Since the Panthers hired Dave Canales as their head coach earlier this year, he has stressed taking the pressure off of quarterback Bryce Young after a rough rookie season by building the team around him but there’s only so much that can be taken off of the back of the leader of an offense.
Regardless of other moves, Young will have to progress as a quarterback for Canales and the Panthers to succeed in 2024 and beyond. During the league meetings in Florida this week, Canales said he thinks Young’s “edge” will help him do that because the quarterback has welcomed the chance to overcome the difficulties that made for such a shaky start to his NFL career.
“I think that’s one of the things that I’ve learned about him,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “He’s like, ‘I’m glad I went through this past year. I’m glad I had the challenges of this because this is very different than anything that I’ve experienced up to this point,’ you know, and to feel him and to hear his hopefulness for where we’re headed, it’s exactly what you would hope to hear from your quarterback and, and from a guy that, that sees the best for himself going forward.”
Canales acknowledged that “it’s going to take some time” for Young to become the quarterback the team needs him to be, but he believes the shared commitment to do so between him and the team will pay off in the long run.
Could Stephon Gilmore be on his way back to the Carolinas?
According to Joe Person of TheAthletic.com, the Panthers have reached out to Gilmore about returning to the club.
Gilmore, 33, played for Carolina in the back half of the 2021 season. The Patriots traded Gilmore to the Panthers for a sixth-round pick. He appeared in nine games with eight starts for the club, recording 16 total tackles with two interceptions.
Gilmore then signed a two-year deal with the Colts and started 16 games for Indianapolis in 2022. He was traded to Dallas in 2023 and started all 17 games for the Cowboys, playing 94 percent of the team’s defensive snaps.
The No. 10 overall pick of the 2012 draft, Gilmore has played 165 games for the Bills, Patriots, Panthers, Colts, and Cowboys. He’s recorded 140 career passes defensed with 31 interceptions.
Gilmore is No. 51 on PFT’s list of top 100 free agents.
Panthers General Manager Dan Morgan would like to bring free agent pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney to Carolina, but no deal appears to be coming soon.
“We’re keeping in touch. Nothing’s coming down the pipeline as of yet,” Morgan said, via TheAthletic.com. “We’re still talking to not just Clowney’s people, but other people as well. Just trying to build this roster out and making it the best it can be.”
The Panthers and Jets appear to be the two teams most interested in Clowney, with Jets General Manager Joe Douglas similarly saying that the Jets have talked with Clowney but there’s no news to report.
Clowney is coming off a good season with the Ravens in which he tied his career high with 9.5 sacks, so it’s easy to see why he’s still generating interest at age 31. He typically takes his time in free agency before signing a one-year contract, and he knows he has at least two options.
The Panthers traded edge rusher Brian Burns to the Giants this month after initially using the franchise tag on him, but General Manager Dan Morgan thinks the team will be able to work out a way to keep another key defensive piece around for a longer stretch.
Defensive tackle Derrick Brown is heading into the fifth and final year of his rookie deal and Morgan said that they have opened up negotiations about a new deal with the 2020 first-round pick. Morgan suggested those negotiations are moving in a positive direction.
“I’m not going to put any timetable on it; we have had some good discussions with his agent,” Morgan said, via the team’s website. “But as of right now, we’re working through that, and hopefully, it ends up working out at the end, which I think it will.”
Brown was named a Pro Bowler for the first time after posting 103 tackles, two sacks, an interception, and six passes defensed during the 2023 season.
Free agent safety Nick Scott is heading to Carolina.
The Panthers have agreed to terms on a deal with Scott, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Last season Scott played in all 17 games with 10 starts for the Bengals. Scott is effectively trading places with Vonn Bell, who started 13 games at safety for the Panthers last year but was cut this offseason and signed with the Bengals.
Scott was a 2019 seventh-round pick of the Rams who spent four seasons in Los Angeles before signing with the Bengals last year.
