Chris Smith, a former Panthers defensive end, died at the age of 31.
Chris Smith, a former Carolina Panthers defensive end and North Carolina native, died at the age of 31 on Monday night, according to a staff report from the Salisbury Post. The circumstances surrounding Smith’s death have not been made public.
Smith was born on February 11, 1992, in Salisbury. He went to West Rowan High School in Mount Ulla, North Carolina, where he was a standout during the program’s state championship runs in 2008 and 2009.
The Shrine Bowl Defensive MVP in 2009 went on to play collegiate football at the University of Arkansas. He had 122 total tackles and 21.5 sacks in four seasons in Fayetteville.
Smith was picked in the fifth round by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2014. In his debut season, he has 3.0 sacks in seven games.
Smith signed a one-year contract with the Panthers on March 5, 2020, after stints with the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns in 2017 and 2019. Later that offseason, on July 30, he was discharged.
He was most recently a member of the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons, having joined the squad on March 9 of this year.
