{"id":772796,"date":"2026-02-24T08:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/772796\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T08:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:33:26","slug":"panthers-expected-to-allow-these-players-to-test-free-agency-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/772796\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers expected to allow these players to test free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 23, 2026, 10:15 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> might be prepared to let some of their own free agents fly.<\/p>\n

Joe Person of The Athletic, in a new article<\/a> on Monday, covered the team’s top storylines heading into the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine. Among the topics mentioned was the future of starting center Cade Mays, perhaps Carolina’s most valuable soon-to-be free agent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Person notes that the Panthers may allow Mays, as well as a handful of others, to feel out the waters this offseason:<\/p>\n

The Panthers likely will let Mays test the market to determine whether it makes fiscal sense to keep him. They\u2019re expected to employ the same strategy with several of their other free agents who are candidates to return: [Yosh] Nijman, safety Nick Scott, linebacker Christian Rozeboom, punter Sam Martin and offensive lineman Brady Christensen.<\/p>\n

The University of Tennessee product first landed in Carolina as a sixth-round pick from the 2022 NFL Draft. He’d go on to appear in 27 games before being waived ahead of his third pro season.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

After a brief stint on the New York Giants<\/a>‘ practice squad, Mays returned to the Panthers in the middle of the 2024 campaign. He has since made 20 starts over 25 contests through 2025.<\/p>\n

Mays, who turns 27 years old in April, is expected to garner interest from multiple teams.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 23, 2026, 10:15 a.m. ET The Carolina Panthers might be prepared to let some of their own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,6,236,97114,97115,95882,106866,100374,96059,101318,95891,95888,95895,96684,97271,95897,95899,106776,95883,95894,100682,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-772796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-sstssportsnflpanthers","16":"tag-sstsnpanthers","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagbrady-christensen","19":"tag-tagcade-mays","20":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","21":"tag-tagchristian-rozeboom","22":"tag-tagnew-york-giants","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagnfl-hub","25":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","26":"tag-tagnick-scott","27":"tag-tagoverall-negative","28":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","29":"tag-tagsam-martin","30":"tag-tagsports-news","31":"tag-tagtwitter","32":"tag-tagyosh-nijman","33":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}