel appears to have been off. Maulet and Kolar could potentially make a return in time for the postseason, but they’ll miss four games before they do.

VanSumeren served double-duty as a fullback and linebacker. With his placement on IR, Uzomah was targeted as a possibility to fill in at fullback.

Minor NFL Transactions: 11/27/24

November 27th, 2024 at 6:50pm CST by Ely Allen

Wednesday’s minor transactions, including some standard gameday practice squad elevations for the Thanksgiving Day slate:

Buffalo Bills

Carolina Panthers

Chicago Bears

Cleveland Browns

  • Designated to return from IR: CB Myles Harden

Dallas Cowboys

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Los Angeles Rams

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

New York Jets

Pittsburgh Steelers

Seattle Seahawks

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Vikings’ release of Murphy is disappointing one for the organization for sure. The rookie pass rusher out of UCLA was not healthy enough to be on the active roster to start the season, but Minnesota liked him enough to dedicate one of their eight IR activations on him in August. He was activated yesterday but hit waivers today. If he clears the waivers, he’ll be available to sign to the team’s practice squad.

Adams has seen his biggest NFL roles during his time in Pittsburgh. Though he hasn’t gotten the same number of starts as he had in 2022 and 2023, he’s continued the same level of production. After missing the last four games, he’ll be looking to return to the field soon.

2024 NFL Dead Money, By Team

November 27th, 2024 at 12:50pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Giants making the decision to waive Daniel Jones, rather than keep him around ahead of a potential 2025 post-June 1 cut designation, changed their dead money outlook for this year and next. Here is how their new total fits in with the rest of the teams’ numbers for dead money — cap space allocated to players no longer on the roster — entering the final third of the regular season. Numbers courtesy of OverTheCap.

  1. Denver Broncos: $85.21MM
  2. New York Giants: $79.57MM
  3. Minnesota Vikings: $69.83MM
  4. Buffalo Bills: $68.47MM
  5. Carolina Panthers: $68.28MM
  6. Green Bay Packers: $65.53MM
  7. Tennessee Titans: $62.89MM
  8. Philadelphia Eagles: $61.95MM
  9. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: $60.64MM
  10. New Orleans Saints: $59.44MM
  11. New York Jets: $59.24MM
  12. Los Angeles Chargers: $58.62MM
  13. New England Patriots: $53.37MM
  14. Miami Dolphins: $52.28MM
  15. Seattle Seahawks: $52MM
  16. Jacksonville Jaguars: $51.2MM
  17. Las Vegas Raiders: $49.37MM
  18. Washington Commanders: $42.81MM
  19. Houston Texans: $39.28MM
  20. Cleveland Browns: $38.79MM
  21. Los Angeles Rams: $34.63MM
  22. Detroit Lions: $33.71MM
  23. Pittsburgh Steelers: $30.18MM
  24. Chicago Bears: $29.65MM
  25. Arizona Cardinals: $29.35MM
  26. San Francisco 49ers: $26.91MM
  27. Dallas Cowboys: $26.79MM
  28. Baltimore Ravens: $21.35MM
  29. Kansas City Chiefs: $12.65MM
  30. Indianapolis Colts: $11.8MM
  31. Atlanta Falcons: $11.55MM
  32. Cincinnati Bengals: $9.11MM

The Jones release moved more than $13MM of dead cap onto the Giants’ 2024 payroll. More significantly, the Giants granting Jones an early exit — after a contract-driven benching — will prevent the team from designating him a post-June 1 cut next year. The Giants will take on $22.2MM in dead money in 2025, rather than being able to split that bill over two offseasons. The team also took on more than $10MM in dead money this year due to the 2023 Leonard Williams trade.

This year’s most egregious dead money offender has been known for months. The Broncos’ contract-driven Russell Wilson benching last year preceded a historic release, which saddled the team with more than $83MM in total dead money. A small cap credit is set to come in 2025 (via Wilson’s veteran-minimum Pittsburgh pact), but for this year, $53MM in dead cap hit Denver’s payroll as a result of the the quarterback’s release.

The Broncos more than doubled the previous single-player dead money record, which the Falcons held ($40.5MM) for trading Matt Ryan), and they will be on the hook for the final $30MM-plus in 2025. Beyond Wilson, no other ex-Bronco counts more than $7.5MM in dead money. In terms of total dead cap, however, the Broncos barely check in north of the Buccaneers and Rams’ 2023 totals. Denver is trying to follow those teams’ lead in rallying back to make the playoffs despite nearly a third of its 2024 payroll tied up in dead cap.

Twenty-two players represent dead money for the Saints, who have seen their total updated since the Marshon Lattimore trade. Rather than restructure-crazed GM Mickey Loomis using the Lattimore contract once again to create cap space next year, the Saints will take on the highest non-QB dead money hit in NFL history. Lattimore counts $14MM in that category this year before the contract shifts to a whopping $31.66MM in dead cap on New Orleans’ 2025 payroll. Considering the Saints are again in their own sector for cap trouble next year ($62MM-plus over), the Lattimore trade will create some issues as the team attempts to rebound post-Dennis Allen.

Two 2023 restructures ballooned the Vikings’ figure toward $70MM. Void years on Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter‘s deals combined for more than $43MM in dead money. Minnesota also ate nearly $7MM from the void years on Marcus Davenport‘s one-year contract, while the release of 2022 first-rounder Lewis Cine (currently on the Bills’ practice squad) accounted for more than $5MM.

Free from the Tom Brady dead money that comprised a chunk of their 2023 cap, the Bucs still have eight-figure hits from the Carlton Davis trade and Mike Evans‘ previous contract voiding not long before the sides agreed on a new deal. Elsewhere in the NFC South, three of the players given multiyear deals in 2023 — Vonn Bell, Hayden Hurst, Bradley Bozeman — being moved off the roster in GM Dan Morgan‘s first offseason represent nearly half of Carolina’s dead cap.

 

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