Former Vikings cornerback released by the Panthers on Monday

Former Minnesota Vikings cornerback Captain Munnerlyn was released by the Carolina Panthers on Monday and he will now be a free-agent this offseason.

When Mike Zimmer became the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings in 2014, one of his first notable additions was cornerback Captain Munnerlyn. Prior to signing with the Vikings, Munnerlyn spent his first five seasons in the NFL as a member of the Carolina Panthers.

At his size (5-foot-9, 195 pounds), Munnerlyn took over the role as the Vikings’ nickel cornerback in Zimmer’s defense. He ended up remaining in Minnesota for three years before re-signing with the Panthers in 2017.

Munnerlyn’s most recent deal he and Carolina agreed to kept him under contract through the 2020 season. However, the Panthers have decided to end his second tenure with the team a little earlier than expected.

On Monday, Carolina announced that they have opted to release Munnerlyn from his current deal with the team. The soon-to-be 31-year-old corner was set to make around $5 million in 2019 and the Panthers obviously felt that he was not worth keeping around for that amount of money.

Munnerlyn appeared in a total of 30 games for Carolina over the last two years and he was able to be a solid contributor for their defense. But the Panthers appear to interested in finding someone new (and probably younger) to be their nickel corner in 2019.

As for Munnerlyn’s future in the NFL, he might get a little interest from some teams around the league this offseason. But he’s likely not going to be getting a significant amount of money to play for anyone in 2019.

Is a return to the Vikings a possibility? Technically anything is possible, however, it doesn’t seem like Minnesota would be interested in bringing Munnerlyn back for next season given the group of corners they already have on their roster.