ESPN projects Carolina Panthers 53-man roster

With the final preseason game wrapped, ESPN attempted to project how the Carolina Panthers‘ 53-man roster will shake out when the deadline hits on Aug. 29. The Panthers have until the deadline, which hits at 4 p.m. ET, to whittle the roster down from 90 men to 53 men, meaning some hard decisions are still ahead.

Carolina begins the 2023 regular season with a road game versus the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 10. The team went 0-3 during the preseason with losses to the New York Jets, New York Giants and Detroit Lions.

Here’s how ESPN projects the Carolina Panthers’ roster to look when the season starts. Once the roster deadline passes, the team can designate an additional 16 players for the practice squad.

Panthers Projected Offense

Quarterback: Bryce Young, Andy Dalton, Matt Corral

Running Back: Miles Sanders, Chuba Hubbard, Raheem Blackshear

Wide Receiver: Adam Thielen, DJ Chark Jr., Jonathan Mingo, Terrace Marshall Jr., Laviska Shenault, Derek Wright

Tight End: Hayden Hurst, Tommy Tremble, Ian Thomas, Giovanni Ricci

Offensive Line: Ikem Ekwonu, Taylor Moton, Bradley Bozeman, Brady Christensen, Austin Corbett, Cade Mays, Cameron Erving, Chandler Zavala, Nash Jensen

Defensive Projection

Defensive Line: Derrick Brown, Shy Tuttle, Henry Anderson, DeShawn Williams, Nick Thurman

Linebackers: Brian Burns, Justin Houston, Marquis Haynes Sr., Shaq Thompson, Frankie Luvu, Yetur Gross-Matos, DJ Johnson, Deion Jones, Kamu Grugier-Hill, Amare Barno

Cornerback: Jaycee Horn, Donte Jackson, CJ Henderson, Troy Hill, Keith Taylor

Safety: Vonn Bell, Xavier Woods, Jeremy Chinn, Jammie Robinson, Sam Franklin Jr.

Special Teams: P Johnny Hekker, K Eddy Pineiro, LS JJ Jansen

Panthers waive 11 ahead of deadline

Ahead of the NFL’s deadline, the Panthers waived quarterback Jake Luton, running back Camerun Peoples, and wide receivers Gary Jennings and CJ Saunders.

Tackle Larnel Coleman, defensive lineman Antwuan Jackson and linebacker Bumper Pool also were waived. So were safeties Collin Duncan and Josh Thomas, cornerback Rejzohn Wright and kicker Matthew Wright.

Panthers coach Frank Reich addressed the upcoming roster moves during a Saturday morning press conference.

“Literally every position has battles in place, not just for the roster, but you know, play time, who’s starting, how we’re looking at things,” Reich said. “But the good news is they’re hard decisions, right? Because we feel good about the guys we have on our roster.”

Each NFL team can have a practice squad of up to 16 players. These guys earn $35,000 a week.

On3’s Suzanne Halliburton contributed to this report.