Panthers insider's final 53-man roster projection cuts David Moore, Raheem Blackshear

Over the next three and a half days, Carolina Panthers general manager Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales have to trim their roster down from 90 players to 53 for the regular season. For the most part there are no aching painful decisions they have to make. At this point, they should have a strong idea of who they want rolling into Week 1.

Perhaps the most-difficult decisions will be in the backfield and the wide receiver corps, two position groups where they are deeper now than they have been in a long time. According to The Athletic's Joe Person, he believes they will end up cutting running back Raheem Blackshear, who's been with the team the last three years, mostly as a return specialist.

That would only leave the Panthers with three running backs on the roster: Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle and rookie Trevor Etienne. While that's a bit thin, keep in mind that they'll also likely carry a back or two on the practice squad.

The toughest call will be at wide receiver, where there's such a logjam the Panthers are considering trading Adam Thielen to the Minnesota Vikings. Person has them carrying seven receivers: Thielen, Tetairoa McMillan, Xavier Legette, Jalen Coker, Jimmy Horn Jr., Hunter Renfrow and Brycen Tremayne. That makes David Moore the odd man out.

Panthers projected to cut David Moore

"Moore had a 19-yard run on a jet sweep and has more special teams value than Renfrow, who had two catches for 5 yards and took a big hit on a high throw by Plummer. Canales has a lot of trust in Moore, while others in the organization are higher on Renfrow.."

This would be the correct decision, as Moore has the lowest ceiling in the group and shouldn't take precedence over younger receivers who haven't shown what they can do yet.

That said, it would come as a surprise. Moore has an uncanny knack for sticking around on a roster despite not performing particularly well during the season. He stuck around with the Seattle Seahawks for four years while Dave Canales was their wide receivers coach and was a favorite of Pete Carroll for his practice habits. It sounds like the same dynamic is true of Canales.

Hopefully Morgan can convince Canales to let Moore go to make room for another wideout, but Panthers fans probably shouldn't hold their breath on that one.

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