{"id":790442,"date":"2026-03-04T02:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/790442\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:39:15","slug":"panthers-named-potential-suitor-for-ot-braden-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/790442\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers named potential suitor for OT Braden Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 3, 2026, 7:05 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Could the Carolina Panthers<\/a> pay up for one of the open market’s top hog mollies?<\/p>\n

Sports Illustrated’s Gilberto Manzano and Matt Verderame recently projected<\/a> the contracts and landing spots for the NFL’s top 50 free agents. In at No. 11 on their list is Indianapolis Colts<\/a> offensive tackle Braden Smith, who Verderame links to Carolina with a three-year, $50 million deal.<\/p>\n

He writes:<\/p>\n

Smith has been a solid tackle since coming into the league as a second-round pick out of Auburn in 2018. Smith has experience, starting 105 games over his career, but he\u2019s also missed time, including four games this season, five games in \u201924 and seven in \u201923. At 29, Smith is still one of the most desirable free agents should he get to the market, with a combination of talent and excellent tape. While Smith has never been a Pro Bowler, he\u2019s consistently one of the better right tackles in the league and should get a healthy multi-year deal.<\/p>\n

With starting left tackle Ikem Ekwonu on the road to recovery from a torn patellar tendon<\/a>, the Panthers will likely be in the market for a blindside protector this offseason. While positive about his progress thus far, president of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan was unable to provide<\/a> a timeline for Ekwonu’s return last week at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine.<\/p>\n

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

Smith, however, has played almost exclusively at right tackle over his entire eight-year career. Of his 6,917 snaps, 6,810 have come at right tackle and zero have come from the left.<\/p>\n

Carolina’s current right tackle Taylor Moton has two years remaining on his current pact.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 3, 2026, 7:05 p.m. ET Could the Carolina Panthers pay up for one of the open market’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,6,236,97114,97115,95882,108497,96059,98528,97060,95903,95896,95888,95895,96684,95906,96716,95883,97701,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-790442","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-tagbraden-smith","19":"tag-tagcarolina-panthers","20":"tag-taghockey","21":"tag-tagikem-ekwonu","22":"tag-tagindianapolis-colts","23":"tag-tagnational-sports","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagnfl-hub","26":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","27":"tag-tagoverall-positive","28":"tag-tagsports-illustrated","29":"tag-tagsports-news","30":"tag-tagtaylor-moton","31":"tag-tagtwitter","32":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116168593662850527","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790442","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=790442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}