George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network
Foreman Finally Has Time to Fit In
D’Onta Foreman showed in 2021 that he can step in at any moment and make an impact.
For 2022, he wants to show what he can do when he has a chance to settle in.
Having signed with the Carolina Panthers early in free agency, the former Tennessee Titans running back is involved with organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamps for the first time since 2019.
"It's been a while since I was able to have a complete year together with everything I've been through," Foreman conceded recently, via Carolina’s team website.
Last season, Foreman set career-highs with 133 rushes, 566 yards and three touchdowns even though the Titans only signed him on Nov. 2 in response to Derrick Henry’s foot injury. He was brought in along with Adrian Peterson as a member of the practice squad but outlasted the future Hall of Famer and delivered three 100-yard games in a span of five weeks beginning in late November.
The only other time last season he wasn’t working out on his own were the three weeks he spent with the Atlanta Falcons during the preseason.
In 2020, he was out of work all the way until the end of September when the Titans first signed him to their practice squad. Even in 2019, when he started the offseason as a member of the Houston Texans, the team that selected him in the third round in 2017, he did not make it to the preseason. The Texans cut him at the start of August, and he spent a few weeks with Indianapolis before going unsigned throughout the regular season.
If the Titans gambled that he would be available again well into this offseason, they wrong. Carolina signed him on March 18 (one year, $2 million), the third day of the free agency signing period, and added him to a running back that includes Christian McCaffery and 2021 draft pick Chuba Hubbard.
"You see the way he played last year, he ran with power, ran the wide zone game, but had long speed to get down the field," coach Matt Rhule said, according to the team’s website. "For us, in our situation when you have Christian McCaffrey, and you have Chuba, to add a big back like D'Onta, to me gives us a nice mix.
"He brings something the other guys don't have, and he showed it last year playing for the Titans."
Now that he doesn’t have to spend his offseason looking for a job, he can show the Panthers exactly what he can do for them.
"Whatever my role, I'm ready to excel in it," Foreman told the Panthers’ website. "I feel like I can excel in it. So, whatever it turns out to be, I'm going to put my best foot forward to get it done."
