Who on the Carolina Panthers are worth keeping in 2024 & 2025?

Cash prizes every day, adds up when you play at Pulse Casino. Puls.com, over 700 casino style games and counting, and no terrible lounge singer. Promise.

Hey, that's pretty mean. There's always a new reason to play. Cash prizes every day of the week. P-U-L-S-Z.com. Pulse in your pocket, you can play anywhere.

P-U-L-S-Z.com. Because right now, when I say core guys, not just guys that are going to be on the team in 2024, I'm talking 2025. So not just next year, but the year after. I think this team is really at least a couple years away from any sort of playoff contention. There's a lot of things that this thing, that this franchise needs to fix. But I'm looking through the roster of what this team has right now.

So I'm going to go through both sides of the ball. Offense, defense. Who do I expect and do I think is going to be on the roster in two years from now?

2025. Alright, looking at quarterback, you hope Bryce Young, right? You traded all that draft capital to move up number one. You hope it's Bryce Young, right? So let's go after outside of Bryce Young.

Now here's one thing I am going to take into consideration. Contracts. You have to take into consideration current contracts for players.

I expect Iki Iquanu to be on the team in 2025. He's going to be in the fourth year of his rookie contract. He might be a guard.

If he'd realized, you know what? He can't do it at left tackle. Maybe he moves inside to guard and ends up being a top-end Pro Bowl level guard. Fine. Totally okay with that. 100% fine when it comes to that.

So I'll definitely say Iki Iquanu for sure. Now the contract situation when it comes to Taylor Moten and the extension that he had signed and stuff this offseason. Taylor Moten might not be on the roster just because of salary cap and things along those lines.

He's going to have to restructure his contract. But I hope Taylor Moten is on the team in 2025. Jonathan Mingo. So that's quarterback. That's offensive line.

Let's get into some of the skill guys. Jonathan Mingo is going to be in the third year of his rookie contract. I expect him to still be on the roster. Adam Phelan will be in the final year of the three-year deal that he signed this offseason. I expect him to be around just to be that veteran presence that's still on the team and in the locker room.

But that's it. I don't expect Chubo Hubbard to be around. I just don't because he's going to be six years into the NFL. And I will say this, Chubo Hubbard is a good number two back. But those guys you can find in the NFL draft. They found Hubbard in the fourth round. Right? They found Chubo Hubbard in the fourth round.

So guess what? You can just find another guy like that. So I don't anticipate Chubo Hubbard being around. If they kept him, fine. If he's your number two back. But again, I'm not going to sit there and say this guy needs to be on the roster. None of the tight ends give me any sort of hope. Tommy Trimble, Ian Thomas, Hayden Hurst, I don't anticipate being here as well either. That's it? Like so you're looking at the offensive side of the ball.

I'm looking at Bryce Young, Taylor Moten, Iki Iquanu, Mingo, maybe Hubbard, Thielen. Six guys? Six? That's it? Six? Well it would be better than the returning players they've had since the winning season at three. Well there's that.

Well there is that. Well let's get to the other side of the ball. Let's get to the defensive side of the ball. Derek Brown? Yes. Absolutely. I hope and want this guy on the roster.

Absolutely. Derek Brown in 2025. I hope Brian Burns too.

I really hope so. Now I also want to see Brian Burns take his play to the next level. I want to see him be more disruptive. I want to see him get more than one strip sack.

He is literally, he is the only one that this team has all season. One strip sack and it came in the third play of the very first game on the road against Atlanta. Where he stripped Desmond Ritter on a sack on a third down play. Now Ritter recovered the fumble. But nonetheless, that's the only time that Carolina has sacked the quarterback and stripped the quarterback at the same time. Forced to fumble.

That's it. Only once this whole season. I want to see more production from Brian Burns. If you want to be paid like a top guy, you need to play like a top guy.

And he hasn't been that consistently enough this season. But Derek Brown, Derek Brown, Brian Burns, I would absolutely expect to see. Now some other guys, again, I'm taking into consideration contracts here, okay?

Now D.J. Johnson, the rookie that they drafted out of Oregon in the third round this past year, he's going to be in the third year of his rookie contract. He's probably going to be around just because he's in the third year of his rookie contract. He's not very expensive. Now Amari Barno is going to be in the fourth year of his rookie contract. He was a six round pick. He's really good on special teams.

I expect to see him on the roster in 2025. Those guys are worth keeping around. Just because of the dollars and all that kind of stuff. Because guess what? If Carolina wants to get some top free agents into their franchise, they're going to have to probably pay a little bit more than some other teams. They're probably going to have to overpay to get guys to come right now.

And you know what? That means you got to supplement with guys still on rookie contracts and Barno and D.J. Johnson fit that bill. Now when it comes to off ball linebacker, I really hope Frankie Louvou is still on this team. He's 27, going to be 28 years old soon.

That guy's all over the place. He can play up on the line of scrimmage. He's good in coverage. He's just an overall, just a really, really good football player. And I guarantee you if he hits the open market this offseason, dude is going to get snatched up real quick. He's going to be a good addition for a team. Oh, any team in the NFL would love that guy.

Any team in the NFL. The way that he has developed during the course of his career. Early in his career, undrafted, special teamer.

That's the way he's worked and developed over time. And he's a really, really good football player. Yeah, Frankie Louvou, definitely want to keep that guy. One that might not be on the roster that I would like to hopefully see, but when you start factoring in age, approaching age 30, contract, Shaq Thompson.

I would like to see Shaq Thompson stick around. He's also, he's one of the leaders on this team. One of three guys currently on the roster that has actually experienced a winning season with the Carolina Panthers.

It's him, Moten and JJ Jansen, the long snapper. I hope that he is around, but I can see a situation where he won't be on the Carolina Panthers. Unless again, he restructures his contract because of the cap hit that he has coming up in 2025 or actually after this upcoming season in 2024. I anticipate he's not going to be on the roster that I would actually would like to see him still with the team.

Even though he's going to have it probably a diminished role, still would like to see him around. So we got Brown, we've got Burns, Johnson and Barno just because of their contracts. Tafu, hopefully Thompson, but I don't see it in the secondary. If this guy stays healthy, I would love to see J.C. Horn still on this team in 2025 because he'll be in the fifth year of his rookie contract. So this is a decision that the Carolina Panthers have to make this coming season. This coming offseason, I should say they have to do determine if they're going to keep and exercise the fifth year option on J.C. Horn. They got to make that decision this coming offseason. It's going to probably cost them 14 or so million dollars to keep him that fifth year. I don't know if he will stay or if he will last because of his injury history. But the dude's that talented, like he's that good. Now you can decline the fifth year option if he proves in 2024 that he can stay healthy for a full season. Then you can sign him to a contract extension.

So you still have that ability, but it's a his talent is that is all worldly. I mean, gosh, yesterday he had a beautiful pass break up against Chris Olave yesterday on a pass deep down the right sideline. I think it was actually in the end zone, if I if I remember correctly. He's that good when he constantly gets hurt, like injuries find that guy. I remember how hesitant Chris Lee was that when he first got signed in this all season. We're not hesitant, hesitant is not the right word, but how Chris Lee address J.C. Horn. Oh, J.C. Horn again. How Lee addressed how, yeah, if you could stay healthy.

Yeah, it's a great addition. But, you know, I mean, he's always had the injury bug kind of following around throughout his career. Oh, yeah. Injury bugs have fallen. Yeah, I've been on the I've called him injury prone, unfortunately, for years.

I hate you putting that label on somebody. But even the freak stuff like her last season, he was in on a tackle and Jeremy Chen comes up and makes a tackle along with them and ends up. He ends up breaking his arm.

It's a freak thing, but the freak thing still end up finding him as well. So outside of that, I don't anticipate Dante Jackson being on this team in two years because of contract stuff. I'm not sure about Xavier Woods and Von Bell. If they're going to be on the team because those guys I think have teams can get out of that contract after this upcoming year.

Yeah, after 2024. So and then Jeremy Chen, speaking of him, I would love to see Jeremy Chen on this roster in 2024 and 2025. I just don't see it because guess what you've had since last this past offseason to sign him to an extension.

You haven't done it. And in Everose defense, the guys playing oftentimes less than 50 percent of the snaps like this guy was. Awesome as a rookie has been a really, really good player for this franchise, and I know Panthers fans really love them. I want this guy on this team. Unless they get a new defensive system, I see that guy totally going somewhere else because guess what? A lot of other teams out there can use him in a lot of different ways because he can be that kind of hybrid safety linebacker, plays up in the box type role.

And Carolina really doesn't use him a whole lot in that regard. So that's it. So rolling through like Bryce Young, Mingo, Moten, Aquano, Phelan, Burns, Brown, LuVu, maybe Horn, and then maybe some of the other guys like Amari Barno and DJ Johnson because of their contracts and stuff. That's really it. If everything goes well, that's about 13. Maybe. 13 maybe. Maybe.

Maybe. It's not looking good for the future of the Carolina Panthers right now. There's a lot of things that they need to overhaul. Dennis Cox sitting in for Adam Gold this afternoon. If you miss any of this show, check it out on the best of the Adam Gold Show podcast. Also, if you like this, the segment that we just had talking about the Carolina Panthers and the future of their team. The segment will be up on 99.

99. The fans YouTube page 99. The fan in Raleigh is the flagship station for the Adam Gold Show on their YouTube page. You'll see segments and clips from this show on their leave comments. Subscribe to the channel and let us know your thoughts on the things that we discuss interact with us. Let us know your thoughts on any of the topics and any things that we put out there as well.

So 99. The fan on YouTube. Check that out.

So if you miss any of the show, you can go see segments and things along those lines. Using a small batch manufacturing process that works to preserve the integrity of our ingredients. We ran the largest clinical trial by a new infant formula company in 25 years and clinically proved benefits like easier digestion, less gas and softer poops versus a leading infant formula. We were the first infant formula company to earn the Clean Label Project Purity Award. And while we've put a lot into by heart, there's a long list of things you won't see on our ingredient list. Like no corn syrup, no melted dextrin, no GMO ingredients, no soy, no palm oil by heart. A better formula for formula. Learn more at buy heart dot com.