Lewis solid in the middle of the DL

CHARLOTTE -- The Panthers might not know who's going to be on the end of their defensive line this season, but they know who's going to be in the middle for some time.

As part of their salary cap shuffling measures Wednesday, the Panthers extended the contract of defensive tackle Damione Lewis.

On paper, he's under contract through the 2014 season, though Lewis said that was a bit of a technicality. His pending $2.5 million roster bonus was turned into a signing bonus, and his base salaries were reduced from $3.17 million this year and $4.05 million in 2010 to $2.0 million and $755,000.

The move will clear at least $2 million worth of room on the proration of his bonus over five years, and could be worth more.

"In a lot of ways, it's still the same contract," Lewis said. "I still get what was coming to me, we were just able to spread things out to help with the numbers."

It also provides a measure of security for Lewis, who'll turn 31 on Sunday. He's rehabbing from a recent shoulder surgery, saying one of the muscles in his rotator cuff was torn. He said he expected to begin lifting weights in June, and hoped to be ready to go by the start of training camp. Lewis injured the shoulder in the Dec. 21 game at New York, when the Panthers were playing without nose tackle Maake Kemoeatu. He slid over that night, and blew the shoulder while taking on a double team the much larger Kemoeatu would normally have faced.

He sat out the regular season finale at New Orleans, but came back to play two weeks later in the playoff loss to Arizona.

"Right now everything's going good," Lewis said. "From what they're saying, I should be good to go when camp starts. All I know is, as bad as it sounds, it could have been a lot worse."

(heraldonline.com)