Panthers linebacker DJ Johnson will miss the team’s season finale after sustaining a concussion in a car accident and being placed on the reserve/non-football injury list.
The two-car accident occurred this week on Rama Road in south Charlotte, according to The Athletic, and head coach Dave Canales told reporters that Johnson’s condition — which didn’t require emergency medical personnel to transport him from the scene — is not life-threatening.
“We kind of gathered information over the last, really, night and morning,” Canales told reporters Friday, while also acknowledging that he hadn’t seen Johnson after the accident. “That’s pretty much what I know about it. Enough to the point where he’s in evaluation right now.”
Earlier this season, Carolina backup quarterback Andy Dalton and his family — his wife, his three children and the family’s dog — were involved in a car accident, and while no one in the car was transported away from the scene by paramedics, Dalton sustained a sprained thumb and was inactive for the Panthers’ next game against the Broncos on Oct. 27.
Johnson, the Panthers’ third-round pick in the 2023 draft, has started two games for them this season — appearing in 14 — after starting two others and logging 13 appearances as a rookie outside linebacker.
In 2024, another dismal campaign where the Panthers started 1-7 and now have a 4-12 record, Johnson had 44 total tackles, three tackles for loss and a half-sack — with total defensive snaps for the season jumping from 29 percent in 2023 to 40 percent in 2024.
He also logged 17 percent of Carolina’s special teams snaps this season.
“I think he’s definitely one of the best edge setters that we have out there,” Panthers linebacker Jadeveon Clowney said of Johnson in August, according to Athlon Sports. “Setting the edge stopping the run. DJ Definitely bring that physicality to the game and you need that out of the guys around you. It’s a physical game. This is most definitely what you’re gonna need to stop running this league is physicality.“
The Panthers, positioned for another top-10 draft pick entering the NFL’s final week of the regular season, travel to face the Falcons on Sunday after falling to Atlanta, 38-20, in Week 6.
