{"id":855439,"date":"2026-04-05T17:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T17:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855439\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T17:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T17:22:24","slug":"panthers-linked-to-former-1st-round-pick-pro-bowl-pass-catcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/855439\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers linked to former 1st-round pick, Pro Bowl pass catcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do the Carolina Panthers<\/a> have one more free-agent splash<\/a> left in them?<\/p>\n

If they do, Garrett Podell of CBS Sports may believe that tight end David Njoku would be worth their while. Podell, when recently linking<\/a> the top remaining free agents to a few potential landing spots, connected the former first-round pick to Carolina:<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

” . . . If healthy, he’s a valuable middle-of-the-field and red-zone playmaker. Turning 30 in 2026 and dealing with injuries should make him a more cost-conscious target than in years past.<\/p>\n

“The\u00a0Carolina Panthers\u00a0make the most sense for Njoku: the defending NFC South champions need more of a receiving threat out of their tight end spot than\u00a0Tommy Tremble\u00a0has put on tape. He could really open up the middle of the field for quarterback\u00a0Bryce Young.”<\/p>\n

Njoku is almost three seasons removed from his one-and-only Pro Bowl campaign\u2014where he reeled in 81 catches for 882 yards and six touchdowns for the Cleveland Browns. The 29-year-old is fresh off notching 33 receptions for 293 yards and four scores over 12 games in 2025.<\/p>\n

Although they’re seemingly comfortable with the current state of their tight end room, the Panthers could stand an upgrade in the production department. Carolina hasn’t seen a single one of their tight ends amass at least 500 receiving yards in a season since 2019 (Greg Olsen).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Follow our free agency tracker<\/a> for all the latest moves.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: NFL free agency: Panthers named best fit for ex-Browns TE David Njoku<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do the Carolina Panthers have one more free-agent splash left in them? If they do, Garrett Podell of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[1476,235,260,2567,54,4131,7,9255,12469,6,236,10120],"class_list":{"0":"post-855439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-bryce-young","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-cleveland-browns","13":"tag-david-njoku","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-garrett-podell","16":"tag-greg-olsen","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-panthers","19":"tag-tommy-tremble"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116353259569400712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855439","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=855439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}