Panthers Free Agent Bust Suddenly a Cut Candidate After Worst Game Yet

Even in a lost season, the Carolin Panthers were building some serious momentum recently by playing close games with the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles. But getting throttled 30-14 by the Dallas Cowboys has suddenly crushed some of the optimism that fans had started to build up.

And while there's still plenty to be excited about, the loss made clear some issues that absolutely must be addressed by the team. And one is the unfortunate reality that one of Carolina's biggest offseason additions is already officially a complete bust. It's been bad enough that he could be on his way out this offseason.

Linebacker Josey Jewell just had arguably his worst game of the season, and that's saying something considering this his first season with the Panthers has also been the worst of his career. Let's look at how bad things are getting and what it could look like if Carolina moved on.

Josey Jewell on the Panthers' Chopping Block After Week 15 Dud

Veteran linebacker Josey Jewell played 70 snaps for the Panthers in their Week 15 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, which was 96% of the available snaps on defense. This is consistent with the role he's played since returning from injury in Week 8, having played 100% of the available snaps in the previous six games.

In those 70 snaps he managed to rack up 4 missed tackles (matching his season high) while also giving up 38 yards after the catch in coverage, per PFF. They graded him out at 47.5 for the game, with an especially poor 40.2 run defense grade and abysmal 27.1 tackling grade.

This is characteristic of what we've seen from him all season. He now has already set a new career high for missed tackles, with 13, and his 12.3% missed tackle rate is miles ahead of the 8.6% rate he's posted over his career. Not only that, but the 111.5 passer rating he's allowed when thrown at in coverage (42 targets faced) is the highest since his rookie season. This is the first time in his seven-year NFL career that PFF has his overall grade below 60, and the 58.4 grade he's received so far is down from 67.2 in 2023.

This is a massive concern when you consider that the 30-year-old signed a 3-year, $18 million deal with the Panthers in the offseason.

The deal puts them in a bit of a bind, as cutting him at the beginning of the offseason would bring a $6.7 hit of "dead money" against the salary cap, only freeing up $766,666 in space (per Spotrac). But that doesn't mean his job is safe.

First of all, the dead money hit is much lower if they trade him early in the offseason, so that move would free up almost $2.8 million while also presumably bringing back a late-round draft pick. The other option is to designate a roster move as "post-June 1." This would spread out the dead money, freeing up $3.1 million this offseason for cutting him or $5.1 million for trading him.

When you're a rebuilding team, a 30-year-old who isn't leading by example and is messing up fundamentals like tackling for a linebacker, there's no incentive to keep him around — especially if you can free up some cap space (and maybe even net a draft pick) for moving on. The decision will be obvious if he doesn't turn things around with a heroic effort over his final three games of 2024.

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