Gun charges against new Panthers OT Rasheed Walker have been dropped

Rasheed Walker has to be breathing a sigh of relief. It had to have been a stressful free agency period before he was picked up by the Carolina Panthers.

On top of all the waiting and all the unrealized expectations contract-wise, Walker had been arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm in late January while in New York at LaGuardia Airport.

Walker then went into free agency expecting to be one of the top players available as a former seventh-round pick who blossomed into a full-time left tackle for the Green Bay Packers.

Instead, Walker had to wait multiple days into free agency to get a call, and that call was for the Panthers on a one-year prove-it deal.

The good news for him is that at least he's got a job for 2026. Also, according to David Newton of ESPN, the gun charges have been dropped.

Rasheed Walker was facing two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm

At the time, Walker could have been in big trouble. He tried to check a bag at LaGuardia that ended up having a firearm in it. He told an airline employee that he had a lockbox in his bag with a handgun in it. It turns out it was a 9mm Glock with 36 rounds of ammo. The gun was legally registered in Wisconsin, but Walker's attorney, Arthur Aidala, had said that the big offensive tackle wasn't aware that he couldn't travel with the gun to New York. 

Walker, 25, can now go into the 2026 season with that legal problem no longer hanging over his head.

Now, he has to focus on earning his next contract. It was originally thought that Walker could have been in line for a multi-year deal that would have netted him around $20 million per year.

His contract with Carolina is for one-year, $4 million with incentives that can get it up to $10 million.