The Carolina Panthers are moving on from their starting kick returner from the past two seasons.
The team cut running back and returner Raheem Blackshear on Tuesday morning, according to a league source, as its quest to slim down its roster to 53 by Tuesday’s 4 p.m. roster deadline continues.
The move was made ostensibly to make room among the running back corps. The group is already comprised of starting running back Chuba Hubbard, who signed a four-year extension in the middle of 2024; Rico Dowdle, the 1,000-yard rusher the team acquired in free agency; and 2025 draft pick Trevor Etienne.
Keeping four running backs on this year’s active roster would be difficult to rationalize, even with Blackshear’s special teams acumen. For reference, Blackshear was the third-string running back last season — and didn’t notch a carry until Week 16, with reserve backs Miles Sanders and then-rookie Jonathon Brooks sidelined with injuries.
Second year-running back Jonathon Brooks is part of this move’s equation, too. He is sitting out all of 2025 on the physically unable to perform list and will presumably be ready to play in 2026.
Blackshear’s roster chances weren’t helped by the fact that Dowdle and Etienne came into Carolina this offseason with substantial returning experience. Receivers Hunter Renfrow and Jimmy Horn Jr., too, came in with returning reputations that preceded them.
Blackshear, 27, played in 16 contests in 2024. The 5-foot-9, 190-pound playmaker made his biggest splash last year as a returner. As a punt returner, he had 17 attempts for 145 yards; as a kick returner, he had a league-most 31 attempts for 791 yards — his longest being 43 yards.
That 791 kickoff return yards total was second in the league last season, behind the Dallas Cowboys’ KaVontae Turpin.
Blackshear had a pretty good preseason. The finale against the Steelers on Thursday was his best. He took 11 carries for 35 yards with a long of 17. He also caught two passes for eight yards.
His night concluded on the Panthers’ final play of the first half, when he levied an important block in the backfield that gave quarterback Jack Plummer enough time to find tight end James Mitchell in the end zone for the team’s first touchdown of the game. Blackshear then came up gimpy, favoring his right ankle, and didn’t reenter the contest.
The Rutgers and Virginia Tech product notched 16 kick returns for 430 yards in 2023. He arrived in Carolina in 2022, when he signed with the team off the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad.