The Carolina Panthers started trimming the edges of their roster Saturday, moving ahead of the NFL’s 53-man cutdown deadline with a batch of waivers and one notable addition on defense.
After saying the roster decisions would come in “waves,” coach Dave Canales and the front office followed through by waiving running back Miles Davis, tight end Caden Prieskorn, defensive tackles Kyon Barrs and Tywone Malone, and wide receivers Elijah Cooks and Roc Taylor. Offensive tackle Ryan Hayes was designated waived, injured, while wide receiver and special teams ace Dan Chisena was released with an injury settlement.
Canales said the early moves were part of giving players a better shot elsewhere if another team wants to take a look.
"That gives them a better opportunity to kind of be exposed to the rest of the league to see if people are watching their film," said Canales, whose club went 3-1 during the preseason.
The Panthers also addressed a spot that had been unsettled for much of the offseason. On Saturday, they agreed to terms with veteran linebacker Bobby Okereke on a one-year deal, bringing in a player expected to compete for the ILB2 job next to Devin Lloyd in the 3-4 base defense.
Okereke had been out of football during the offseason program and training camp, but his track record is plenty established. The former Stanford standout was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in the third round in 2019, spent four seasons there and then played three seasons with the New York Giants.
Over his career, he has piled up 805 total tackles, 11 forced fumbles, 7.5 sacks and seven interceptions. Last season, he started all 17 games for the Giants and finished with 143 tackles.
Inside linebacker has been one of the Panthers’ more interesting camps battles, with Claudin Cherelus and Trevin Wallace working through the spring and summer without anyone clearly taking control of the job. Wallace was credited with a sack Friday in the 16-13 preseason-ending win over the Houston Texans at Bank of America Stadium.
The Panthers carried a 91-man training camp roster and are expected to keep linebacker Mapalo Mwansa by using the international roster exemption. Canales pointed to Mwansa’s value on special teams and defense.
"I think of Mwansa, for example, (is) a guy that we know can really help us on special teams and he played quality snaps on defense throughout this preseason, finishing some games," Canalas said. "He really gives himself value that way."
With final cuts due by 6 p.m. ET Sunday, Canales said the staff still had plenty to sort through, especially when it comes to the math at quarterback, running back and receiver.
"How do you keep three quarterbacks (and) four running backs? Canales said. "How do you keep seven receivers ... eight receivers.
"We gotta work it out in the next couple of days. There's a lot to work through."
In Other News...
Panthers Face A Tough Call On Haynes King After Preseason Surge
Haynes King gave the Panthers a quick look in the preseason, then the hamstring injury hit and kept him out for three weeks, leaving Carolina with only one games worth of tape to weigh before roster decisions start coming fast. For a team trying to sort through its quarterback room, that limited sample has made the evaluation process trickier than anyone would have liked.
Dave Canales said as much, pointing out how hard it is to properly judge King after so little action and how those judgments now feed into the bigger task of getting down to 53 players. Even with the preseason nearly in the books, the Panthers still have to decide how much they learned from Kings brief surge and how much uncertainty theyre willing to carry into cutdown day. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Veteran Caught In An Awkward Roster Crunch
The leaguewide roster cut deadline arrives Sunday, Aug. 30, and for Carolina it comes with the usual end-of-summer squeeze every team faces. Around the NFL, clubs are trimming from camp rosters to the 53-player limit, a process that often turns into a complicated mix of competition, depth-chart math and salary-cap considerations.
Several familiar names across the league are caught up in that same pressure, from quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Aidan OConnell to cornerbacks Trevon Diggs, Keisean Nixon and Kaiir Elam. For the Panthers, the larger point is less about any one player than the larger roster crunch itself, with decisions still to come and practice-squad possibilities lingering until the final moves are made. [Read more 🡒]
Panthers Quarterback Room Still Has One Big Roster Question
The Panthers made another quarterback-room move during preseason cuts, parting ways with veteran Kyle Trask after he got a look in three exhibition games. Trask put together a mixed showing, throwing for 252 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, enough to give Carolina a clearer picture of where he stood as the roster got trimmed down.
Kyle Trasks release does not necessarily close the door on his time in Carolina, though. The Panthers could still bring him back on the practice squad or keep him in mind as an emergency third quarterback, leaving one of the teams lingering roster questions unresolved as the preseason dust settles. [Read more 🡒]