Cat Scratch Reader
The Panthers will open their stadium for the first time on Friday for the 2025 league year, welcoming Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns for everyone’s first taste of something akin to real football! As Jon noted in his offensive preview, predicting who exactly will face off against each other during the preseason is rather difficult due to both teams playing all sorts of players on different snap counts, so we’re going to use this space for the next 3 weeks to highlight some players on the defensive side of the ball that you should be watching for. Let’s dive right in!
What will the two rookie edge rushers look like in their first action?
The Panthers selected EDGE players Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen in the 2nd and 3rd round of the 2025 NFL Draft respectively. With veteran DJ Wonnum still getting himself healthy for the regular season, and no real need to play Patrick Jones II too much as another fellow veteran, those two rookies should get a decent amount of snaps against the first and likely second team offense for the Browns. Both have shown flashes in camp, especially Umanmielen, but this will be their first true test as the pads will be fully on and the gloves mostly off for them to get after the quarterback. They probably won’t play more than a few series, maybe a quarter or two at most, but we should get a decent extended look at them. I’m excited to see how exactly they are deployed, even if it doesn’t tell us anything substantial in their role come week 1.
Cornerback depth should tell us some things.
With Jaycee Horn coming off what sounded like a minor car accident, I don’t expect him or Mike Jackson as the starters at that position to play much if at all on Friday. This should give us an extended look at 2024 5th rounder Chau Smith-Wade at both the inside and outside CB spots, as he’s reportedly been having himself a heck of a camp as the presumed starting nickel for this defense. Behind him, this is the place where the other roster hopefuls can really shine. Shemar Bartholomew and Corey Thornton have gotten several shoutouts from the coaches during pressers as guys that fit the physical profile of the type of players they covet at the position. If they are to separate and make a case for the 53 man roster, this is where it starts.
The safety combinations can also shed light.
The only real thing we know about the safety position in 2025 is big money acquisition Tre’Von Moehrig will have one of the two safety spots locked down. Beyond that, we don’t really know a ton about what this position will look like, and that could be by design. The Panthers released their first unofficial depth chart this week, which had Moehrig and veteran Nick Scott as the starters, but I don’t think that’s the plan going into week 1....
