4 players the Carolina Panthers will miss the most in 2024
By Noah Bryce
The 2024 season is fast approaching. With it comes hope and a fair share of trepidation.
The Carolina Panthers have not been a good team for a long time. We can all hope that begins to shift. Even if there isn't much to point toward that happening this year.
Season after season of disappointment has left the team and the fanbase searching for answers and simply trying to have fun with the sport again. There just isn't that excitement of the game anymore, even from the most staunch of fans.
One major factor in the recent struggles for the team has been a series of terrible personnel decisions. This saw high-quality contributors walk for pennies on the dollar or even nothing at all. It is not the way to build a successful team, to say the least.
Players move on or are sacrificed because of the salary cap, such is the way of the business side of the NFL. That doesn't mean it is any less frustrating to see players walk out the door and into career resurgence. Especially when they go to a hated rival.
With this in mind, here are four players the Panthers will miss most in 2024.
Carolina Panthers will miss Brian Burns
The player that this team will miss the most this season will be Brian Burns and it isn't even close. No team gets better after trading away their sack leader.
Just a season ago the team could have gotten multiple first-rounders for the superstar pass rusher. They decided to hold onto the young defender as a building block. We all know how that decision ended.
Now Burns is with the New York Giants. The Carolina Panthers were only able to get a second and fifth-round pick in the deal after losing all leverage.
There is something to be said for a new regime coming in and wanting to mold the team in its image while stockpiling future assets. However, the defense lost its focal point and one of the best-rising stars in a trade for essentially nothing in comparison. There is no reasoning that will make sense for this move.
Looking purely at sacks, no one came within three of Burns last season. The only players within four are no longer with the team either. With the question marks in the secondary, it's going to be a long season without that pass rush to keep the opposition honest.