Offensive lineman Austin Corbett is set for another season with the Panthers.
Mike Kaye of the Charlotte Observer reports that Corbett has agreed to a one-year deal with the team ahead of the start of free agency. No other terms have been reported.
Corbett signed a three-year deal with the Panthers in 2022 and started every game at right guard. He tore his ACL in the season finale and returned to play four games in 2023 before another knee injury.
The Panthers moved Corbett to center last year, but the injury bug hit again. He tore his biceps in Week Five and missed the rest of the season.
Cade Mays started eight games at center after Corbett’s injury and is due back after being tendered as a restricted free agent.
Defensive lineman LaBryan Ray is set to return to the Panthers for the 2025 season.
The team announced that they have tendered Ray a contract as an exclusive rights free agent. The move blocks Ray from negotiating with other teams and he’ll officially be back with the team once he signs the tender.
Ray has played 33 games and made 10 starts for the Panthers over the last two seasons. Nine of those starts came in 2024 and Ray finished the season with 41 tackles and a sack.
The Panthers also confirmed that they have tendered center Cade Mays as a restricted free agent.
The Panthers aim to hold onto center Cade Mays this offseason.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that they have tendered Mays with a contract as a restricted free agent. It’s an original round tender worth $3.263 million.
Under the terms of the tender, the Panthers will be able to match any offer from another team for Mays but they will not get any compensation if they choose not to match an offer.
Mays was a 2022 sixth-round pick and was released last summer. He signed to the Giants’ practice squad, but returned to the Panthers in October and started eight of the 11 games he played in Carolina last season.
Panthers coach Dave Canales took a risk when he benched Bryce Young early last season, because a young quarterback can lose confidence from a benching. But that’s not what happened with Young.
Canales said on PFT Live that Young did all the right things while Andy Dalton started last season, and that Young deserves an enormous amount of credit for how much better a quarterback he was when he returned to the starting lineup late in the season.
“I did not know how he was going to respond to that,” Canales said of the benching. “What I knew was I needed to make the best decision for the Panthers at the time, and that’s truly, I want to win this game, and I felt like Andy gave us the chance to win that game in Vegas, and we went week to week. I don’t know if this model works, but I know it worked for Bryce. I know Bryce took the challenge, Bryce grew, he took every day as an opportunity. He never stopped leading through that whole time. He was working his teammates in the locker room, he was working the sideline during games, he was there as support for Andy while he was playing. He literally did not bow out. A lot of times you see these things happen and the quarterback all of a sudden starts to retreat. He just stayed available and was consistent with his teammates and kept working on his craft until he got his next opportunity. So I have to give Bryce all the credit.”
Now the Panthers are heading into Year Three of Young’s career thinking they have their franchise quarterback. Something not many people would have said at the time that Young was benched.
The on-field workouts at the Scouting Combine begin on Thursday, but the activities surrounding the annual event are up and running.
On Tuesday, we were sprinting. We interviewed 20 coaches and General Managers. One happened during Tuesday’s PFT Live, when we chatted with Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. After the show ended, we ripped through 19 more.
The full list included Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, Chiefs coach Andy Reid, Eagles G.M. Howie Roseman, Bills G.M. Brandon Beane, Bears coach Ben Johnson, Bears G.M. Ryan Poles, Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, Buccaneers G.M. Jason Licht, Seahawks G.M. John Schneider, Raiders coach Pete Carroll, Raiders G.M. John Spytek, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, Bengals coach Zac Taylor, Falcons coach Raheem Morris, Titans coach Brian Callahan, Panthers coach Dave Canales, Jaguars coach Liam Coen, Chargers G.M. Joe Hortiz, Titans G.M. Mike Borgonzi.
All interviews will be posted on our NFL on NBC YouTube channel. And you’ll see the clips posted in PFT stories in the coming days.
We’ll be back at it tomorrow.
