Panthers Lockup RB Jonathan Stewart

Adam Caplan reports that the Carolina Panthers have reached an agreement with RB Jonathan Stewart on a five-year contract extension.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter adds that the deal is a five-year contract worth $36.5 million and includes $22.5 million guaranteed.

There’s been a lot of talk in the past few months that Stewart could be available via trade, but the Panthers had shown no interest in the idea. Stewart gets a similar contract to that of DeAngelo Williams, who received a five-year deal worth $43 million and $21 million guaranteed.

Carolina obviously wanted to ensure that their backfield is in place for the coming year’s, but it will be interesting to see how this impacts their salary cap. The two backs combined for one of the leagues best running attacks in terms of total yards last season.

We had Stewart listed as the No. 15 player in our Top 50 Free Agents list.