With general manager Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales embarking on their first offseason in those roles, here are three moves the Panthers should make to start the process of escaping the NFL’s basement.
TRADE: Terrace Marshall Jr. to Buffalo Bills for 2024 seventh-round pick (No. 246 overall)
A preseason back injury set the tone for Marshall’s underwhelming 2023 campaign. In nine games, he had 19 receptions for 139 yards, failing to establish himself as a reliable target for rookie quarterback Bryce Young. Marshall was a healthy scratch from Weeks 10-16.
The Panthers gave their 2021 second-round pick permission to seek a trade in October 2023, and another team should be able to get him at a discount. Marshall showed promise as a vertical threat in 2022 and would be in a much better situation in Buffalo. He had 28 receptions for 490 yards (17.5 yards per catch) in his second year in the league with an average depth of target of 12.3 yards.
He also has a connection with Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady from their time together at LSU during its 2019 championship season, as well as 12 games during Marshall’s rookie season before Brady was fired by former Panthers head coach Matt Rhule.
Carolina has six picks in the 2024 draft and could use a seventh-rounder to take a flier on a prospect or package it with another pick to trade up for someone it covets in an earlier round.
CUT: Guard Austin Corbett
Corbett missed 13 games last season, including the first six as he recovered from a torn left ACL suffered in the 2022 regular-season finale and the final seven with an unrelated injury to the same knee, and wasn’t as productive as in years past when healthy. Per Over The Cap, he had a 2023 valuation of $536,000 but has a $10.1 million cap number in 2024.
A post-June 1 cut would be most beneficial for the team, giving Carolina $6.25 million in cap space to spend on repairing the offensive line. Last season, Young was pressured on 24.2 percent of his dropbacks, the ninth-highest rate in the league. He was sacked 62 times. In the Super Bowl era (1970-present), only David Carr took more (76) as a rookie.
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