Offensive tackle Rasheed Walker and the Carolina Panthers have agreed to a one-year deal worth up to $10 million, according to a league source.
In a free-agent class thin on starting-caliber offensive linemen, Walker ranked as the top available player at his position and 12th-best overall free agent in The Athletic’s top 150. A 2022 seventh-round pick by the Green Bay Packers, Walker has made 48 starts at left tackle over the past three seasons.
Walker is 26 years old and played college football at Penn State. At 6 feet 6 and 325 pounds, he is an athletic big man with good mobility.
In January, Walker was arrested at LaGuardia Airport after police said he did not have the required credentials when presenting a firearm for inspection. Walker’s attorney told The Athletic the incident stemmed from a misunderstanding, saying Walker believed he was allowed to travel with a firearm legally licensed in Wisconsin. New York law requires a New York State-issued license to legally possess a handgun. Walker has a court date on the matter scheduled for Thursday.
How he fits
Given the state of the Panthers’ tackle position as of midafternoon Friday, just about any tackle would have been an upgrade over the healthy tackles already on the roster. So reaching an agreement with the top free-agent tackle on a team-friendly deal would qualify as a terrific fit from the Panthers’ perspective. Walker immediately slots as the Week 1 starter while Ikem Ekwonu recovers from patellar tendon surgery after he was injured in the playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The one-year deal also doesn’t preclude the Panthers from drafting a tackle, although now they won’t feel forced to do so.
2026 roster impact
The Panthers’ tackle position is in a weird place right now. The organization has yet to offer a public update on the recovery timeline for Ekwonu, the top-10 pick from 2022, who’s not expected to be ready for the start of the season and could be out for much longer. The Panthers signed Stone Forsythe to a one-year, $2 million deal, but Forsythe allowed 11 sacks in 13 games last year for the Las Vegas Raiders, which ranked No. 89 of 89 qualified tackles, according to Pro Football Focus. Right tackle Taylor Moton is starting to show the wear of his Ironman streak of 104 starts, but he was extended last summer.
Cap update
We’ll have to wait to see the specifics of Walker’s deal. But when initial reports point out how much a deal could be worth — in this case, up to $10 million — that’s a sign the player was forced to accept incentives in place of guarantees. The Panthers created $24 million in cap space this week by cutting A’Shawn Robinson and restructuring Derrick Brown’s contract, and they could rework another deal to account for Walker’s signing. But it was far from a crippling transaction for general manager Dan Morgan.
Joe Person’s takeaway
With the addition of Walker, Morgan has now landed the top-rated off-ball linebacker in Devin Lloyd, the second-ranked edge in Jaelan Phillips (whom some considered the best pass rusher available), and the No. 1 tackle in Walker. That’s a win-win-win for the Panthers’ front office and owner David Tepper, who clearly was emboldened by last year’s NFC South title and wants to keep the good times rolling, especially while Bryce Young is still on his rookie deal. A team that went seven years without making the playoffs now looks like the favorite to win the division two years in a row.