Panthers safety Jeremy Chinn designated to return from injured reserve

The Carolina Panthers finally received some positive injury news on Wednesday when safety Jeremy Chinn was designated to return from the injured reserve.

Chinn hasn’t seen the field in over a month and last played on Oct. 15 in a 42-21 loss vs. Miami where he recorded zero tackles for the first time all season. A few days after that game, Carolina opted to place Chinn on the IR with a qaud injury that was expected to take him out for the next six weeks.

Here we are five weeks later and Chinn is apparently ahed of schedule and coming off the reserve list. On Wednesday, the Panthers’ team website wrote:

“The team designated Jeremy Chinn to return from injured reserve, opening the window for him to practice for the next 21 days. He can be activated to the 53-man roster at any point in that timeframe.”

So, he’s not officially back and part of the active roster quite yet. However, Chinn can be made active and thrust right back into the lineup whenever Carolina wishes over the next three weeks.

More on Chinn injury

Carolina had placed safety Jeremy Chinn on injured reserve back on Oct. 18, meaning he was unavailable to the Panther defense over the last month. The third-year player left that Dolphins game

Chinn was Carolina’s second-round pick from the 2020 NFL draft out of Southern Illinois. He has been impressive over his first two seasons. He’s also been reliable, starting 35 games since his joined the Panthers. Chinn missed one game his rookie season with a knee injury, and the 2021 finale with an ankle injury.

Though he is now listed as a free safety, that is not where Chinn started his career. Because of his 6-foot-3, 220-pound frame, the Panthers also used him inside of the box at linebacker. However, he quickly found himself in a hybrid linebacker safety-style position.

Chinn still has another year left on his rookie deal, which was worth $5.2 million over four years.

This offseason, the former Southern Illinois star earned the title of the Panthers’ most underappreciated player.

“Chinn’s positional versatility creates the type of middle-of-the-field problems that QBs,” wrote Cynthia Frelund. “– especially younger ones who didn’t face a variety of defenses in college — have a hard time solving. Among DBs, Chinn ranked ninth in tackles (106, leading the Panthers), fourth in stops (47) and tied for seventh in QB pressures (8) in 2021.”