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Panthers youth movement on the defensive line leads to another edge rusher getting knocked off the roster in hypothetical expansion draft

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Kole Noble | Last updated Jun 2, 2025 3:36 PM ET

The Carolina Panthers are slowly but surely building a strong roster with a lot of promising, youthful talent at the forefront.

One of the positions that has been massively overhauled over the past few months has been on the defensive front. Following the selections of Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen, the Panthers finally have some promising players off the edge.

As a result, stopgap veterans like Jadeveon Clowney have been let go to open up the runway for these two rookies to succeed immediately.

Since we're in the offseason, fun hypothetical content ideas are the big things. This week, our own Wendell Ferreira at A to Z Sports created an expansion NFL team and the youth movement in Carolina led to another edge rusher getting pushed off the roster.

In this hypothetical scenario, all 32 teams were required to leave 12 players unprotected from the 90-man roster and up for grabs by the new team. Unprotected players had to be players with 2+ accrued seasons and without a no-trade clause, which helped shorten the pool of options.

Introducing the *fictional* St. Louis Arches, the newest NFL expansion franchise!

From the expansion draft and regular NFL draft, to free agency, the front office, and building the coaching staff. @wendellfp and his team lay it all out.

Is this team making the playoffs? pic.twitter.com/XmQ9ng2fRr
— A to Z Sports (@AtoZSportsNFL) June 2, 2025

For the Panthers' 12 unprotected players, one was selected to join the new expansion franchise in defensive end Boogie Basham Jr. Here were the other 11 players left unprotected for the new team to potentially choose from:

WR Dan Chisena
WR David Moore
OL Ja'Tyre Carter
RB Raheem Blackshear
TE Dominique Dafney
DL Sam Roberts
LB Thomas Incoom
LB Jon Rhattigan
OL Brandon Walton
TE James Mitchell
LB Claudin Cherelus

Not protecting the former Buffalo Bills second-round selection was an easy call to make. While he still offers some intrigue as a young pass rusher, the Panthers are loaded with young pass rushers off the edge.

Outside of Scourton and Umanmielen, the roster also features Patrick Jones II, D.J. Wonnum, Amaré Barno, and DJ Johnson. Even in a real scenario, it's hard to see Basham standing out amongst that group, making him an eventual cut candidate.

Basham was already a recent addition to the roster, joining back in January on a reserve/futures contract. After spending two years in Buffalo, Basham was traded to the Giants where he played 17 games over the last two years.

Luckily for the former 61st overall selection, he finally lands in a solid spot in St. Louis in this mock team building exercise playing as the third edge rusher in the rotation alongside veterans Za'Darius Smith and Clowney.

It was a fun exercise to see come together and you can read more about it below.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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