The Carolina Panthers released wide receiver Hunter Renfrow on Tuesday as they reduced their preseason roster to the regular-season limit of 53 active players. On Monday, Renfrow returned to the team.
In between, the wide receiver said he got a call from Carolina quarterback Bryce Young that helped him weather the end, at least temporarily, of his NFL comeback.
“The NFL’s an interesting place,” Renfrow said on Monday. “My last week is gone, right?
“I appreciate Bryce gave me a call kind of Wednesday, Thursday and kind of told me about his year last year and some things that happened. And so he has a lot of perseverance stories to share. And, you know, just to have a leader like that in the locker room, and some of these other guys, has been awesome. And so, hopefully, I can just join that and be that voice in the receiver room.”
The Panthers chose Young from Alabama with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Carolina had a 2-15 record in Young’s rookie season, that included the dismissal of coach Frank Reich 11 games into the campaign.
In 2024, new coach Dave Canales benched Young after the second game of the season, and the quarterback spent five games as a backup before returning to the lineup and establishing his status as the Panthers’ QB 1.
A fifth-round pick from Clemson in the 2019 NFL Draft, Renfrow had 269 receptions for 2,884 yards and 17 touchdowns in five seasons with the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders.
Renfrow had 103 receptions for 1,038 yards and nine touchdowns in 2021, when he earned Pro Bowl recognition as the Raiders’ slot receiver. But over the next two seasons, his production declined to 61 receptions for 585 yards and two touchdowns. Las Vegas released Renfrow in March 2024, and he did not play in the 2024 season.
Instead, Renfrow took the season off to deal with ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue, fever and weight loss.
Renfrow said Carolina general manager Dan Morgan had indicated he wanted to bring back the wide receiver, perhaps on the practice squad, after giving him the news last week that he had been cut.
“I think his biggest thing when I was on the way out,” Renfrow said, “was he felt like I could get there, but I wasn’t physically really there yet, which we’ll see, right? We got some games coming up pretty fast. But it was a concern he had, and so he wanted to work with me through it, have me come back and kind of work through it and then go week-to-week from there.”
On Wednesday, the Panthers traded Adam Thielen to the Minnesota Vikings, sending home the veteran wide receiver and Young’s top target during the quarterback’s two NFL seasonss.
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When wide receiver Jalen Coker went on injured reserve after sustaining a quadriceps injury at practice on Thursday, Carolina had more than a practice-squad spot to offer Renfrow, and he’s on the Panthers’ 53-man roster.
Renfrow said he had other opportunities after getting cut.
“My agent fielded a lot of those calls,” Renfrow said. “I kind of told him I kind of wanted to be here or nowhere. I know he told me a few teams, but I think he was getting calls kind of throughout the weekend. But I just told him this is where I wanted to be.”
Carolina also added wide receiver Dalevon Campbell to the 53-man roster after Tuesday’s cuts. The rookie joined the team as a waiver claim on Wednesday after being released by the Los Angeles Chargers.
Thielen left Carolina with 685 receptions for 8,311 yards and 64 touchdowns in his NFL career. The Panthers’ current wide-receiver corps has 437 receptions for 4,987 yards and 38 touchdowns.
Xavier Legette is the leading returning receiver after he had 49 receptions for 497 yards and four touchdowns as a first-round rookie.
The Panthers chose another wide receiver in the first round of this year’s draft, taking Arizona State’s Tetairoa McMillan with the eighth pick. Sixth-round pick Jimmy Horn from Colorado also made Carolina’s regular-season roster.
David Moore also returns after catching 32 passes for 351 yards and three touchdowns. He’s the only other member of the Panthers’ wide-receiver depth chart who has played in more than one NFL season with 74 games in seven years, which have included 115 receptions for 1,608 yards and 17 touchdowns.
The other wide receiver on the roster, Brycen Tremayne, has played in two NFL games and has one reception.
The Panthers kick off their 17-game regular-season schedule against the Jacksonville Jaguars at noon CDT Sunday at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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