CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This time a year ago, the Carolina Panthers were planning for a draft that in the seventh round would land them Georgia Tech place-kicker Harrison Butker, a potential replacement for veteran Graham Gano.

Today, according to a league source, they plan to use the franchise tag on Gano if a long-term deal can’t be reached as the period to tag a player comes to an end.

The tag, when signed, would assure the 2017 Pro Bowl player is on the roster this season at around $4.96 million. It also would give the Panthers time to work out a long-term deal just as they did with defensive tackle Kawann Short after he was tagged last year.

You might wonder why the Panthers would opt to use the tag on a kicker instead of starting left guard Andrew Norwell or starting defensive tackle Star Lotulelei.

It’s simple.

Norwell or Lotulelei would count about $14 million against the tag, eating up nearly half of the approximately $30 million the Panthers have in cap space. That would limit general manager Marty Hurney from fully strengthening the rest of the roster with needs at wide receiver, defensive end and safety.

Also, the likelihood of getting a long-term deal with those two would be tougher, particularly with Norwell because he’s arguably the best offensive lineman in free agency.

Gano, who counted $4 million against the 2017 cap, likely could be had for a more cap-friendly deal.

Regardless, he’ll eat up a far smaller chunk against the cap and give Hurney more flexibility to sign other free-agent needs, perhaps even Lotulelei at a cap-friendly hit.

But what has made Gano more valuable now than he was a year ago?

First, the general manager has changed. Dave Gettleman was fired before training camp and Hurney was hired. Gettleman drafted Butker to create competition for Gano and potentially to have a quality kicker for the next four years at a bargain price.

Butker had an outstanding rookie season for Kansas City, making 38 of 42 field goals (90 percent) -- including 4-of-5 from 50-plus yards -- and all 28 of his extra point attempts.

Gano, 30, was kept because Hurney didn’t want to go into a season the Panthers hoped to make another Super Bowl run with a rookie kicker. He didn’t disappoint, making a career-best 96.7 percent of his field goals (29-of-30) and 34 of 37 extra point attempts.

Now the Panthers are in a position of having to reward the former Florida State kicker in order to keep him.

Had the Panthers kept Butker -- and they tried by initially keeping two kickers on the 53-man roster and then placing Butker on the practice squad -- they would have had more bargaining power and a kicker scheduled to make $550,000 this season.

But the Chiefs signed Butker off the practice squad last season after Cairo Santos suffered a season-ending groin injury. Now they have the bargain and the Panthers are trying to bargain Gano down in price.

The market for a top kicker also went up this year. The Titans signed former South Carolina star Ryan Succop to a five-year, $20 million deal that averages out at $4 million.

Succop statistically was far less impressive than Gano last season, making 83.3 percent of his field goal attempts.

So at worst, Gano should get somewhere between $4 million and the tag number.

At worst for the Panthers, if they for some reason can’t work out a long-term deal, they get a dependable kicker in Gano for a year and have room under the cap to improve the rest of the team.