How much cap space do the Carolina Panthers have going into the preseason?

The Carolina Panthers will play their first preseason game of the year one week from today. When the Cleveland Browns come to town we'll get a good look at Shedeur Sanders - and on the other side we'll learn a lot about Carolina's depth as the second and third-stringers get most of the reps.

On the feld we will likely see things that are impossible to see on paper - or during training camp practices. However, on paper right now three clear weaknesses stand out for this roster. First, the Panthers have to replace Jadeveon Clowney, which may have saved them around $8 million in cap room but opened up a sizable hole at the top of their edge rotation.

Panthers cap space update

The good news is that the Clowney move puts the Panthers at a little over $19 million in salary cap room for the 2025 season, according to the latest figures at Over the Cap.

That only ranks 20th in the league, but it's more than enough to address all three of their top roster holes with veterans who will come cheap at this time of year.

After addressing the edge situation, general manager Dan Morgan should move up to the next level of his defense, where there's now a big hole in the middle thanks to the bad news about Josey Jewell. Apparently he was still suffering concussion symptoms from the team's Week 16 win last season over the Arizona Cardinals, so he's been released.

For now, Christian Rozeboom - a free agent pickup from the Rams - has inherited Jewell's former role as the green dot guy for Carolina's defense. Trevin Wallace remains in the weakside role, but if the Panthers though he was ready to take on the middle linebacker duties they would have have given the dot to him, instead.

Clearly the Panthers weren't planning on giving Rozeboom a huge role, as the one-year deal he signed has a max value of $2.5 million, the kind of deal you give to a special-teams-only type of player. So, they will also need more depth at middle linebacker.

Lastly, Carolina still hs to address that hole on the back end of their defense. It's getting late in the game and their best option for an upgrade (Julian Blackmon) is now off the board, but there are still several decent free agent free safeties on the market.