From our perspective, the Carolina Panthers have done a good job of addressing their greatest roster needs in the first days of free agency. Going in they needed help at all three levels of their defense, and they've managed to secure that, in some cases doubling up.
That's the case for the interior defensive line, where they've added Bobby Brown and Ter'Shawn Wharton. On the edge they signed Patrick Jones II. At linebacker Christian Rozeboom is joining the group. At cornerback they retained Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson, and they've landed at least one major upgrade at safety by signing Tre'Von Moehrig.
Bill Walton liked to say that you should never mistake action for achievement, though. It seems that's what most analysts think about Carolina's early haul in free agency. In fact, according to one analyst they have even taken a step back.
Matt Johnson at Sportsnaut has a new batch of power rankings following the first wave of free agency, and the has the Panthers going from 25th down to 28th.
"Milton Williams seemed to be the top player the Carolina Panthers wanted in NFL free agency, but they lost the bidding war. Instead, Carolina spread the money around to improve defensively – Tershawn Wharton, Christian Rozeboom and Tre’von Moehrig – which is fine but not significant. We’d have also been a lot more optimistic about this Panthers’ offense if they strengthened the receiving corps, but that will likely come from the 2025 NFL Draft. For now, the Panthers feel destined to be a seven-win team and that’s not quite good enough in Bryce Young’s third year."
Tough scene. It's fair to question the price tag for some of the Panthers' signings - especially the record-setting deal for Jaycee Horn. However, we feel downgrading them is the wrong move.
While there are no true big names in their free agent haul (Rico Dawdle might be on top), this doesn't mean they haven't improved. The interior defensive line group in particular was exposed last season when Derrick Brown went down. They now have two more proven starters with that unit, significantly upgrading their depth. Their edge group is also slightly stronger with Jones.
In the middle of the defense, Rozeboom is a pretty solid under-the-radar kind of move. He gives them a strong 1-2 punch to start at linebacker along with Josey Jewell, giving Trevin Wallace more time to develop on the sidelines. This could be a very sneaky high-value signing.
On the back end, the Panthers needed to keep Horn and they did that - even if they overpaid. They were also right to keep Mike Jackson around. Meanwhile, at safety they had arguably the worst starting tandem in the league with Jordan Fuller and Xavier Woods. Moehrig represents a massive upgrade over one of them - and if they can sign or draft another starter there you could make a case no team will have improved more at that spot this offseason.
It's not enough to win them the division and there's still a lot of work to do, but the Panthers are unquestionably a better team than they were when the legal tampering period opened.
