Panthers Clips
The Panthers have made it official with Darren Waller.
Carolina announced on Monday that Waller has signed with the club.
It was reported last week that the veteran tight end had agreed to terms on a one-year deal.
Waller, 33, came out of retirement to play for the Dolphins last season. He caught 24 passes for 283 yards with six touchdowns in nine games.
Waller has recorded 374 receptions for 4,407 yards with 26 touchdowns in his 95 career games.
Additionally, the Panthers have waived offensive lineman Josh Gray and outside linebacker Nick Hampton. Hampton was waived with an injury settlement.
In Saturday’s preseason game, Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks took his biggest step yet in his long road to recovery from his second serious knee injury.
Brooks got on the field in live action and had four touches with the first-string offense. He didn’t do anything spectacular, but merely playing was a bit step for him after tearing the ACL in his right knee in his final college game, and then tearing the same ACL in just the third game of his pro career.
In 2023 at Texas, Brooks tore the ACL the first time. He then declared for the 2024 NFL draft, and the Panthers liked his talent enough to pick him in the second round, even though he was still recovering. Brooks didn’t get onto the field until November of his rookie season while he recovered from the college injury, and after carrying the ball just nine times in the NFL, he tore the ACL in Week 14 of 2024. That injury caused him to miss the rest of 2024 and the entire 2025 season.
Now Brooks is finally back, and Panthers coach Dave Canales said the team is excited to have him back.
“It just felt good to see him out there running, getting hit, getting tackled, popping up and going back to the huddle,” Canales said of Brooks. “I got a little emotional just knowing the journey to get him back to that point.”
The Panthers lost their leading rusher from last season when Rico Dowdle left for Pittsburgh in free agency. They’d love to see Brooks step up and fill that void, and on Saturday he took a step toward doing that.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and the first-string offense played three series in Saturday’s preseason game against the Bills, resulting in three three-and-outs. Young was not happy about that after the game.
“Obviously not the start we wanted,” Young said. “We weren’t able to execute today. It sucks.”
Young, who like most of the Panthers’ starters was making his preseason debut after sitting out the Hall of Fame Game, said he and his teammates will look at the tape, look at themselves, and get better.
“We all want to do a better job, myself included,” Young said. “We all take ownership in that. Guys will look in the mirror, want to be better, so we’re going to be better.”
Young went 3-for-5 passing for 18 yards and was sacked once. Panthers head coach Dave Canales had said before the game that he would like to see Young play something closer to 20 plays, but after the game Canales said he decided to pull Young after three drives, disappointed that in three drives Young only took nine snaps.
“My hope was 20-ish plays, but I also had a three series cap in my mind,” Canales said. “We didn’t earn those extra reps. The first quarter was over, we had three series, we went three-and-out three times. So we’ve got to do better.”
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young is not off to a good start this preseason.
Young played three series against the Bills today, his first preseason action this year after sitting out the Hall of Fame Game. The Panthers went three-and-out on all three of them.
When the Panthers’ offense took the field for its fourth drive, backup quarterback Kenny Pickett was under center, and Young will stay on the sideline for the rest of the game.
Young ended up with a stat line of 3-for-5 for 18 yards, with no touchdowns, no turnovers, and one sack.
Wide receiver Keon Coleman came under fire at the end of the 2025 Bills season, but he got his 2026 season off on the right foot.
Quarterback Josh Allen found Coleman in the end zone for a nine-yard score at the end of Buffalo’s second offensive possession in Saturday’s preseason opener against the Panthers. The Bills are at home, which makes the touchdown the first one at the new Highmark Stadium.
The throw was the final one of the afternoon for Allen. He connected with new Bills wideout DJ Moore three times for 61 yards over his two series of work and finished the day 6-of-8 for 111 yards, so it was a positive first day for the quarterback in his new digs.
Kyle Allen took over at quarterback for the Bills, who will play their first regular season game at the stadium on Thursday night in Week 2.
The Panthers plan on playing their starters in their second preseason game, but they’ll be without one member of the offense against the Bills on Saturday.
Running back Chuba Hubbard did not practice on Thursday and head coach Dave Canales said, via multiple reporters, that he is dealing with a hamstring injury. Hubbard is considered week-to-week after having an MRI and that the team is confident he’ll be ready for the start of the regular season.
Canales said earlier this week that the team was planning to have Jonathon Brooks split time with Hubbard on Saturday, but the injury should mean that Brooks takes on a bigger role in his first-ever preseason action. Brooks missed the 2024 preseason while recovering from a torn ACL and then missed all of last season after tearing it again in Week 14 of his rookie season.
Trevor Etienne, AJ Dillon, Anthony Tyus, and Miles Davis are the other Panthers running backs.
Josh Allen will be on the field for the Bills’ first preseason game.
Head coach Joe Brady told reporters in his Thursday press conference that as of now, “everybody that’s healthy is going to be playing out there on Saturday.”
That includes Allen, whose style of play could inherently lead to some reluctance from his head coach to put him on the field in a game that doesn’t count. But Brady is embracing the opportunity, particularly as it’s the first game in new Highmark Stadium.
“I mean, you guys have had conversations with Josh and know how he plays. There’s only one way that he plays, right?” Brady said. “And I think that’s a message to the whole football team. … Like this is NFL football. Guys are fighting for their lives and there’s a physicality. If you just dip your toe in, that’s when I think bad happens with that. So, if we’re out there going, we’re going.
“I would hope that he’s mindful of [it being the preseason], but I want him to be competitive and be Josh Allen. I hope everybody else kind of embraces that same mindset — wake up and let’s go play some football.”
Brady did not specify how long the starters will be out there. But it stands to reason that Allen will be on the field for just a series or two.
Kickoff between the Bills and Panthers is slated for 1 p.m. ET on Saturday in Orchard Park.
Panthers wide receiver Xavier Legette said in June that he “can’t have another year like I did last year” and the work he’s done to turn things around has paid some dividends this summer.
Legette suffered a stinger early in camp, but has returned to put together strong practice work that includes a touchdown pass that ended Wednesday’s practice. It was one of several catches that showed the skills that made him a 2024 first-round pick.
After Wednesday’s practice, head coach Dave Canales shared how impressed he’s been by the receiver’s efforts.
“Really good to see him back out there playing like himself,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “Playing fast, just knowing where to be. . . . He looks explosive. He’s the same focused guy that I’ve known for going on three years now, so the intensity and the focus is still there. He’s very comfortable in what we’re doing. And then what I’ve seen him do is just make great plays on the boundary, back of the end zone, just some of those spatial plays where he can go attack the ball, find a way to get his feet down, and he’s really attacked that part of his game, and that’s something that I’ve seen him really improve on.”
Legette said he got “too loose” last season, which led to mental errors on top of a drop in his productivity. He “honed into the details” that weren’t clean enough as part of his bid to rebound this year and the result could help position him to break out in his third NFL season.
A year after he ended his retirement to play for the Dolphins, veteran tight end Darren Waller is heading to Carolina.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, Waller has agreed to terms on a one-year deal.
A sixth-round pick of the Ravens in 2015, Waller became a Pro Bowler with the Raiders in 2020.
Traded to the Giants in 2023, he retired after his first season in New York. He joined the Dolphins last year.
Waller, 33, has a pair of 1,100-yard seasons, both with the Raiders. In 2025, he caught 24 passes for 283 yards and six touchdowns in nine games with the Dolphins.
The Panthers currently have five tight ends on the roster: Tommy Tremble, Ja’Tavion Sanders, Caden Prieskorn, James Mitchell, and Feleipe Franks.
Panthers associate head coach and offensive specialist Darrell Bevell worked with Waller last year in Miami, where Bevell served as the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.
Panthers running back Jonathon Brooks is slated to play in his first NFL preseason game this weekend and the team plans to have him see early action against the Bills.
Brooks missed the last two preseasons while recovering from torn ACLs, but has been practicing without issue this summer and head coach Dave Canales said on Wednesday that the plan is for him to rotate with Chuba Hubbard while the starting offense is in the game this weekend.
“He’s in great shape. He’s ready to rock, he’s ready to play football,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “And so now that’s just the next part of it. And you know, he’ll play with the first group, he’ll mix in and out with Chuba, and we’ll be able to get a good look at those guys with a couple of drives.”
Brooks last saw game action in Week 14 of the 2024 season, so any playing time on Saturday would be significant. The fact that it will come with the first team sets the stage for Brooks to make a real impact in Carolina this fall.
