{"id":884649,"date":"2026-05-07T06:45:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/884649\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:45:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:45:15","slug":"panthers-granted-roster-exemption-for-lb-mapalo-mwansa-on-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/884649\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers granted roster exemption for LB Mapalo Mwansa on Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>May 6, 2026, 6:47 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/carolina-panthers\/364\" data-autotag=\"8afac4d1-41b4-4302-b154-b45f5b48a0d2\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Carolina Panthers<\/a> completed a roster adjustment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Per Mike Kaye of The Charlotte Observer, the team has <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mike_e_kaye\/status\/2052127978834768087?s=20\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">designated<\/a> linebacker Mapalo &#8220;Maz&#8221; Mwansa as their NFL International Player Program (IPP) exemption for the 2026 offseason. As a result, the 22-year-old English-born defender will not count against Carolina&#8217;s 90-man roster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Mwansa\u2014a member of Nottingham Caesars, a British American football club, and England&#8217;s national team for the 2024 European championships\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/pantherswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/panthers\/2025\/04\/28\/panthers-sign-mapalo-mwansa-nfl-international-player-pathway\/83335279007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed<\/a> with the Panthers in April of 2025 through the IPP. He would appear in all three of the Panthers&#8217; preseason outings later that summer, recording 14 snaps on defense and 17 on special teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The 6-foot-2, 230-pounder was also in the news last Wednesday, as he was <a href=\"http:\/\/pantherswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/panthers\/2026\/04\/29\/panthers-mapalo-mwansa-cfl-draft\/89863881007\/\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">selected<\/a> in the first round of the Canadian Football League&#8217;s 2026 Global Draft by the Saskatchewan Roughriders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">His IPP designation has cleared up a spot for the Panthers\u2014who are currently carrying 74 players on their active roster, seven draft picks and 11 reported undrafted free-agent signees.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:4|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ThePanthersWire\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow\">@ThePanthersWire<\/a> on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 6, 2026, 6:47 p.m. ET The Carolina Panthers completed a roster adjustment on Wednesday. Per Mike Kaye&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,6,236,119367,97114,97115,95882,97975,96059,95896,95888,95895,95899,96177,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-884649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-accessfree","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-sourcepanthers-wire","tag-sstssportsnflpanthers","tag-sstsnpanthers","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcanadian-football-league","tag-tagcarolina-panthers","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsmg-breaking-wire","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116531948983156035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884649","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=884649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}