My sweet spot when it comes to sports is anything that combines BYU football with the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
I write for Lawless Republic with a specialty in BYU players in the NFL while also writing for another Carolina Panthers site. I moved to North Carolina over 20 years ago and am a passionate fan of both BYU sports and the Carolina Panthers.
This makes me uniquely qualified to write about how the Carolina Panthers bungled Brady Christensen’s early career, and why I hope he signs as a free agent somewhere else.
2024 Statistical Summary
17 games, 6 starts
399 offensive snaps (39%), 49 special teams snaps (10%)
PFF grades: 63.6 overall (28th of 64 centers), 56.1 pass blocking (49th), 70.7 run block (14th)
Brady Christensen’s Season Overview
The dysfunctional Carolina Panthers have had five head coaches, including interims, during Brady Christensen’s four professional seasons. During that time the No. 70 pick in the 2021 draft has bounced around from left tackle, to right tackle, to both guard spots, and this year to center.
Yes, the versatile BYU product has started at all five offensive line positions during his four-year NFL career.
After playing in 33 games with 23 starts over his first two seasons, Christensen appeared in just one game in 2023 before missing the rest of the season due to injury. During the 2024 offseason the Panthers invested heavily in two guards - Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis - which pushed Brady from a starting role to backup status this season.
In Week 5 of the 2024 campaign starting center Austin Corbett suffered a season-ending injury and Brady Christensen stepped in as the team’s new starting center. Christensen adapted quickly to his new role (he had never played center before this) and it looked like he would remain the starter for the rest of the season. Brady started the next five games, opened holes for breakout running back Chuba Hubbard, and then was inexplicably benched again.
Outside of a spot start in Week 15 he played just 17 offensive snaps over the Panthers last eight games.
Instead of giving Brady Christensen starting reps, the Panthers went with Cade Mays at center. You’d have to be a die-hard Carolina fan to even know who Mays is - and I am that die-hard Carolina fan - and it’s clear to me that Brady Christensen should have been starting over him throughout the last half of the season.
Mays was a Panthers sixth round pick in 2022 and was waived by the team before the 2024 season, only to be later signed by Carolina off the Giants practice squad in October. It’s not like Mays is on a long-term deal - his contract is for 2024 only - so he was on equal footing with Christensen contract-wise.
I don’t get it.
What the Future Holds
I hate to say this as a Panthers fan, but I hope Brady Christensen leaves for greener pastures as a free agent this upcoming offseason. Carolina’s starting offensive line is largely set for 2025. Austin Corbett’s contract is expiring and the current coaching staff has already signaled they prefer Cade Mays to Brady Christensen at center. If he returns to Carolina next year it will likely be as a backup.
But the future can still be bright for the former BYU star.
He can literally play any position along the offensive line, and every team needs both quality and depth.
If I was Brady’s agent, I’d be calling the likes of the New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, and Tennessee Titans. Any team that needs an above-average run blocker on the interior offensive line who also has the versatility to swing out to tackle should be interested in the fourth-year pro.
Brady Christensen has been--and can still be--a quality starter in the NFL at multiple positions.
The Carolina Panthers have been an organizational mess since the day Brady Christensen arrived four years ago.
Here’s to hoping he signs with the right team in 2025 and builds on the solid NFL resume he somehow created in the chaos of Carolina.