The Carolina Panthers will begin interviewing candidates for their general manager vacancy.

The Panthers fired Dave Gettleman in July.

Marty Hurney and Jimmy Raye are amongst the initial candidates.

Carolina also plans to interview Bills assistant director of college scouting Lake Dawson.

"He's had a heck of a career," Bills GM Brandon Beane said of Dawson upon his hiring in May, per the team's official site. "He rose to a level of VP of Player Personnel. He's interviewed for multiple GM positions. To have a guy with his experience and leadership... it's a strong addition."

The NFL and NFLPA has cleared the Panthers from any wrongdoing in regards to how they handled a potential concussion suffered by Cam Newton on Jan. 7th.

Newton went down awkwardly because of a right knee injury the Panthers evaluated during the third quarter, according to the NFL’s statement.

An MRI of Newton’s knee the day after the game revealed ligament and cartilage damage and “very extensive swelling,” according to the league.

Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, told the Observer that Newton could not fully bend his right knee, which caused him to go to the ground “in a somewhat awkward fashion.”

But Sills said Newton did not show any of the signs that would have warranted a locker room evaluation.

“Gross motor instability does not mean that you take a knee and go to the ground. Gross motor instability is reflective of dysfunction of the cerebellum, the balance center in the brain, where someone cannot even keep a vertical posture. And that’s clearly not what happened in this case,” Sills said in a phone interview.

“It’s very straightforward. There was no gross motor instability here,” Sills added. “He voluntarily went to the ground at the direction of the coaching staff, and he had a knee injury that prevented him from doing so in a standard manner.

“It was never our intent that every player who takes a knee on the field needs a concussion evaluation in the locker room. That’s not what gross motor instability means.”

NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said Newton’s situation against the Saints highlights the challenges media members and “armchair experts” face when expressing their concerns over player safety.

“People are making judgments about this without all the facts and without a full understanding of some of the medical determinations that are made,” Lockhart told the Observer.

“Sitting at home watching it on TV without a full understanding of this and without the medical background leaves you in a place where you should not draw conclusions and you should wait for all the facts.”

The Arizona Cardinals have agreed to hire Steve Wilks as head coach.

Wilks most recently was defensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers. Wilks ran a 4-3 defense in Carolina that was blitz-happy. 

The Panthers also lost their defensive coordinator last season with Sean McDermott joining the Buffalo Bulls as head coach. Wilks was promoted from secondary coach/assistant head coach to coordinator.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has an interest in being a minority owner of the Carolina Panthers.

The recently-retired NASCAR driver recently called Marcus Smith, the president and chief operating officer of Speedway Motorsports Inc., about potential involvement in purchasing the Panthers.

The subject came up when Earnhardt was asked whether he was involved with a group headed by Charlotte businessman Felix Sabates, a minority owner with Chip Ganassi Racing, to buy the team from Jerry Richardson.

Norv Turner was in Charlotte on Wednesday to finalize a deal to become the new offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, according to a source.

Turner's son, Scott, is expected to be the team's quarterbacks coach.

On Tuesday, the Panthers fired offensive coordinator Mike Shula and quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey.

The Carolina Panthers have fired offensive coordinator Mike Shula and quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey.

In 2017, Carolina finished 19th in total offense (323.7), fourth in rushing offense (131.4), 28th in passing (192.3) and 12th in points (22.7).

Shula joined the Panthers in 2011.

Six of the top-10 spenders during the 2017 NFL free agency period (Patriots, Titans, Rams, Vikings, Panthers, Jaguars) made the playoffs.

Over the past six years, the cap has jumped from $120 million to $167 million and it has climbed by at least $10 million year over year during the past four seasons. 

After the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, rookie salaries also became significantly cheaper which opened up even more cap space.

The competitive balance changed dramatically as teams had to figure out how to use the new cap space.

“It’s the biggest untold story in football,” said former Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns president Joe Banner. “With the excessive amount of available cap space, close to a billion dollars—some teams can’t mentally keep up with that.”

The common wisdom just a few years ago that free agency was a bad investment for teams.

Sports Illustrated wrote just three years ago that some big-spending teams had learned that “shelling out cash to players who are nearing their 30s can end up backfiring in spectacular fashion.”

Multiple league executives, coaches, and experts told The Ringer that it is changing the way teams are built at an unprecedented pace and turned free agency from a last resort into a legitimate team-building strategy.

“I can distinctly remember the days when it was almost every year, you had to let people go because of money,” Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead said. “Nowadays, I don’t ever remember thinking, ‘Uh-oh, we’re up against the books here.’ Now, it’s more of a strategy. ‘If we keep this guy, what does it keep us from doing?’ It’s not, ‘Hey, we’ve gotta do some things just to get legal.’ I think that’s what has allowed you to make, let’s call it ‘strategic football decisions.’”

The Carolina Panthers are facing questions from the NFL after quickly clearing Cam Newton to return to Sunday's playoff game against the New Orleans Saints.

The controversy comes less than two weeks after a league mandate requiring more extensive concussion testing for players demonstrating obvious symptoms.

League officials have already been in contact with the Panthers' medical staff as to why Newton was not taken to the locker room when he was being evaluated for a concussion.

Newton was slow to get up after defensive tackle David Onyemata hit him with 8 minutes, 26 seconds remaining in the Panthers' 31-26 loss. He was replaced by Derek Anderson, and, as he moved toward the sideline, Newton went to the ground and appeared to be pointing toward his right eye.

Ron Rivera said after the game that Newton had been poked in the eye. But in revisions to its concussion policy announced Dec. 29, the NFL said it would "require a locker room concussion evaluation for all players demonstrating gross or sustained vertical instability (e.g., stumbling or falling to the ground when trying to stand)."

The Carolina Panthers are expected to be put up for sale soon and Brian France hopes to lead a group that will purchase the team.

France, who runs NASCAR, would be the majority owner of the Panthers.

Various others have expressed interest in trying to buy the team.

The NFL has five teams ranking in the top-10 in DVOA on both Offense and Defense at the end of the regular season in the Vikings, Rams, Saints, Steelers and Eagles.

The Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers, Falcons and Patriots also rank in the top-10 on offense, while the Jaguars, Broncos, Panthers, Ravens and Cardinals rank in the top-10 on defense.