There is no room for sentiment if the Carolina Panthers want to emerge from the proverbial NFL wilderness. Every position will be earned on merit. Anyone not displaying the right traits or work ethic will be shown the door. The time for half-measures is long gone.
Dan Morgan, Dave Canales, and Brandt Tilis are running the Panthers with more professionalism and purpose. They have a long-term plan in place and an aligned vision for the future. It's still a precarious situation until further notice, but confidence is high that this could be the breakout year fans desperately need.
Not everyone will come along for the ride. And a once highly thought of draft pick is barely clinging to his roster spot after some notable additions throughout the offseason.
Carolina Panthers' edge-rushing additions leave D.J. Johnson in peril
The Panthers bolstered their edge-rushing options considerably. Patrick Jones II joined the ranks in free agency after a career year with the Minnesota Vikings. Morgan also traded up twice on Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft for Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen. Veteran former No. 1 pick Jadeveon Clowney was released for salary-cap purposes, but that won't be the end of the roster casualties in Carolina.
That brings D.J. Johnson firmly under the microscope. The Panthers traded up for the aging development project at No. 80 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. It was a baffling move at the time and even more so now after a lackluster first two years of his professional career.
Johnson has flashed as a run defender on occasion. It takes much more to make a go of things in the pros, and his complete inability to generate pressure is deeply concerning. The Panthers weren't going to wait around on the off chance he turned things around. Not when there was a big opportunity to progress with the team's newfound stability across the board.
The stakes have been raised for Johnson, who'll turn 27 years old during his third season. Anything less than major strides forward comes with grave consequences attached, although the cheap contract might be his saving grace when it's all said and done.
Making the squad would be an achievement for Johnson. That keeps his foot in the door, but Scourton, Jones, Umanmielen, and D.J. Wonnum are way ahead of him in the pecking order right now. Evero reportedly liked him pre-draft. That doesn't come with assurances anymore.
It'll be interesting to see how Johnson fares in the coming months. But if the Panthers aren't entirely convinced, they'll have no problem going in a different direction.