One surprise player to make the Panthers roster at every position
By Dean Jones
Julian Stanford – Carolina Panthers OLB
Although he was a relatively late arrival to the Carolina Panthers this offseason, Julian Stanford was on the roster in 2020 and emerged as a core special teamer that obviously did enough to warrant a second look at training camp.
This isn’t exactly the strongest linebacker group Carolina’s ever had. Although the bar is set pretty high it comes to second-level performers in the team’s short but eventful history.
The days of Luke Kuechly, Jon Beason, and Thomas Davis are now gone. But there is some hope improved production might be coming from their current options after a disappointing 2020.
Stanford has benefitted from Denzel Perryman and Shaq Thompson’s absences from practice through injury this week. The veteran has been seeing a ton of work with the starting unit alongside Jermaine Carter and Haason Reddick, producing some nice plays that won’t have gone unnoticed by the coaching staff.
It was hard to look at Stanford’s situation with any sort of confidence before camp. The Panthers didn’t make him a top priority to bring back before free agency and it appeared as if this door had closed, at least initially.
If Stanford can build on a positive start to camp and make some noise in the preseason, then a surprising roster spot could come his way for the second-straight season in Carolina.