Panthers latest roster move explains team’s dysfunction to a tee

The Carolina Panthers have been at the top of the headlines for the past few days, but for the wrong reasons.

The Panthers had to make the difficult decision to bench their young quarterback and the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Bryce Young, in favor of Andy Dalton. This move is to ensure Young doesn’t regress even more after a tough first year in the league and horrid first two games to start the 2024 NFL season.

Many have already labeled Young as a bust, but they fail to understand the horrible roster building surrounding Young and the offense.

The decision to bench Young isn’t the only indication to show that the Panthers are in one of the worst situations in the league. Carolina made another decision to show how doomed the team is moving forward.

Panthers release top pass rusher

On Tuesday, the Panthers decided to waive second-year outside linebacker Eku Leota for an undisclosed reason. The biggest problem with this decision is that Leonta is the team’s leading pass rusher with one sack. He is the only player on the roster who has accounted for a full sack and one of three players who has accounted for a statistical sack in general.

Leota started in one of the two games played this season for Carolina while accumulating four solo tackles, a team-high three tackles for loss, one sack and one quarterback hit.

The Panthers made moves this past offseason to trade some of their more established players on both sides of the ball, especially on defense. One of them was trading star pass rusher Brian Burns to the New York Giants.

Leota isn’t the elite pass rusher that Burns was. Rather than build the former undrafted free agent, the Panthers decided to waive Leota and shed any case of developing a reliable player.

Do the Panthers have the worst defense in the league?

Carolina isn’t making the case for how efficient a team they are within their first two games this season. Offensively, the Panthers are a mess with or without Young leading them due to the lack of support.

The Panthers might be just as bad on the defensive side of the ball in only two games played. Carolina has given up five passing touchdowns, which is one less than the Washington Commanders. They have the second-worst rushing defense in the league by allowing an average of 199.5 rushing yards while also allowing three touchdowns on the ground.

Finally, the Panthers have allowed an average of 36.5 points per game, which is easily one of the worst in the league. It doesn’t help that the team has defensive lineman Derrick Brown out for the year with a knee injury after game one. This puts more pressure on players like A’Shawn Robinson and Jayden Peevy to play on the outside instead of their natural position inside. Having Leota on the roster would’ve helped this as well.