Carolina Panthers activate starting tight end to ensure he’ll be on Week 1 roster
The Carolina Panthers will have their starting tight end on their Week 1 roster.
The team announced Thursday afternoon that Tommy Tremble — the 25-year-old who signed a two-year, $10.5 million deal to stay with the Panthers in March — has been activated off the physical unable to perform list and onto the team’s active roster.
Had Tremble stayed on the PUP list beyond the NFL’s 53-man roster deadline — 4 p.m. Tuesday — he would’ve been put on the PUP/reserve list and thus would’ve missed at minimum the first four weeks of the season, per NFL roster rules.
Tremble spent the entirety of training camp working out on the sidelines on the practice fields in Uptown Charlotte after undergoing back surgery in May. Head coach Dave Canales told reporters Tuesday that the former Notre Dame star was “doing great” and that he’d had no recovery set backs.
The coach added that Tremble will not play in the Panthers’ preseason finale Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Bank of America Stadium.
“He’s running full speed,” Canales said of Tremble. “He’s looking toward just getting some more physical contact. And getting that adaptation part before we can fully clear him. He won’t be playing this week, but he’s on track (for Week 1).”
The Panthers now have a difficult decision to make at tight end as the 53-man roster deadline approaches. Canales kept three tight ends on the active roster in 2024. If trends persist, Tremble, rookie Mitchell Evans, second-year training camp standout Ja’Tavion Sanders and James Mitchell (who too has had a nice camp) will conceivably be competing for three spots. Dominique Dafney and Bryce Pierre fill out the rest of the room on the current 90-man preseason roster.
Tremble, a third-round pick in the 2021 draft, is entering his fifth year in the NFL. He battled hamstring issues in 2024 but still came out with a productive season, finishing the year with 11 starts in 12 games played and producing 23 catches for a career-high 234 yards and two touchdowns.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 2:50 PM.
