After losing their top tight end for over half of the season last year, the Carolina Panthers will once again see a tight end miss time as reports have surfaced that Chris Manhertz, the 26 year old tight end who played in all 16 games for the Panthers last season, suffered the same injury that kept Greg Olsen on the shelf in 2017. Manhertz had surgery to repair a Jones fracture in his left foot, Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer is reporting – the Canisius-basketball-star-turned-tight-end was expected to start the year as the Panthers #2 tight end, but that role will presumably fall to fourth-round pick Ian Thomas after Manhertz was carted off during the second-to-last OTA session of the spring.
The Panthers are hopeful that Manhertz can return before the start of the regular season, but Olsen, who suffered the same injury during Week 2 of the 2017 season, missed nine of 10 games before returning for the final four of the regular season; there are less than eight weeks until the Panthers open the season at home against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Panthers carried three tight ends last season for most games, although when Olsen was on injured reserve, the team activated rookie fullback Alex Armah – Armah took some snaps during the spring at tight end after Manhertz left the practice session and Jason VanderLaan was banged up – Vander Laan, Thomas and Evan Baylis are currently the tight ends on the roster aside from Olsen.
Manhertz signed a one-year, $630,000 contract with the team this offseason as an exclusive rights free agent – he played on just over 27% of the snaps in 2017, culminating with 43.9% of the offensive snaps against the Lions in Detroit.
