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David NewtonMar 26, 2026, 04:39 PM ET<\/p>\n
Close<\/a>David Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Carolina Panthers. Newton began covering Carolina in 1995 and came to ESPN in 2006 as a NASCAR reporter before joining NFL Nation in 2013.<\/p>\n Multiple Authors<\/p>\n CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New Carolina Panthers<\/a> left tackle Rasheed Walker<\/a> said Thursday that a January gun charge against him is getting dismissed.<\/p>\n Walker was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm<\/a> Jan. 23 by New York City’s Port Authority Police, according to the arrest report, which noted that Walker didn’t have proper credentials for a firearms check at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal C.<\/p>\n What to know for the NFL offseason \u2022 Free agent class ranks<\/a> | Signing grades<\/a> Walker, who was introduced to the media here Thursday, referred all other questions to his attorney, who was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Walker signed a one-year deal worth up to $10 million with the Panthers, whose left tackle situation is in flux. Starter Ikem Ekwonu<\/a> suffered a ruptured patellar tendon in a January playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, an injury that typically takes 6-12 months from which to recover.<\/p>\n General manager Dan Morgan said the backup plan initially was Yosh Nijman, but Nijman unexpectedly retired earlier this month.<\/p>\n The Panthers then turned to Walker, who started 16 games last season for the Packers. Morgan said Carolina “always had Walker as a backup plan.”<\/p>\n Asked if the uncertainty around Ekwonu played a role in him signing with Carolina, Walker referred to the sixth pick of the 2022 NFL draft as “my good friend,” adding, “Someone has to do the job. I think I’m a very good football player and I’m going to help this team get better.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David NewtonMar 26, 2026, 04:39 PM ET CloseDavid Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-548118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/nfl_offseason-guide_5x2.jpg\")
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