2025 Season Opener Countdown: 48 Days to Go

We’re counting down the days until the Panthers open up the 2025 season!

In this series, we’ll be counting down until opening kickoff by running through the Panthers roster by jersey number. Today’s piece looks at No. 48 for the Carolina Panthers, outside linebacker Thomas Incoom.

Before the Panthers

Thomas Incoom’s college career began at Valdosta State where he played from 2017 through 2020. He transferred to Central Michigan in 2021 and had two solid seasons with the Chippewas. In his 2022 senior season he played 12 games and racked up an impressive 57 tackles and 11.5 sacks. That performance had him landing as a late-round pick in several 2023 NFL mock drafts, but he ultimately didn’t get selected.

The 6-foot-2, 265-pound edge rusher signed as an undrafted free agent with the Denver Broncos in 2023 and not only made the roster as a rookie, he actually saw the field. He appeared in four games with the Broncos that season with 20 defensive snaps and 35 special teams snaps, recording two tackles.

The Broncos released him after his 2023 rookie campaign and he signed with the Panthers in 2024.

Incoom’s role in Carolina

Last year Incoom appeared in eight games for the Panthers, recording eight tackles, one quarterback hit, and one tackle for loss. He played 39 defensive snaps and was something of a special teams mainstay playing 174 snaps there.

He bounced around the practice squad and active roster several times last year. Of the eight games he played, seven of them were in consecutive games between Week 4 and Week 10. He then also appeared in the Panthers final regular season game.

After last year’s audition in Carolina, he signed a futures contract with the team in 2025.

Incoom is going to need to show a lot this summer to carve out another role on the Panthers 53-man roster. This offseason the Panthers signed outside linebacker Patrick Jones who is coming off a seven-sack season with the Vikings. The team also invested a second round pick in Nic Scourton and a third rounder in Princely Umanmielen, so the Panthers have seriously upgraded the talent around him.

Given Incoom’s experience in the system, he could once again bounce around the practice squad and the active roster given how things shake out this summer.