The Carolina Panthers are six days away from the regular season opener when the team will host the Chicago Bears on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium. There’s still a lot of work needed between now and then, especially for general manager Dan Morgan.

That hard part of the job is certainly over with for Morgan this year after trimming down the roster to 53 players last weekend, but the Panthers still need to make some pressing moves before the beginning of the regular season.

The Panthers are currently $5,621,545 OVER the allowed salary cap limit and will need to not only be below zero, but also have roughly $5 million in cap space for in-season spending. So, that’s just over $10 million the Panthers need to clear between now and Sunday’s game.

Here’s how the books currently look and what moves Carolina’s front office could make to become cap compliant.

Type	Amount
Active Roster	$225,273,626
Injured Reserve	$4,783,616
Reserve / PUP	$36,211,493
Non-Football Injury/Illness	$21,103,088
Practice Squad	$5,273,100
Dead Money	$24,700,329

Ways the Carolina Panthers could free up cap space before the start of the regular season

1. Extensions

The first move I’ll be watching this week is whether or not the Panthers extend left guard Damien Lewis. The injury bug popped back up during camp for Lewis, but he’s back to being fully healthy and a player the Panthers could lock up again on another deal.

Lewis has no more guaranteed money left on his existing contract, which runs through the 2027 season. As things stand, he has the third-highest cap hit on the entire team ($16,720,000) for this upcoming season. I believe he’s worth a new deal and tacking on extra years could allow the Panthers to spread that money and lower his 2026 hit. That move alone could free up just over $9 million in cap space and reward one of your top offensive veterans.

Two other possible extension names include CB Mike Jackson and TE Tommy Tremble, but it seems like the Panthers prefer to let things play out for those two.

2. Restructures

The move you’ve probably seen other teams make the last few days is restructuring existing contracts, which basically means converting a player’s base salary into a signing bonus to clear salary cap space. The player gets the cash instantly while dropping the base salary. However, you have to then spread that cap you cleared into future years. Which is why you usually see teams doing this with long-term players that will be around.

The Panthers, for example, already restructured the contracts of CB Jaycee Horn and DT Derrick Brown earlier this offseason when the new league year started. One name to watch next is right guard Robert Hunt.

Hunt currently has the highest cap hit on the team at $24,300,000. The Panthers could do a simple restructure with that, converting $17.29 million of his base salary into a signing bonus and then prorating that evenly across all three years of his remaining deal. Such a move would clear $11.53 million in 2026 salary cap space. This would be the easiest move for the Panthers to make to be compliant and have left over spending room.

3. Cuts or Trades

This is typically a move teams do ahead of the new league year and not really something teams do ahead of the regular season. Cuts have already been made to form the initial 53-man roster and any additional cuts involving players at the bottom of the roster wouldn’t really make that much of a difference.

A trade, however, could be something to watch, but again it’s unlikely. One name to watch is tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders. The Panthers opted to keep five tight ends on the initial roster and made it seem like they have a plan for all five. I still view Sanders as a trade chip for a team in need of a pass catching big body.

Trading Sanders wouldn’t save the Panthers much ($1,075,000) but it is an avenue the team could still explore if a team comes calling. But, if they trade player-for-player, you’d have to factor the new addition’s cap hit into the equation.