CHARLOTTE
There were several surprises as the Carolina Panthers cut down to their 53-man regular-season roster last night.
Safety Terrence Holt, defensive end Stanley McClover, running back LaBrandon Toefield and guards Milford Brown and Toniu Fonoti were among 22 players who were either waived or terminated as vested veterans.
General Manager Marty Hurney said that more moves could come in the next few days as the Panthers scour the waiver wire for players who were waived around the league yesterday.
"We're going to look at every position," Hurney said last night. "I think wide receiver is the biggest question as far as injuries are concerned, and we'll just have to see how that goes over the next few days. That's what we'll do, look at the waiver wire when it comes out and see if there's anybody that can help us."
McClover was waived along with quarterback Brett Basanez, running back Decori Birmingham, wide receivers Will Buchanon and Chris Hannon, safety Joe Fields, fullback Troy Fleming, defensive tackles Nick Hayden and Steve Williams, guards Evan Mathis and Reuben Riley, tackle Geoff Schwartz, cornerback Darren Toney, linebacker Tim Shaw and tight end Chad Upshaw.
Holt, Toefield, Brown and Fonoti were terminated as vested veterans along with cornerback Ricardo Colclough and wide receivers Samie Parker and Travis Taylor.
Colclough's release seemed imminent after he was arrested early yesterday morning on a DWI charge. He had been battling Dante Wesley and C.J. Wilson for backup spots in the secondary.
"Obviously we were sorting through the roster cuts this morning and the timing wasn't very good, that's for sure," Hurney said. "But we had difficult decisions and it came down to we had a couple of guys we know who we had here last year and we made the decision to keep them."
Holt, a six-year veteran who played at N.C. State and started all 16 games for Arizona last season, was perhaps the biggest surprise. The Panthers chose to keep Nate Salley and Quentin Teal as their backup safeties.
"Terrence, that was extremely difficult," Hurney said. "He had great respect from the players. He provided veteran leadership and experience. He played well. It came down to whenever you look at those two reserve safety spots you look at safety plus special teams. We felt that Nate and Quentin both did a good job on special teams and they're good young players. But that was an extremely difficult decision because Terrence came in and played well for us and really brought a lot of intangibles into the locker room."
The decision to waive McClover was good news for Hilee Taylor, a rookie from North Carolina who got the final defensive end spot. The decision to terminate Brown and Fonoti was good news for rookie McKenzy Bernadeau, drafted in the seventh round out of Division II Bentley College. The decision to terminate Parker and Taylor meant that Dominique Thompson has stuck at wide receiver, at least for now.
The decision to drop both Birmingham and Toefield left the Panthers with four running backs -- Jonathan Stewart, DeAngelo Williams, Brad Hoover and Nick Goings. Normally, they would keep five running backs.
"You'd always like to add another, but in the scope of it you have to work with the numbers, and that's just sort of how it fell," Hurney said.
That roster spot may have gone to Rhys Lloyd, the kickoff specialist who made the team along with placekicker John Kasay and punter Jason Baker.
The team officially put receiver Steve Smith on the suspended list yesterday so that he wouldn't count against the 53-man roster.
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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