The Carolina Panthers have reached a four-year, $25 million deal with running back Miles Sanders, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.
The team announced that an agreement had been reached, but did not disclose its terms.
Sanders, 25, is coming off his career with the Philadelphia Eagles. He was selected to his first Pro Bowl after putting up for 1,269 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground for the 14-3 Eagles. He became the first Eagles running back to pass the 1,000-yard rushing mark in a season since LeSean McCoy in 2014.
The Panthers made re-signing D’Onta Foreman a priority ahead of free agency, a league source said, but without a deal, they moved to Sanders — though a Foreman return hasn’t been ruled out.
Sanders ranks third among running backs in rushing average (5.1 yards per carry) since 2021 (minimum 250 attempts), behind only Tony Pollard (5.34) and Nick Chubb (5.25).
Sanders was selected in the second round by the Eagles in the 2019 NFL Draft, where he recorded 3,708 rushing yards and 20 rushing touchdowns over four seasons in Philadelphia. Due to his injuries during parts of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, he appeared in 57 of a possible 66 regular season games.
He competed collegiately at Penn State, where he played behind Saquon Barkley for two seasons. When Sanders got the lead role in 2018, he broke out for 1,413 scrimmaging yards and nine TDs.
Also on Wednesday, the Panthers agreed a deal with DeShawn Williams, the former Denver Broncos defensive tackle who started 15 games last season for coordinator Ejiro Evero and now the coordinator in Carolina who puts together the same 3-4 scheme.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, Tim McManus, David Newton and Adam Schefter contributed to this report.
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