The Carolina Panthers placed linebacker Chandler Wooten on injured reserve and filled his spot on their active roster with tight end Jordan Matthews, the NFL team announced on Tuesday.

Wooten was a standout at Auburn, and Matthews was a prep star at Madison Academy.

Wooten made a special-teams tackle and recovered a muffed punt before leaving Carolina’s 27-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday with an ankle injury.

Wooten will be required to miss at least four games before he could be returned to the Panthers’ active roster.

Wooten had played 47 defensive snaps in two games this season while serving as one of Carolina’s core special-teams players with 177 plays in eight games.

Last season, Wooten was on the field for 145 special-teams plays in nine games after joining the Panthers on Oct. 17, when Carolina signed him off the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad. Wooten had joined Arizona as an undrafted rookie last year.

Matthews will be eligible to play for Carolina on Thursday night against the Chicago Bears. He most recently appeared in an NFL regular-season game on Oct. 31, 2021.

Matthews joined the Panthers’ practice squad on Oct. 25, reuniting with Carolina coach Frank Reich, who was Philadelphia’s offensive coordinator when Matthews caught 73 passes for 804 yards and three touchdowns in 2016.

“When we were together, he would always drop gems,” Matthews said. “He would always figure out ways to get the offense to understand the spirit behind football. These aren’t just plays that we’re putting up there that we’re running. We’re trying to understand the why and what it truly means to be able to play this game. At the head-coach level, he gets to expand that much more. …

“It’s been awesome to be around him in this capacity. To have this opportunity to be under him, I want to do everything possible to help this team win because I know Frank is the man for the job. He’s just an amazing leader and can’t ask to play for a better man.”

At that time, Matthews was a wide receiver. Now he’s a tight end.

Matthews was a football and basketball standout for Madison Academy. He helped the Mustangs win the AHSAA Class 3A boys’ basketball championship in 2008 and reach the title game the next two seasons. In football, Matthews earned All-State recognition in 2009, when he caught 61 passes for 1,061 yards and 13 touchdowns to boost his prep total to 38 TD receptions.

At Vanderbilt, Matthews broke SEC career records with 262 receptions for 3,759 yards.

Matthews had caught 225 passes for 2,673 yards and 19 touchdowns for Philadelphia in his first three NFL seasons before the Eagles traded him to the Buffalo Bills during training camp in 2017.

Matthews has been bedeviled by injuries since the trade, and he made the transition to tight end in 2021. Since 2017, Matthews has 49 receptions for 615 yards and three touchdowns in 30 games with the Bills, Eagles and San Francisco 49ers.

Matthews spent last season on injured reserve with San Francisco after suffering a knee injury at training camp.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.