Former BYU Star Brady Christensen Surprises by Re-Signing with the Carolina Panthers

After spending four years bouncing around the Panthers’ offensive line, Brady Christensen has signed a one-year, $2.8 million deal to return to Carolina.

Brady Christensen, the former BYU All-American offensive lineman, is set to continue with the Carolina Panthers for a fifth season after agreeing to a one-year, $2.8 million contract.

Living in North Carolina and covering both BYU and the Panthers, I’ve watched almost every snap Christensen has played for Carolina. Given how the Panthers have handled him, I thought he would leave as soon as he had the chance to sign with another team.

Clearly, I was mistaken.

Struggles in Carolina

Christensen has faced four challenging seasons with the Panthers since being drafted in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Over that time, the Panthers have seen two general managers and three head coaches, leading to instability both off and on the field.

As coaches have come and gone, Christensen has been moved around, playing tackle, guard, and, last year, center. Throughout his 51 career games and 30 starts, he’s played every position on the offensive line. While his flexibility gives him value, it has also prevented him from securing a stable role to focus on perfecting his craft.

After Austin Corbett, the Panthers’ starting center, was lost to a season-ending injury in Week 5, Christensen took over. He played well at center, earning a 63.6 PFF grade, ranking 27th out of 64 centers. For a brief period, it seemed Christensen had finally found his long-term position with Carolina.

However, despite his strong performance over five games, Christensen was unexpectedly replaced by Cade Mays, a third-year player whom the Panthers had previously cut and re-signed. This decision was both puzzling and frustrating.

Benchings in the final seven games of last season seemed to signal that the Panthers were ready to move on from Christensen. But apparently, they weren’t.

Given Christensen’s ability to play all five offensive line positions, I expected him to sign with another team, possibly for a two-year, $6.5 million contract, with a clear path to a starting role. Several teams needed solid, experienced interior linemen, and Christensen seemed like a perfect fit for a more favorable situation than Carolina.

Instead, he’s returning to the Panthers, where he may again be relegated to a backup role.

Christensen won’t start at tackle, as the positions are locked by Ikem Ekwonu and Taylor Moton. He won’t be starting at guard either, after the Panthers signed Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis last season, both of whom played well.

The only potential starting role for Christensen in 2025 is at center, but that also seems unlikely. The Panthers are bringing back both Corbett and Mays, who beat Christensen out for the position last year. Christensen was effectively the third option.

Christensen is clearly betting on himself to emerge as the starter in the three-way center competition, but he’ll need to show more than he did last year to secure the spot.

In the end, it’s a puzzling decision for Christensen to return to the Panthers on a one-year deal for less than $3 million. It seems he could have found a longer contract, more money, and a clearer path to a starting job with another team. But either those offers didn’t materialize, or Christensen is content in Carolina and chose to stay, even if it means potentially spending much of the 2025 season on the sidelines.

I hope the upcoming year isn’t another frustrating one, where Christensen only plays a few snaps in jumbo packages while others start ahead of him.

I’m glad Christensen got a second con

tract. I just hope it’s the right one.