4 worst free-agent signings in Carolina Panthers’ history
By Dean Jones
CAROLINA PANTHERS. player. 87. Pick Analysis. DL. SEANGILBERT. 2. Scouting Report
Carolina Panthers Player No. 2: Sean Gilbert (DL)
The Carolina Panthers played an astronomical sum to bring defensive lineman Sean Gilbert into the organization from Washington. This ended up being nothing short of a disaster.
They gave him an offer sheet worth $46.5 million in 1998, but Washington decided to match this despite the player sitting out in 1997 on the franchise tag. This was a shrewd move as it forced Carolina to give up two first-round picks for Gilbert in addition to allocating 12.48 percent of their salary cap to acquire his services.
Gilbert did start impressively with six sacks in his first season. But things started to trend on a downward curve for every passing year the player was part of the roster.
He did manage to spend five years in Carolina. But Gilbert totaled 15.5 sacks, 141 solo tackles, 14 tackles for loss, and six forced fumbles. To say this was not what the organization expected when they gave up so much would be a massive understatement.
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The defensive lineman did manage one more season after he parted ways with the Panthers. However, Gilbert was unable to make the most out of another chance as part of the Oakland Raiders that put him on the NFL scrapheap for good.
Carolina thought they had found their defensive anchor to put them over the edge in Gilbert. Sadly for the player and the franchise, this was not the case.