Charles Tillman to meet with Panthers, per report

Former Bears cornerback Charles Tillman attended Wednesday night’s Charlotte Hornets game and, according to NFL Network, is scheduled to meet with the Panthers on Thursday. There, he could play for his former Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who has been the Panthers’ head coach since 2011.

The market for Tillman and linebacker Lance Briggs — who each joined the Bears in 2003 — has been tepid, at least publicly, this offseason. Briggs met with the 49ers earlier this month and left without a deal.

Bears chairman George McCaskey said last month that the Bears would show respect to both players if, as expected, they leave the franchise.

“Anytime a player leaves the team you want to make sure that it’s handled in a respectable manner — and that’s even for an undrafted rookie who’s there for three weeks of training camp,” he said. “These are human beings, these are people. They’re working their butts off trying to make the team. So you want to handle it in a dignified and respectable manner.

“So if somebody’s had a distinguished, yeah, that’s certainly with Charles and Lance. You want to be properly respectable of their accomplishments and let them know if it works out great and if it doesn’t work out that as far as we’re concerned they’ll always be Bears.”