The Carolina Panthers got active following the conclusion of the 2024 NFL Draft, signing on several undrafted players to the team’s training camp.
NFL insider Aaron Wilson had all of the Carolina scoop and reported at least four different players who have already partnered up with the Panthers after not hearing their name called.
He tweeted out Sunday evening that “Derrick McLendon expected to sign with Carolina #Panthers, per a source.” That’s a four-year veteran from Florida State who spent his final season at Colorado last fall, recording 14 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 2023. However, in 2021 and 2022, with FSU, he posted 3.5 sacks each season.
Wilson also tweeted that “Popo Aumavae is going to Carolina #Panthers as a free agent, per a source.” Like McLendon, Aumavae is also a five-year veteran at the college level but spent all five of his seasons as an Oregon Duck, totaling 18 tackles and three sacks in ’23.
Not too much later, Wilson had news of another addition: “West Virginia wide receiver Devin Carter agreed to terms with #Panthers, per a league source. Long target at 6-foot-3.”
Move over, McLendon and Aumavae, because Devin Carter spent six full seasons in college football. His final one came at WVU, where he went for a smidge over 500 yards in his only season in Morgantown. Prior to his Big 12 pit stop, Carter was a member of the NC State Wolfpack for five years, and recorded between 400 and 600 receiving yards four straight years from 2019-2022.
The other addition, announced shortly after Carter by Wilson, is Army linebacker Leo Lowin, who Wilson notes was “invited to Panthers rookie minicamp, per a source”
Lowin played a little bit of everything, from safety to linebacker, at the college level for one of our nation’s military academies. In 2022, though, he recorded 100 tackles, posted three sacks and intercepted two balls. He came up just short of those figures this past season but still managed to record 92 tackles and three more sacks.
Plus, prior to Wilson’s flurry of reports, news broke that the Panthers bolstered their special teams unit with former Missouri star kicker Harrison Mevis. Shortly after the draft ended on Saturday evening, Mevis signed an undrafted free agent deal with the Carolina Panthers.
The 6-foot, 241-pounder has a distinct size to him that you rarely see in kickers. And he has a lot of power to go with that impressive size, as you might imagine. Mevis firmly cemented his status as one of the best kickers in Missouri football history during his time there. He earned second team All-SEC honors in 2023 after connecting on a league-best 24 field goal attempts this fall.
He drilled 24-of-30 attempts his senior year, ranking second overall in the SEC in scoring (117 points). Mevis also broke Missouri’s all-time scoring record on Nov. 4th, when he scored seven points against Georgia, shattering Jeff Wolfert’s program record of 362.
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