The Panthers aren’t planning to have a new long snapper in 2025.
J.J. Jansen is re-signing with Carolina, per agent Jansen, 39, is the longest-tenured Panther, having been with the club since he was acquired via trade in 2009.
He’s played in every one of Carolina’s 260 games since.
As noted by Sheehy, Jansen is currently tied for the most games played by a pure long snapper in league history. He’ll break that in Week 1 of 2025.
Former Panthers quarterback Cam Newton made a stir with comments about the state of the franchise when he arrived in 2011. Although his underlying point (the first pick usually gets drafted by a bad team) makes sense, Newton went too far in referring to the Panthers as a “locker room full of losers.”
Former Panthers receiver Steve Smith Sr. let Newton know about it. Other former Carolina teammates have, too.
“For him to say that we was losers was a slap in the face,” former Panthers cornerback Captain Munnerlyn told Joseph Person of TheAthletic.com. “This was a team who was two years removed from playing in the NFC divisional round against the Arizona Cardinals. We lost a couple pieces. We had Checkdown Jimmy Clausen at quarterback and we had a bad year. . . . For him to say losers was crazy.”
Former Panthers defensive end Charles Johnson reacted to Newton’s remarks on social media.
“A professional calling his teammates losers will never sit well with me,” Johnson said. “Don’t care what no one says. We all battle together. Not just one person. It’s never one person who will win a game. That’s ego talking! Team game, respect the guys.”
Johnson also said this: “Damn smh losers is a crazy word!!!! I had my best season [in 2010]. I have multiple cam [stories] if we trying to take it there.”
Tackle Jordan Gross, a Pro Bowler during the 2-14 season that gave the Panthers the top pick in the 2011 draft, chimed in as well.
“There were iconic Panthers players when Cam got there,” Gross told Person. “And you’d be foolish to say that he wasn’t a gigantic addition to the success of the organization when he arrived — also when [head coach] Ron Rivera arrived. So there’s a pretty damn good argument that [Rivera] had a lot to do with it as well.”
Munnerlyn realizes that Cam is simply trying to boost his post-football career.
“He wants to be relevant still,” Munnerlyn told Person. “He’s in this media world where he does his podcasts and First Take stuff, which is good. I’m happy for him. I’m proud of him. But I think he still says some stuff just to be relevant still. And if you know Cam, you’ve been around him for years, that’s Cam Newton. . . .
“So the stuff he’s saying, he just wants to still be relevant. He don’t have to do all that to be relevant. You’re freaking Cam Newton, bro. You changed a franchise. You’re probably one of the biggest players that’s played here — at the quarterback position, for sure. So you don’t have to do all this other stuff, man. You’re already 6-6, 200-whatever pounds. You don’t have to do that to be relevant, bro. You’re freaking Cam Newton.”
Newton hasn’t addressed the situation on social media. He presumably will have something to say, either on his podcast or on First Take.
And it’s OK for him to say he overdid it a little bit. When constantly speaking extemporaneously, there will inevitably be times when it happens. (Been there, done that. Still doing it, from time to time.)
The best thing Cam can do at this point is to acknowledge that he made a bad choice of words. Because he did. Digging in and doubling down will only make it worse.
The Bills have found a new special teams coordinator.
Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, Buffalo is hiring Chris Tabor for the role.
Tabor, 53, was most recently the Panthers’ interim head coach to end the 2023 season, going 1-5. He had been the club’s special teams coordinator since 2022.
Tabor has also been the special teams coordinator for the Browns and Bears.
While head coach Sean McDermott had previously said that Matthew Smiley would return as special teams coordinator, things clearly changed. It was reported on Sunday that the Bills had elected to part ways with Smiley, who had been with the club since 2017 — first as assistant special teams coordinator before being promoted to the unit’s coordinator in 2022.
The Panthers now have a kicker on the roster under contract for the 2025 season.
The team announced the signing of Matthew Wright on Tuesday. Wright had two brief stints with the team during the 2023 season and appeared in one regular season game for the team.
Wright was more recently with the Titans and made four field goals for them in the final two games of the season. He also kicked in two games for the Chiefs and one game for the 49ers as he bounced around the league last season. He also kicked for the Chiefs in 2022 and has seen time with the Jaguars and Steelers.
Eddy Pineiro handled the kicking for the Panthers in 2024, but he is set for free agency.
Former Panthers teammates Cam Newton and Steve Smith Sr. have a sudden and unexpected beef. And, as history teaches us, it’s not good to be on the wrong side of a Steve Smith beef.
Newton stirred Steve up with recent comments on Travis Hunter’s podcast. Reflecting on the reality that the first pick in the draft goes to the worst team in the NFL (barring a trade up), Newton shared his own impression about his arrival in Carolina 14 years ago.
“My issue was when I was the first pick, I went into a locker room of losers,” Newton said, via Will Brinson of CBSSports.com. “Guys didn’t know how to win, guys didn’t know how to prepare, it was a culture shock for me. The games don’t mean a lot to a lot of people in the league like you would expect. It’s just money. Not everybody has the ability to be impact players, they’re just players.”
Smith was one of those guys, and he’d been one of those guys since he was drafted in 2001. And, from the moment he turned his first regular-season touch into a 93-yard kick return for a touchdown in Week 1 of his rookie season, there was never a doubt about his skills, abilities, preparation, or drive.
Said Smith on Twitter in response to Newton’s remarks: “None of us are perfect. Yes We were 2-14 before you blessed us w ur presence. The way you have talked about [the Panthers] lately I’m very disappointed.”
He should be. While Cam’s broader point is valid, calling the Panthers “a locker room of losers” with players who “didn’t know how to win” and “didn’t know how to prepare” was more than a little over the top.
Yes, they had a bad year in 2010. It happens. In the NFL, one of the 32 teams will always have the worst record — and thus dibs on the top pick. They’re still NFL teams, full of players who earned roster spots at the highest level of the game. NFL players aren’t “losers.” They’re winners, especially in comparison to the hundreds if not thousands of former college football players who would love to play in the NFL but aren’t good enough to get jobs there.
Smith has every right to be disappointed. And Newton would be wise to throw some water on the situation with a clarification that, even though the 2010 Panthers were 2-14, the cupboard was far from bare.
Beyond Smith, they had running back Jonathan Stewart, running back DeAngelo Williams, left tackle Jordan Gross, center Ryan Kalil, linebacker Jon Beason, linebacker Thomas Davis, defensive end Charles Johnson, and defensive end Greg Hardy.
Those guys probably are disappointed, too. If not, they probably should be.
