"While a couple of the Panthers' principal free agents met with general manager Marty Hurney on Tuesday, a player who hoped to be a free agent showed up at Bank of America Stadium on the first day players could report to team facilities after the lockout.

Linebacker Thomas Davis has known since January he would not hit the open market, thanks to a little-known rule in the last collective bargaining agreement. Because Davis spent the final year of his contract on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list, the contract rolled over to this season.

Davis, a first-round pick in 2005, normally would have been a free agent after the 2009 season. But players needed six years to qualify as unrestricted free agents in the last year of the expiring CBA."