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The Carolina Panthers have officially announced their active roster for the 2026 season.
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The team spent the hours after its preseason finale on Friday reducing its 91-player training camp roster to a 53-man roster by the NFL-mandated deadline of Sunday night.
The results of such reductions are below.
This is the “initial” 53-man roster. Other players could be waived or released if the Panthers choose to pick any players up off the waiver wire — the deadline to do so is 1 p.m. Monday, according to NFL Operations. With the regular-season opener not being played until Sept. 13, a little bit more roster fluctuation will be expected.
There were a few surprises and things worth noting on this “first 53.” Among them:
Quarterbacks (3): Bryce Young, Kenny Pickett, Haynes King
Running backs (3): Chuba Hubbard, Jonathon Brooks, AJ Dillon
Wide receivers (6): Tetairoa McMillan, Jalen Coker, Xavier Legette, Brycen Tremayne, Jimmy Horn Jr., John Metchie
Tight ends (5): Tommy Tremble, Mitchell Evans, Ja’Tavion Sanders, Feleipe Franks, Darren Waller
Offensive linemen (10): Luke Fortner, Sam Hecht, Robert Hunt, Damien Lewis, Chandler Zavala, Brady Christensen, Stone Forsythe, Monroe Freeling, Albert Reese, Rasheed Walker
Defensive linemen (6): Derrick Brown, Bobby Brown, Cam Jackson, Lee Hunter, Aaron Hall, TeRah Edwards
Inside linebackers (3): Devin Lloyd, Claudin Cherelus, Jackson Kuwatch
Outside linebackers (5): Jaelan Phillips, Pat Jones, Princely Umanmielen, Thomas Incoom, Trevis Gipson
Cornerbacks (5): Jaycee Horn, Mike Jackson, Will Lee, Chau Smith-Wade, Akayleb Evans
Safeties (4): Tre’von Moehrig, Lathan Ransom, Nick Scott, Zakee Wheatley
Specialists (3): Ryan Fitzgerald (K), JJ Jansen (LS), Sam Martin (P)
Injured reserve (designated to return): Running back Trevor Etienne (ankle) and linebacker Bam Martin-Scott (hamstring). These two players will have to miss the first four weeks of the season but are retained on the Panthers’ roster.
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The team also placed right tackle Taylor Moton (blood clot) on the reserve/non-football illness list, and left tackle Ikem Ekwonu (knee) and defensive tackle Turk Wharton (neck) on the reserve/physically unable to perform list. These three will also miss the first four games of the season but are retained on the Panthers’ roster as well.
The Panthers had to waive 17 players and release 10 more to get their roster to where it needed to be. They also traded for TeRah Edwards, an obscure defensive lineman from the L.A. Chargers who has had a nice preseason and will provide D-line depth.
OL Isaia Glass
DE Jared Harrison-Hunte
CB Cam Miller
LB Mapalo Mwansa
CB DeCarlos Nicholson
LB Maema Njongmeta
DT Parker Petersen
WR Ja’seem Reed
S Demani Richardson
C Nick Samac
CB DeVonta Smith
DE Isaiah Smith
CB Corey Thornton
RB Anthony Tyus III
LB Trevin Wallace
CB Casey Washington
CB Tyrek Funderburk (waived/injured)
OG Ja’Tyre Carter
OL Jake Curhan
DT Elijah Garcia
OLB Cam Gill
TE James Mitchell
OLB Jeremiah Moon
WR David Moore
CB Robert Rochell
S Isaiah Simmons
QB Kyle Trask
A note on Trask: He has a long history with head coach Dave Canales, given they intersected in Tampa Bay in 2023. But he was a late-camp addition, joining the team only after King suffered a hamstring injury Aug. 6. He is a candidate to make the practice squad, as are many of the players who were released and waived Sunday.
What the Panthers did Saturday could be described in three short sentences. They waived seven players. They released one. And they agreed to terms with another.
But let’s go a bit deeper.
The Panthers opted to waive these seven players:
*Hayes was waived with an injury designation after getting hurt in the Houston Texans’ joint practice Wednesday. That means that if Hayes clears waivers, he will revert to the Panthers’ injured reserve, and then the team will need to negotiate an injury settlement with him before he can become a free agent.
The Panthers also opted to release wide receiver Dan Chisena with an injury settlement. The veteran wideout and special teams player was on the Panthers’ injured reserve prior to getting released, meaning that he was already not counting against the team’s 91-man training camp roster.
And finally — and perhaps most importantly — the team reportedly agreed to terms with inside linebacker Bobby Okereke. The 30-year-old, 6-foot-2, 235-pound defensive leader will bring some veteran wisdom to a room that, besides free-agent acquisition Devin Lloyd, was in search of some. Okereke, a former third-round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, is coming off a season in which he played all 17 games and notched 143 tackles and two interceptions … which prompts the question: Has he been flung into the starting LB2 competition with Claudin Cherelus? That competition also included Trevin Wallace at one point, but he was waived Sunday.
One other fun fact about Okereke: He and Panthers linebackers coach Pete Hansen go way back. Hansen coached the position at Stanford, in fact, while Okereke was there and was the steward of Okereke’s All-Pac-12 years in 2017 and 2018. Said Hansen of Okereke in 2019 via GoStanford.com: “Bobby Okereke is an all-down linebacker. He is long, he is fast, he has good hip flexibility, and he can flip his hips and cover in space. He can tackle in space, too. He has extremely long arms so he can keep himself clean off blockers. He will fit in really well with the Colts.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline “Carolina Panthers’ 53-man NFL roster is set. Here’s who made the team.”
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