Jeremy Chinn, once integral to Panthers’ future, is ready to go ‘somewhere I’m wanted’

There was a strange mix of emotions on move-out Monday in the Carolina Panthers’ locker room.

Some players were admittedly anxious for their upcoming free agencies. Others didn’t say it outright but were in need of a break. All acknowledged Monday’s bittersweetness.

For Jeremy Chinn, though, there was another prevailing feeling:

Excitement.

“I mean, I’m pretty excited, to be real,” Chinn told The Charlotte Observer on Monday, in the middle of cleaning out his locker and stuffing cardboard boxes with used cleats and gloves. “I’m pretty excited just to find an opportunity, whether it be here or whether it be somewhere else. I’m definitely excited for the opportunity in front of me.”

Four years ago, not many could’ve predicted that a day like Monday would come — one in which Chinn was cleaning out his locker in Bank of America Stadium for maybe the last time as one of the Panthers’ 21 unrestricted free agents, contemplating what’s next.

After all, at one point not too long ago, the fourth-year safety was part of the Panthers’ long-term future.

Chinn was the Panthers’ second-round pick in the 2020 draft. They traded up to get him, and soon the former FCS safety turned into one of the NFL’s best defensive rookies. His statline in Year 1: 117 tackles, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, an interception — all of which culminated into a legitimate candidacy for Defensive Rookie of the Year. Similar numbers for Chinn followed in the 2021 season, too, which was all under the tutelage of defensive coordinator Phil Snow and head coach Matt Rhule.

But Chinn’s success wouldn’t be linear. As coaching regimes arrived and left — and as different defensive schemes and philosophies and priorities accompanied those changes — it seemed as if all that was offered by Chinn, the 6-foot-3 220-pound safety/nickel, kept falling through the cracks.

In 2023, specifically, Chinn only notched 30 tackles, one sack and one pass deflection in 12 games. Part of that low game total was because of a significant quad injury he sustained in the middle of the season. But even when fully healthy, his playing time was sparse. His snap counts on defense in his past three games: 12 (18%) vs. Green Bay, 11 (17%) vs. Jacksonville, 22 (34%) vs. Tampa Bay.

“Change is needed,” Chinn, 25, said. “I know that, speaking personally. So I’m excited to have that opportunity.”

What kind of change?

“I mean, you’re 2-15, a lot of things gotta change,” Chinn said. “Whether that be some type of, you know, stability. I know that’s something this organization has been looking for and have been trying to find for a while now. ... And really just in my career, I’ve played with a lot of different coaches, a lot of different situations, a lot of different schemes. It’s just really (about) finding something that works for me personally.”

Jeremy Chinn in a league of his own

It’s not uncommon for NFL players to have fluctuating levels of production over the course of their careers. It’s also not strange for players to have varying levels of success under different coaches, different schemes. Take Derrick Brown’s historic year this season, for example, or Brian Burns’ relative down year.

But Chinn’s situation feels unique in the Panthers’ locker room — one where a coaching staff that didn’t draft him publicly believed in his upside but didn’t exactly know how to use him. At coverage safety? At big nickel? In exclusively running situations?

“I don’t want to get into much of the specifics, but we just value the skill set,” defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said of Chinn in May.

Evero’s 3-4 scheme was going to be new to Carolina, and questions of how Chinn fit into the plan were asked from the outset. And that only piled onto other uncertainty previously brought by the signings of veteran safeties Xavier Woods and Vonn Bell in the past two offseasons.

Whenever Evero would be asked about Chinn this year, though, he’d respond simply: “You just got to have him on the field.”

Chinn said that he feels like he still has a lot of good football left to play. He added that he doesn’t think there is any position on the field he can’t play — whether that be as an every down safety, at nickel, even at the second level (he’s played a little middle linebacker before).

“I’m fully confident in the player that I am, in my ability to make plays and impact football games week-in and week-out,” he said. “You know, a lot of that has to come from looking in the mirror as well, regardless of whatever situation I’m in.

“But a lot of things from my rookie year were: the people who brought me, the people who wanted me here, the people who saw me fit in a certain way, in a certain scheme — that was the reason they brought me. Why they drafted me. Why they moved up in the draft to grab me when they did.”

Chinn said that’s ultimately what he’s looking for in free agency this year — being somewhere where he’s wanted, where he fills a role, a purpose.

That could be with the Panthers under new leadership.

Or it could be somewhere else.

But this possible fresh start excites him nonetheless.

“It hasn’t always been like that the past few years,” he continued. “So another thing I’m looking forward to is wherever I’m at, I know it’s going to be with somebody that wants me. Somebody that wants to use me. And I think that’ll give me a lot of confidence as a football player.

“Just having an established role, in the niche of somebody’s defense, somebody’s team, somebody’s scheme. I’m really looking forward to that.”