3 Panthers players who could be restructured this offseason

Which Carolina Panthers players might the team want to restructure rather than release completely this offseason?

This is going to be an offseason full of big decisions for the Carolina Panthers. They made a promising start to life under Matt Rhule without coming close to a winning record or the playoffs. So some serious moves need to be made before OTAs and training camp comes around in the lead-up to the 2021 campaign.

Carolina does have some nice pieces to build around. The likes of Christian McCaffrey, D.J. Moore, Jeremy Chinn, Derrick Brown, and Brian Burns are all hugely important figures that will only get better in the years to come. But more is going to be needed if the Panthers want to realistically enter the postseason discussion next season or beyond.

It will be up to Rhule and general manager Scott Fitterer to make the moves needed to make this dream a reality. A plan has already been formed between the two on how best to move the organization forward and what comes next will play a significant role in their ability to mount move of a push for the NFC South title in 2021 with plenty of uncertainty surrounding two other teams in the division.

There are plenty of financial implications across the league this offseason due to the salary-cap coming down due to COVID-19 revenue losses, which only increases the task awaiting the Panthers before competitive action gets underway next time around.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at three players who might be candidates for a contract restructure this spring.

Player No. 1

Matt Paradis – Carolina Panthers C

• One-year remaining – $10.33 million salary-cap hit.

Matt Paradis showed a big improvement in production from a dismal 2019 campaign that had some wondering why the Panthers bothered to sign him in the first place. The center did struggle in pass protection on occasions during the season. But his situation is a precarious one with sacrifices needing to be made to free-up some additional funds to spend.

However, if the Panthers feel like Paradis did enough to stick around – but not at his current salary-cap hit of $10.33 million – then it might be worth entering discussions regarding a potential restructure that would kill two birds with one stone.

This would give Carolina some continuity on an offensive line that will have three new starters at the very least next season and a restructure would also save them some money in the process.