Dave Canales Names What Will Be Toughest Roster Cut Decisions

The Carolina Panthers ended their extended preseason with a, 16-13, win over the Houston Texans. Now that the final game has been played and training camp is officially over, head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan will have to trim the roster from 91 players to 53 by Sunday evening at 6pm.

It’s not an easy task for any coach or general manager in the league and stiff competition makes the decision even harder. After Friday’s game, Canales named some of the position groups that will be the toughest to come to a conclusion on.

“The wide receiver position. The inside linebacker position. I think of Maema Njongmeta, for example, a guy that we know can really help us on special teams and really gives himself value that way and he played quality snaps on defense throughout this preseason finishing some games. So, the inside linebacker picture is going to be an interesting one to sort out.

“In the defensive back room, you guys talked about [cornerbacks] Corey Thornton and Chau Smith-Wade, of course, had a great camp. And talking about that group, it’s hard to carry a lot of nickel defenders when you have to consider special teams value and all that. So we have to take that into consideration.

“Then offensive line, some veteran players who have really helped us. You talk about [tackle] Stone Forsythe, [offensive lineman] Brady Christensen, [guard] Chandler Zavala – the guys that are playing inside right there. [Guard] Jake Curhan, who we’ve won games with. So this is another position where we have some decisions to make.”

“Those are kind of off the top of my head, some of the big decisions we have to make.”

Canales said the team will begin making cuts today as they make their way to the final 53 and then begin to put together the practice squad.

“We’ll start tomorrow with some guys and it really goes both ways for us. When guys become available, that gives them a better opportunity to kind of be exposed to the rest of the league to see if people are watching their film. And then of course, just kind of making those decisions. And the trickiest part with the practice squad is you’re limited to how many veteran players you can keep, maximum six out of that group. So that’s a lot to work through as we look at the 53 and look at veteran players who are thinking of having to come back.”