CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Landon Johnson came to Carolina armed with a big contract and a gaudy resume.
Twenty months and 24 games later, Johnson likely will finally get the opportunity to start full-time -- by default -- after the season-ending knee injury to weakside linebacker Thomas Davis.
For Johnson, who led Cincinnati in tackles in three of his first four pro seasons, it's a chance to jump-start a once-promising career.
"When I got here, for whatever reason, I just didn't play up to my expectations," Johnson said Wednesday. "It was tough. It was really the first time that I hadn't started ever since I played football.
"My heart goes out to Thomas getting hurt. But I have an opportunity to go out and play well."
Signing the 6-foot-2, 232-pound Johnson to a three-year, $10 million free-agent deal in March 2008 was one of the biggest moves for the Panthers before last season. The Panthers were impressed with his versatility -- he started at all three linebacker spots in the Bengals' 4-3 defense -- and he was coming off a career-high 143 tackles in 2007.
Johnson was expected to replace aging Na'il Diggs at one of the outside linebacker spots, teaming with Davis and Jon Beason to give Carolina a young unit that would stay together for years.
Instead, Diggs easily kept his job and Johnson sunk to near oblivion. He played almost exclusively on special teams and was even a healthy scratch for a late-season game against Atlanta.
Johnson finished with seven tackles in 15 games.
"There are no excuses for it," Johnson said. "I didn't go out there and perform as well as I would have liked to."
Johnson, who received a $3 million signing bonus, had to take a pay cut last offseason to keep his job and help get the Panthers under the salary cap. He didn't challenge for a starting spot in training camp and didn't record a tackle on defense in the first five games.
But when Davis was sidelined with a strained hamstring, Johnson started on Oct. 25 against Buffalo and had 10 tackles. Davis returned the next week, but he was lost for the season Sunday against New Orleans when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
The coaches have credited Davis with 71 tackles, second on the team to Beason's 80. Davis also had two interceptions and two sacks.
"He was, obviously, playing very, very well," coach John Fox said. "He was one of our better football players on defense without a doubt. He'll be missed. But we'll have to have somebody step in and carry his shoes, and everybody else will have to pick it up around him."
The 28-year-old Johnson can't match Davis' speed, but he showed in Cincinnati that he has a knack for being around the ball. He had 20 tackles and a sack in a game against Pittsburgh as a rookie. Although injuries forced him to bounce between positions with the Bengals, the weakside linebacker spot he's moving into is his favorite.
"It's what I've played the most coming up from high school," Johnson said. "But when it comes down to it, linebacker is linebacker. The reads are a little different from which position you are. But it's still running and hitting and trying to get to the ball."
NOTES: Heavy rain forced the Panthers indoors Wednesday. Without their own covered practice facility, they had to use a smaller artificial turf field at a local sports center. "It's not a full field, but we can get enough movement," Fox said. ... Fox insisted WR Steve Smith's sideline outburst Sunday was directed at Saints S Darren Sharper for his late hit, not at the play call that produced it. "I was standing right there, and that was how I saw it," Fox said. "I was probably closer than anybody standing here."
