Panthers release Eli Apple; former top-10 pick had left practice due to hamstring injury

Eli Apple is as soon as once more on the lookout for an NFL workforce. The No. 10 total choose within the 2016 NFL Draft was launched by the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday, a day the place the cornerback left apply early resulting from a hamstring damage. Apple was noticed in the beginning of Tuesday’s session earlier than leaving the sphere. The workforce stated in its official damage report that the 25-year-old was a non-participant as a result of damage and head coach Matt Rhule advised reporters that Apple knowledgeable the workforce that he could not go. 

“He simply did not really feel like he might go, so we despatched him inside for remedy,” Rhule stated, by way of the official team website. “Typically it is simply higher simply to have guys inside, getting remedy and attempting to get them as shut as doable.”

Whereas the timing of Apple’s launch is a bit odd when factoring in that state of affairs in apply the place he advised coaches he could not go, the Panthers aren’t precisely shedding a key piece to their secondary with this transfer. The nook began the 12 months on injured reserve resulting from a myriad of accidents he suffered all through coaching camp and was activated earlier than Week 4. Apple had appeared in simply two video games this season for Carolina, together with Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Saints. In that sport, Apple performed simply 28 defensive snaps and recorded 4 tackles. 

From right here, Apple, who signed a one-year, $3 million take care of the Panthers again in Could, will likely be on the lookout for his fourth workforce in six years within the league after additionally falling out of favor with the Giants — the workforce that drafted him — and Saints.