The Panthers have ruled DE Charles Johnson out for Sunday's game against the Chargers with a hamstring injury. MLB Luke Kuechly, CB Daryl Worley and S Kurt Coleman are all officially questionable, though each is expected to play barring a setback in their recoveries from concussions. DE Mario Addison (foot) is also questionable. He put in a full practice Friday after sitting out Wednesday and Thursday. We'll check on his status Sunday and keep tabs on the concussion crew through the weekend.

Panthers DE Charles Johnson (quad) is active for today's game against the Falcons. He remains a marginal IDP option at best, though.

Panthers DE Charles Johnson is questionable for Sunday with a quad injury. He sat out Friday's practice after being limited Thursday. At this point, Johnson's not a big enough IDP producer when healthy to be worth starting through an iffy injury situation.

DE Charles Johnson agreed to a 1-year, $3 million deal with the Panthers on Tuesday, according to ESPN. That's certainly less than Johnson could have gotten elsewhere, but he told ESPN's Josina Anderson that he "wouldn't have been happy if I went somewhere else." Barring a big free-agent signing or high draft pick at the position, Johnson should remain Carolina's starting left DE in 2016.

The Panthers on Thursday released veteran DE Charles Johnson to clear $11 million in cap space. According to ESPN.com, a league source said the team might seek to re-sign him in free agency. Johnson has long been a pass-rushing force for Carolina, but he tallied just 1 sack while losing 7 games to injury last season. He'll turn 30 in July and has seen the dings pile up in recent years. Perhaps more importantly, Johnson was set to count $15 million against the 2016 cap. We'll see where he lands before projecting his IDP outlook. Johnson has performed much better in sack-heavy scoring vs. those formats that favor tackles. The Panthers are optimistic for DE Kony Ealy going forward but must address the position further this offseason.

The Panthers expect to activate DE Charles Johnson from short-term IR Tuesday and have him available for Thursday's game at Dallas. The team's top pass rusher has been out since suffering a hamstring injury in Week 3. "I’m coming in humble," Johnson said, according to the team website. "We have a lot of talent on our D-line and I’m just trying to be another piece of that. I’m not coming in with the attitude to try and go crazy. I’m going to work my way back into it, work my way back to where I want to be. Whatever my role is I am going to max it out." We can't expect a full workload right away, which obviously limits the upside for Johnson as a Week 12 IDP option. We'll keep an eye on his snap counts, though, and see if he can return to full-time use down the stretch. Carolina's position strongly atop the NFC in the playoff race might make it easier for the team to ease him back and have him fresh for the postseason -- which would be bad news for his IDP value. His return in any capacity can only help the Panthers' team D, though.