Panthers DE Charles Johnson placed on injured reserve, eligible to return in November

On the same day the Panthers officially added defensive end Jared Allen, Carolina placed defensive end Charles Johnson on the injured reserve with a designation to return in eight weeks.tmpplchld Johnson suffered a hamstring strain in last week’s 27-22 win against New Orleans, and an MRI Monday revealed it was bad enough to shelf Johnson for multiple weeks.tmpplchld The Panthers used their lone IR-return designation on Johnson, who will be eligible to return to practice as early as Nov. 10 and to a game on Thanksgiving Day against the Dallas Cowboys.tmpplchld The injury was to Johnson’s right hamstring, which was already injured earlier in the week and kept Johnson out of two practices.tmpplchld Johnson broke the news of his injury on his personal Instagram account, posting a picture of an artist’s rendering of one of his Charlotte business ventures.tmpplchld “Since I’ll be out for a (minute) on 8 week IR I get to focus on a couple new things,” Johnson wrote.tmpplchld The Panthers used the IR-designated to return last year on fullback Mike Tolbert, who suffered a hairline fracture in his knee in Week 3 and returned in Week 13.tmpplchld Second-year defensive end Kony Ealy will likely take over at Johnson’s left defensive end position while Allen will take most of the reps at right defensive end.tmpplchld ___tmpplchld (c)2015 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)tmpplchld Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.comtmpplchld Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.tmpplchld