Panthers expected to release C Bradley Bozeman

Everyone says he struggled as a C, but he was the only constant with the revolving door of guards around him all season.  Weird move imo.

Everyone says he struggled as a C, but he was the only constant with the revolving door of guards around him all season.  Weird move imo.

Definitely underperformed and was due a $1.5mil roster bonus March 16.  Somewhere I read that the team offered to restructure his contract and he declined.

Seemed to be a great guy, involved in the community.  Wish him the best.


From Joe Person a couple days ago:

......the Panthers also want to bring in a center to compete with or replace Bradley Bozeman, according to sources familiar with the team’s thinking.


Bozeman has started 28 consecutive games since taking over for Pat Elflein early in the 2022 season. But Bozeman is due a $1.5 million bonus if he’s still on the roster March 16, three days after the start of the league year. The Panthers already plan to move on from cornerback Donte Jackson and tight end Hayden Hurst rather than pay their roster bonuses. They could take the same approach with Bozeman, whose downhill blocking acumen might be a poor fit for Canales’ wide-zone run scheme.

The Panthers re-signed the 29-year-old Bozeman to a three-year, $18 million contract last March. Bozeman received $10 million in guaranteed money, including $4 million of his $4.15 million salary for 2024. Releasing him with a post-June 1 designation would create $2 million in salary-cap space and spread $7.28 million in dead money over the next two years, according to Over the Cap.

The Athletic’s Randy Mueller, a longtime NFL general manager, believes center might be the deepest free-agent class of any offensive position, with as many as 10 starting-caliber players available. That list doesn’t include Mitch Morse, a skilled pass-blocker released by the Buffalo Bills this week.

It’s also a deep center group in the draft. Dane Brugler, a draft analyst for The Athletic, called it an “awesome year to draft a center,” with at least five players he expects to become NFL starters.

https://theathletic.com/5324555/2024/03/...sive-line/

Everyone says he struggled as a C, but he was the only constant with the revolving door of guards around him all season.  Weird move imo.

AGREED....  This is the third player we are supposed to release/cut.... Jackson, Hurst, and now Bozeman. Seems to me that we are making things worse..???  Seems like all this would do is create another hole that would require a mandatory replacement.  Last year was not good for anyone on our Offense, Boze included. But he was solid in 2022. This whole Offensive mess started with Reich and Brown.  Hard to say just how good (or bad) the O-line guys are.

BCF is definitely right though. The OGs were a 'revolving door' last year.  That leaves us with Moton on the right and Ekwonu on the left. Neither of whom are pro-bowl OTs. Ekwonu is actually a pretty poor example of a LT. Moton is serviceable. Doesn't miss time, always available, so there's that.....

All we can do is trust there is a plan.  I am going to believe Dan and Dave (C not T) know what they are doing until they prove they do not,

All we can do is trust there is a plan.  I am going to believe Dan and Dave (C not T) know what they are doing until they prove they do not,

YEP... Makes sense.

From the Observer:

Bozeman wasn’t a great fit for the Panthers’ new wide-zone run blocking approach under new head coach Dave Canales. Bozeman is an old-school road-grading center with limited second-level mobility. The Panthers clearly saw that last season in the mid-zone-heavy scheme brought in by former head coach Frank Reich.

With Bozeman set to turn 30 in November, the Panthers likely saw this as a way to get younger and more athletic on the line. Bozeman is a great fit for a run-heavy system, and while Canales said he plans to be stubborn with using the run game, this offense is expected have a quick attack passing approach.

Eating a lot of dead money for Bozeman isn’t necessarily ideal, but the Panthers are doing this the right way. Under new EVP of football operations Brandt Tilis, the Panthers are taking their lumps now, instead of hurting themselves in the future. The Athletic has reported that the team plans to release tight end Hayden Hurst, who would only save roughly $52,000 with a release. He will leave $9.86 million in dead money on the cap this year, but the Panthers can move on from his salary in 2025 if he’s not designated a post-June 1 release. Cutting veterans who don’t fit into the long-term plans, despite the immediate financial penalties, is a way to justify a cleaner slate for a rebuilding process. It wouldn’t be surprising to see several moves like this over the next week or so as Canales and Morgan look to build the team in their own image as a new regime.

It’s a good time to need a center. Both the free agency and draft classes are full of options to explore, depending on how the Panthers want to attack the need. Incumbent linemen Cade Mays and Austin Corbett are also capable of playing center if the Panthers decide to rework the line even further. The free agency market at center is packed. Lloyd Cushenberry III, Evan Brown, Connor Williams and Tyler Biadasz are all younger and more athletic than Bozeman. While they all might fetch bigger contracts, their athleticism and youth make them worthwhile targets. In the draft, Wisconsin’s Tanor Bortolini, N.C. State’s Dylan McMahon, Miami’s Matt Lee and West Virginia’s Zach Frazier could be options for long-term growth and success at the position. No matter how the Panthers look to replace Bozeman, they’ll clearly have their options.

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports...rylink=cpy

My concern revolves around finding good quality replacement players. Our Defensive Back room is going to be decimated if jackson is released/cut. We have Troy Hill and Henderson as the only options and neither is a #1 quality CB or #2 probably. (IMHO..). So, who do we get and where do we get them.??

I'm not as concerned about the TE room. Tommy Tremble is solid. Good blocker and receiver, especially over the middle and in the Red Zone. We currently have a couple of TEs that are mostly dead weight. They could be cut and we wouldn't lose much in the process. Still, it would be nice to have another solid TE, not someone's reject that would just take up space. If we lose Ricci, it's not a big loss. Thomas and Sullivan are both under-performing. If Hurst is cut/released we still have Jordan Matthews and Chris Pierce as well. So, TE is pretty well covered numbers wise..... Unless we decide to clean house and sweep up the dregs.  Maybe not a bad idea..???

The OL room is a concern of course. If Bozeman is released/cut, then we have three big holes to fill in the middle of the line.  Of course, we have Christiansen and Corbett coming back after injury. Who knows how that will work out.??  We have a plethora of OGs on the roster, like Cade Mays, Chandler Zavala, DeRenzo, McCray, Jensen, Jackson......  Mays and Zavala played quite a bit. The rest are a mis-mash of guys with little to recommend. At C, we have .... uhh ...... hmmm.  Well,  there might be a couple of guys who COULD snap the ball if necessary. Maybe..??

Our roster is full of trash right now. Bunch of players who are basically just 'camp fodder'. Most of them have a snowball's chance in hell of making the roster.

Combine this mess with our Edge need along with D-Line....???  Then figure out what to do with Burns, Luvu, and Chinn...... Throw in two reliable (sort of..) guys at S...(Xavier Woods and Vonn Bell..) and Sam Franklin Jr, who played a little last year but is mostly a ST guy...

Lots of work to be done.  Like LP said:  Gonna have to wait and see what our triple-threat consortium of Morgan, Canales, and Tillis can work out.

For me.... I'm like a little boy jumping in mud puddles --- OR, like the farmers duck, Hell, if it don't rain, I'll just walk...

As LadyPanther said,, for the first 1-3 years we've got to trust Morgan and Canales .
It seems we've been rebuilding for 7 years. Many teams go through this. Our rebuild will have to start with the GM and head Coach. We haven't gotten that right , so it makes the actual 53 man roster even more difficult .
We all know that Bozeman and the whole O line has been under preforming based on NFL standards.
We talk about if he's cut we'll have 3 holes to fill. Well if they aren't NFL caliber , we need to start the hard process of finding NFL starters and don't cost us a fortune.. Lets hope Corbett and Christiansen, can fill two of those holes ..

Add Vonn Bell to the cuts list.