4 personnel decisions Carolina Panthers should regret at 2023 midseason point
By Dean Jones
Carolina Panthers signed Miles Sanders
When the Carolina Panthers traded Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers, the running back tandem of D'Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard picked up the slack. Operating within a power-run scheme implemented by Steve Wilks and Ben McAdoo, the duo performed well in difficult circumstances.
Many thought that would be enough for Foreman to get a new deal and become RB1 under a different regime. They had other ideas, low-balling the former Texas star and allocating decent money to Miles Sanders in free agency when others around the league were extremely reluctant to pay players at the position.
Sanders came into the Panthers on the back of his first Pro Bowl campaign, so there was some optimism he could become a genuine three-down presence. Sadly, this appears to be another significant waste of money through the first half of 2023.
The former second-round pick out of Penn State looks like a shell of his old self. Injuries haven't helped, but the explosiveness and confidence to burst through holes we saw behind a far superior Philadelphia Eagles offensive line in 2022 have been non-existent in Carolina.
This has resulted in Hubbard and even Raheem Blackshear being preferred when it comes to touches out of the backfield. Sanders cuts a frustrated and often forlorn figure on the sidelines these days, which will likely come with the Panthers shelling out a substantial amount of dead-cap money next spring unless a miracle occurs beforehand.