Panthers reduce roster to 80, move T Greg Little off physically unable to perform list
The Carolina Panthers reduced their roster to 80 players Saturday as the team’s training camp gets fully underway. The team also announced that second-year tackle Greg Little and undrafted free agent offensive lineman Branden Bowen have passed their physicals.
Little started training camp on the active/physically unable to perform list (knee) and Bowen was placed on the active/reserve list with a non-football illness. Both are removed from those lists.
The Panthers waived three undrafted free agents, running back Rodney Smith, center Frederick Mauigoa and linebacker Jason Ferris (injury designation), and two former practice squad players, WR Damion Jeanpiere and guard Tyler Marz.
Both Jeanpiere and Marz were added to the Panthers’ practice squad late in the 2019 season and then signed futures contracts at the end of the year. This year is more difficult than ever for undrafted players to make the roster due to practice restrictions related to COVID-19.
All of the players released Saturday had difficult paths to making the 53-man roster. Smith, the University of Minnesota’s all-purpose yards record holder with 5,441, appeared to have the best chance, with an opportunity to earn one of the backup jobs behind Christian McCaffrey, but the team went with the more experienced players on the roster — Mike Davis, Jordan Scarlett, Reggie Bonnafon and fullback Alex Armah remain.
The Panthers have had one player opt out thus far, UDFA LB Jordan Mack, lost punter Michael Palardy for the season with a torn ACL and released veteran kicker Graham Gano earlier this week. Through Saturday, the team has not had to add a player to the league’s reserve/COVID-19 list, which means either they have tested positive or were in close contact with someone who has tested positive.
The moves bring Carolina’s roster down to 80 on the day veterans were eligible to enter the team’s practice facility at Bank of America Stadium. Players who tested negative for COVID-19 three times over the course of the week were allowed to come into the building Saturday for physicals.
Bringing the roster down to 80 means the Panthers can now practice together and avoid the split-squad procedure. Teams with more than 80 players are not eligible to practice together due to restrictions related to COVID-19. The Panthers reached this point slower than other NFL teams and coach Matt Rhule explained the team’s approach earlier this week.
“We had worked hard to pick the 90 guys that we wanted to go to camp with and those guys have worked really hard this entire offseason, virtually meeting, all the different things that we asked him to do in the offseason, so it just didn’t seem right or prudent for us to just make cuts without ever having seen some of these guys work,” Rhule said. “I think in a year like this, as many people as possible who know your system, who’ve been around you, even if they get called up in November, you’re gonna be happy about it so we thought we’d start off with 90 and just sort of see how things progress.”
This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 1:54 PM.
