Dan Morgan signed four prominent free agents in 2025. Did they live up to their contracts in their first seasons?
The Carolina Panthers hired Dan Morgan as president of football operations and general manager on January 22, 2024. Morgan is a Panthers “lifer” after spending his seven-year NFL career in Charlotte from 2001 through 2007 then spending years in the Panthers front office. Let’s take a look back on Morgan’s second e season as GM. Last week we graded his trades. This week we’ll assess Morgan’s performance with roster construction via free agency during the 2025 free agency period.
Free agency signings
The Panthers front office signed a plethora of guys throughout 2025 so the focus here is to assess how much return they got on their most expensive signings. For this article I’m only focusing on the four players whose annual average salary exceeded $5 million per year.
The grade of each signing will be relative to expectations based on their salary, so the higher the salary, the higher the expectations. A “C” grade means the player met expectations for their contract.
Trevon Moehrig, safety
Contract: 3 years, $50 million ($17 million/year) with $34.5 million guaranteed
Stats: 16 games (16 starts), 103 tackles, 3.0 sacks, 14 tackles for loss; PFF: 50th of 98 safeties
The fifth-year pro had a solid first season in Carolina. He missed just one game, starting all 16 in which he played, and registered over 100 tackles. Not only that, he was in the opponents’ backfield a lot for a safety, racking up 14 tackles for loss and three sacks. He’s not a ball hawking safety who knocks down passes left and wright — he had just two passes defended and no interceptions — but that’s not what he was paid $17 million per season to do. Signing a young, effective safety on a 3-year reasonably affordable deal ($17 million is just 6.4% of the Panthers $264 million salary cap) was a solid signing.
Signing grade: B
Tershawn Wharton, defensive tackle
Contract: 3 years, $45.1 million ($15 million/year) with $30.3 million guaranteed
Stats: 9 games (9 starts), 36 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 2 tackles for loss; PFF: 127th of 134 interior defensive linemen
It was a rough debut season in Carolina for the sixth-year veteran. His injury-plagued season was choppy, playing in Week 1, then next in Week 4, then not again until Week 7. He then played the next seven games before having his season end after Week 13 following another injury. When healthy, he had some impactful games including seven tackles, a sack, and two quarterback hits in a big Week 9 win over the Green Bay Packers followed by another seven-tackle game the following week against the New Orleans Saints. Now, PFF hated his season ranking him 127 of 134 players at his position, but that seems off. Perhaps if he can remain healthy next year he can live up to his $15 million annual salary, but he wasn’t able to do so in 2025.
Signing grade: D+
Patrick Jones, outside linebacker
Contract: 2 years, $15 million ($7.5 million/year) with $10.3 million guaranteed
Stats: 4 games (4 starts), 9 tackles, 1.0 sacks, 2 tackles for loss
After playing out his four-year rookie contract with the Minnesota Vikings and coming off a seven-sack 2024 season, hopes were high in Carolina that Jones could help put some much-needed pressure on the quarterback. But Jones played in the Panthers first two games, missed the next two, played in two more, and was then shut down for the season due to a back injury that required surgery. Here’s to hoping he recovers well and bounces back next year.
Signing grade: Incomplete
Bobby Brown, defensive tackle
Contract: 3 years, $21 million ($7 million/year) with $9.6 million guaranteed
Stats: 17 games (5 starts), 31 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 3 tackles for loss; PFF: 80th of 134
At just $7 million per year with $9.6 million guaranteed, fifth-year defensive tackle Bobby Brown was brought to Carolina for quality depth and to be a situational starter if called up. He did just that in his first season with the team. He was a perfectly adequate, serviceable depth piece on the Panthers defensive line. His $7 million average salary represents just 2.7% of the Panthers salary cap, and his production exceeded that percentage this year.
Signing grade: B
Summary
When factoring out Patrick Jones’ brief season, the remaining three big-time free agents came out just above average.
Something Panthers fans should be excited about for next year is what the defense can look like with a healthy Tershawn Wharton and Patrick Jones. Neither of them are going to wreck games by themselves, but they are capable, competent football players who can improve the team.
In the end, Dan Morgan came out just ahead in his free agent grade.
Overall free agent grade: C+
Category: General Sports
