The Panthers remain thin at defensive tackle. Here are five options left in free agency
The Panthers made one of their best moves of the offseason by grabbing Arizona Cardinals edge rusher Haason Reddick in free agency Wednesday.
By adding Reddick and former Los Angeles Rams defensive end Morgan Fox, who finished last season with six sacks, they addressed one of their biggest needs: getting pressure on the side opposite of defensive end Brian Burns.
There was a time early in the 2020 season where Burns was the only Panthers player sacking opposing quarterbacks. Stephen Weatherly, who started the first nine games before having season-ending finger surgery, finished with zero sacks. And rookie defensive end Yetur-Gross-Matos, who missed four games last year, finished with 2.5 sacks.
But now the Panthers have another Pro Bowl-caliber player in Reddick, and they have bolstered their rotation of defensive ends with Fox.
The one area the Panthers haven’t addressed, though, is their interior pass rush. Instead, they’ve subtracted from it.
Last week, the Panthers released defensive tackle Zach Kerr, which came as a bit of a surprise because they were already thin at defensive tackle, and cutting Kerr saved only $1.3 million in cap space.
And while Kerr, 30, didn’t have the most productive season, he had two sacks and a forced fumble in 13 games in 2020 — which was tied with the most sacks among the Panthers’ defensive tackles.
With Kerr and Kawann Short’s departures, rookies Derrick Brown and Braavion Roy are the only defensive tackles left who played significant time in 2020.
Panthers coach Matt Rhule said he and general manager Scott Fitterer believe in building through the draft and supplementing in free agency. Having said that, here are five potential defensive tackle supplements in free agency that could go for reasonable prices:
Possible players in free agency?
1. Sheldon Rankins: Rankins, 27, has been with the New Orleans Saints since he was drafted in 2016. He’s a three-technique defensive tackle and his best year was during the 2019 season, when he finished with eight sacks.
But his production has slipped in recent years, and he’s only started one game in the past two seasons. He dealt with a knee injury in 2020, which limited him to 12 games last season, and he finished with 1.5 sacks.
The Panthers likely could get Rankins on a one-year prove-it type of deal.
2. Lawrence Guy: Guy, 31, started in 14 games last season for the New England Patriots and finished with 57 tackles and two sacks. That would have ranked second among the Panthers’ defensive linemen, only behind Burns’ 58 tackles.
Lawrence has been durable the past six years, missing only two games during that span. His most recent contract was a four-year $15.3 million contract, an average of $3.8 million a year. While he’s on the older side, he’s experienced and dependable and only a short-term solution.
3. DaQuan Jones: Jones, 29, has played nose tackle the last couple of years for the Tennessee Titans, but has also played left defensive end. He hasn’t missed a game in the past three seasons and has started in all of them.
He has played all seven of his seasons in Tennessee. He had two sacks, four tackles for loss and a forced fumble last season. He had an $8.3 million salary cap number in 2020, so he may be out of the Panthers’ price range.
4. Ndamukong Suh: Suh is 34 years old, but has still been productive on the field. He hasn’t missed a regular-season game in any of the past nine seasons.
He had six sacks for the Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Bucs in 2020. While it appears more likely the Bucs would re-sign him, he’s still an option. He played on a one-year, $8 million contract last season.
5. Kawann Short: While it’s unlikely this would occur, never say “never.” Rhule said cutting Short was a tough decision, and there’s no one he has more respect for. And Short told Sirius XM NFL radio that Fitterer left open the door that he could return if things didn’t work out in free agency.
Short, 32, hasn’t played in a full season in two years, though. And he’s still recovering from a season-ending shoulder injury. Getting Short back would have to be for the right price, much less than what he was making in 2020.
