it is time for football at 4 and I have to admit my mind is in a pretzel right now the Panthers have released outside linebacker Kon Chan now unimportantly I feel like we were just getting good at pronouncing his name Kavon chaon which was not the easiest one to pronounce so I thought we were going to have at least a season with it uh more importantly this is a weird move this is a strange move um I I brought up the the contract here it appears as if there will be and I say only but only a $500,000 dead cap so he was guaranteed $500,000 it came in a signing bonus uh he then would have had a $2.5 million salary for the year he also uh would have received 850,000 in per game roster bonuses uh a workout bonus which I don't think he received because he was not working out at the the facility this offseason if you remember during during um the OTAs and mini camps this offseason he was posting videos from working out I think in in Texas I think he showed up to mandatory mini camp and that was about it and and so he's cut they save a decent amount of money about $2 million against the cap uh but they're still on the hook for $500,000 against the cap uh and that would have gone up with each roster bonus it is concerning for this reason why now why the week of game one why now what did you learn about him now that you didn't know two weeks ago or you didn't know on cutdown day when you would have been able to maybe save or preserve or claim someone else off of waivers remember they had the first priority in waivers on on cutdown day that could have been another name or even in a different case it might have allowed you to keep somebody that you had to cut if you only wanted to claim the guys he claimed off waivers so there's the the I bet you there's a story behind it I don't know if we're ever going to hear it and then the second third thought whatever we're up to now I i' I've been counting thoughts and I've lost track is who the heck is going to rush the the quarterback for the Carolina Panthers that was always a question that it was a question when you had a guy that appeared to be worth $5 million to you on the roster now you take that guy away there's Jevan Clowney confident in him he showed out in Camp he's solid outside linebacker on one side the interior defensive line for the most part we know what you're working with we like that other side is it really eul Leota is is that what we're rolling with and that's no disrespect to ulota that's just saying at at best he is a hope for he's not a sure thing at Edge rusher and this is a wildly important position in the NFL you have to get after the quarterback I'm going to name three of the first four quarterbacks the Panthers play Derek Carr Justin Herbert yep Joe burrow there there's a there's a Vegas in the middle there but we'll put Garder mchu in his own category sure uh those three guys especially and actually Gardner muu is kind of this way too if you give him time they will pick you apart I don't think Derek Carr is what he was at his Peak right I Justin Herbert is coming off an injury so he's Less Mobile than he has been in the past and these two top receivers are gone true uh and and Joe burrow also dealing with an injury who knows if he'll have Jamar Chase probably by week four but not done yet like there's there's an element of you have to get after these pocket passers you have to and if it's not chaon I feel like you should have cut bait and started finding out who it could be long before gameweek well I think I think part of it was to see what the waiver wire had and I know they claimed Jamie Sheriff off wavers last week so it's Echo Leota DJ Johnson and Jamie Sheriff so it's like well you know what caleon Chason has five sacks in Four Seasons in his career he didn't do show us anything that gives us any sort of confidence so let's go ahead and cut bait do you know what it could have been it could have been and this is like a Cheesy Instagram quote that like somebody post they say like uh flip when you have a big decision to make flip a coin not because you want the heads or taals to decide it but because when it's in the air you'll know what you're rooting for it could have been a situation like that where they were like all right if if we see an edge rusher we love we'll claim them off waivers and we'll cut Kon Chan and and then they didn't see an edge rusher they loved so they kept K laan Chan and then like a week later they were like you know I was really hoping that we could have cut gayon Json uh that's not a good sign is it they they probably looked at their roster going into the week going all right if everything's healthy he's probably going to be a healthy and active so why are we going to pay someone five million bucks to be a healthy and active it's another good way that might be it like well he's not going to play special teams he doesn't didn't do anything in the preseason to show us anything the situation hasn't changed whether you have him or not so what's the point of maybe paying him all this money I I think or maybe he look to bring him back on a practice squad or something I don't know here yeah that's why it's so confusing because it seems like you brought up that he had what four sacks in five years or five sacks in four five sacks in four years you were always from the moment you signed chaon you were under the impression this guy was a Reclamation project a maybe we'll catch lightning in a bottle right maybe we can squeeze whatever potential he he showed early in his career like this guy was never you paid him that money because of what his perceived ceiling would be I don't know if we anybody thought it was likely that he'd reach it I think he was the 20th pick in the draft pretty obvious the guy wasn't going to be a 20th pick in the draft producer but you were hoping to get something out of it now all of a sudden it's it's the it's game week like you're getting ready for practice and it's like I don't know I don't know if we can trust him I'm like well you couldn't trust him before he was always kind of a a scratcher ticket I know that the team has talked about Lonnie Johnson that they signed to their practice squad about elevating him for week one if you're going to put him on the Roser for your season someone had to get let go Lonnie Johnson being the defensive back so maybe that's maybe one move has to happen in order for the other to take place here's what we're now hoping for preseason game one ulota is what eota actually is uh somebody like like you brought up Lonnie Johnson uh is the dog that that uh uh Dan Morgan is looking for and he'll play Above maybe what his physical attributes pedigree says he he should and then DJ Johnson wakes up again a player who last year you know hadn't done a ton third round pick you traded up for him I mean and here's the crazy part jvan Clowney at this point in his career shouldn't be playing every single snap no there's going to be points in time where you have Leota on one side and and Johnson on the other and those are your two Edge rushers tasked with getting after the quarterback these are the conversations like the cold glass of waters to the face that I think should lower expectations for the Panthers this is why six wins is a good year for the Panthers five wins is like hey you double in a half to your wins things are moving in the right direction this is why you can't expect above 500 you can't expect competing for the division because when you really look at it when with those plays when J Devon Clowney is out you're going to expect the offense to have some success because that's a very very important position with very very little proven ability on the Panthers roster