Aug 17, 2012; Charlotte, NC, USA; Carolina Panthers running back Josh Vaughan (32) lines up in the backfield during the second half against the Miami Dolphins at Bank of America Stadium.The Panthers defeated the Dolphins 23-17. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-US PRESSWIRE

Now that the roster cut-down is upon us, it’s interesting to see how the roster will start to take shape as the  regular season approaches. As in the past 3 years, due to injuries the Panthers have gone through 70 to 77 players during the season, so let’s use 70 as the number of players that will be needed at some point during the season. The roster will end up at 53 players, with another 8 on the practice squad. A ninth player can be added if determined by the league to be an international player. That leaves 10-12 players to hide somewhere. There’s the possibility of landing on the PUP list (physically unable to perform). A player can remain here for 6 weeks and have up to 6 weeks of practice before having to be activated. Finally, some players who are injured will be on the 53-man roster at the end of pre-season and then moved to Injured Reserve to allow activation later in the season. So teams do have capabilities of stashing more than their allotted limit of players. Some may even come from the practice squads of other teams, as did Frank Kearse did last year.

Below is a list of the current pre-season roster (only the top 82 players are shown) and a prediction of where they may end up once the cuts begin.

Offense:

QB – Newton, Anderson, Clausen

RB – Williams, Stewart, Vaughn

FB – Tolbert, Brockel

TE – Olsen, Barnidge, Hartsock

WR – Smith, LaFell, Murphy, Pilares, Gettis, Edwards, Ajirotutu, Adams

OT – Gross, Campbell, Bell, G. Williams

OG – Silitolu, Pollak, Wells, Hangartner, Byers, Z Williams

C – Kalil, Mruczlowski

LS – Jansen

Defense:

RDE – Johnson, Keiser, Norwood

DT- Edwards, McClain, Fua, Nesbitt, Kearse

LDE – Hardy, Applewhite, Alexander, Nwagbuo

LB- Beason, Kuechly, Anderson, Davis, Senn, Phillips, Williams, Onatulu

CB- Gamble, Munnerlyn, Norman, Butler, Hogan, Pugh, R. J Stanford, Thomas

S – Godfrey, Martin, Nakamura, Smith, Nelson

P- Nortmann, Harris       

K – Mare, Medlock

Possible Practice Squad:

WR -J Green, B Bersin, R. Wallace, D Adams

OT – Reynolds, Browning

DT – Chandler, Van Bergen

S – DJ Campbell

LB – K Wilson

RB – T Poole

TE- N Rosario