Peon Awesome

To add to the experts' analysis, Jordan Reid of ESPN was a big fan of the Panthers draft. Here's highlights of the article: Which team produced your favorite class? Reid: Carolina Panthers. Receiver, edge rusher and safety were their top needs entering the draft, and they addressed all of them in the first four rounds. Tetairoa McMillan was my highest-ranked receiver -- he gives Bryce Young a true WR1. Princely Umanmielen and Nic Scourton provide Carolina with two young edge rushers. Lathan Ransom is a hard-hitting safety who can produce on the back end and special teams. Jimmy Horn Jr. was one of my favorite late-round receivers and could stick on the roster as a return specialist. Make your early call for Offensive Rookie of the Yea Reid: Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Carolina Panthers. I'm a big believer in McMillan's fit with Bryce Young. McMillan's catch radius will instantly make him the go-to receiver for the Panthers. He also has the formational versatility to play multiple spots and can fill the role Mike Evans had in Dave Canales' offense in 2023, when Canales was the Buccaneers' offensive coordinator.

I was very curious to see if we overpaid on either trade so I plugged all the numbers in the most commonly referenced draft value chart (https://www.drafttek.com/NFL-Trade-Value-Chart.asp). The numbers are below, but to summarize, both trades were very fair value. We overpaid the equivalent of pick 202 in our trade with Denver and actually got a slight value back with the Patriots equal to pick 210 but both of those are later 6th round picks. If you add them together, we overpaid by 3.2 points, or pick 219 which is the 3rd pick in the 7th round. Good to know we didn't do anything reckless. My work is below if you want to see the math. Trade 1 Outgoing value: 57 - 330 pts 74 - 220 pts 111 - 72 pts 230 - 1 pt Total: 623 pts Incoming value: 51 - 390 pts 85 - 165 pts 122 - 50 pts 208 - 7.8 pts Total: 612.8 pts Difference: Loss of 10.2 pts (equal to pick 202 in 6th round) Trade 2 Outgoing value: 85 - 165 pts 146 - 33 pts Total: 198 pts Incoming value: 77 - 205 pts Difference: Gain of 7 points (equivalent of pick 210 in 6th round) Total difference: 7 - 10.2 = loss of 3.2 points (equivalent of pick 219 in 7th round)

114 + 146 is about equal to pick 99 on the draft value chart. If he's still there at that point, seems silly not to try to make that happen.

I would've thought so too, but we gave up 10 extra points of value in our trade and Detroit gave up 11 points of value. So they ended up being pretty even. Dropping from 74 to 85 is a bigger drop in value based on the draft value chart than dropping from 130 to 230 (55 point difference vs 42 points).

I plugged all the picks through the draft value chart. We gave up about 10 more points of value than we got back, which is the equivalent of a late 6th round pick. So can't complain too much. I wonder if Scourton would have been there at 57 but Tennessee drafted a pass rusher at 52 so definitely possible they could have taken Scourton instead if we hadn't taken him.

That's exactly what I was thinking of. We should have realized right then that Fitterer wasn't cut out to be a GM.

Yeah this is how I feel. If I'm the Panthers, I check in with each team starting around 38, see if they'll take one of our 4ths and 57 for their pick, and if not, thank them and hang up the phone. Hopefully we don't obsess over 1 player and massively overpay in desperation.

I think one potential trade back would be the Steelers jumping to our pick to take Sanders ahead of the Saints who seem to be a logical landing spot. Now I imagine dropping the far, the minimum starting point would be their 2nd and next year's first and when you factor that teams are willing to pay an extra premium for a QB, I'm sure it's a decent bit more. Not sure exactly how big the haul would be but anything less than that should be an immediate hang up of the phone. Dropping to 21, netting multiple premium picks and grabbing someone like Emmanwori would feel like a win.

The problem with your specific scenario is that if Sanders is still available and the Giants are really putting the pick up for trade, you're going to open up a bidding war for Sanders and that's going to raise the price way too much. A much better question is if the same scenario unfolds but the Giants take Sanders, do you try to trade up with the Patriots at 4? The Patriots biggest need is offensive line and 4 is a bit rich for this OL class, while 8 would be the sweet spot and would still put them in front of most all OL needy teams. What would it cost to move from 8 to 4? If the price is right, then I think you consider it then. But probably not for anything more than 8, 57 and maybe a day 3 pick.

I know several people are balking at the price of two 2nds to move up to 3 but the reality is that's probably market value. A recent very similar comp was Houston's trade up to 3 to draft Will Anderson. Same idea: move up to draft the top edge rusher after QBs go 1 and 2. What did Houston give up? Pick 12 Pick 33 Next year's FIRST round pick Next year's 3rd round pick They did get back a 4th round pick, and granted they moved up from 12 instead of 8, but that's way more than two 2nds. Especially consider our 2nd is one of the last picks of the 2nd round and theirs was at the top. Now granted, you could easily argue we shouldn't give up that many picks with all of our holes. But you can't argue it's an unprecedented ripoff.

New ESPN article where Barnwell comes up with plausible trades for every draft pick. Panthers mentioned twice; I'm including the text below. I can see the logic in both theoretical options. First one essentially trades 2 2nds (we get back a 5th too) for the right to draft Abdul Carter and when you consider our track record with recent 2nds (Brooks, Mingo, Marshall), getting the consensus best pass rusher for that doesn't seem excessive. And the 2nd option drops us back to the middle of the draft to pick up 2 extra picks and considering the drop off in talent might be minimal between 8 and 18, the extra picks is a nice opportunity to fill out the roster. What do you all think? Giants get: 1-8, 2-57, 2026 second-round pick Panthers get: 1-3, 2026 fifth-round pick If Ward and Sanders come off the board with the top two picks, the Giants would find themselves in a difficult predicament. The clear top player available would be Abdul Carter, but they have Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux in starting roles. They could take Travis Hunter, but after drafting wideout Malik Nabers last year and signing Paulson Adebo this offseason, they aren't crying out for help at either of Hunter's positions. He'd still be a valuable addition, but New York should be focused on a quarterback of the future and offensive line help. The Panthers, on the other hand, have one of the league's least imposing depth charts on the edge. New signing Pat Jones II had seven sacks last season, but he had just five in three previous seasons. Jadeveon Clowney is 32 years old and in the final year of his contract. Carter would be a building block for Carolina next to Derrick Brown, who missed most of the 2024 campaign with a meniscus injury. Giants general manager Joe Schoen is trying to add players who can help immediately in light of dismal back-to-back years, but adding a second-round pick in this draft (via the Rams) and a second-rounder in 2026 from a team that has struggled the past few years is a worthwhile risk. That Panthers second-rounder could be valuable if the Giants want to flip it later in this draft for a player who can help them this season. Panthers get: 1-18, 2-50, 5-172 Seahawks get: 1-8 While quarterback Bryce Young improved over the second half of 2024, the Panthers are still feeling the impact of trading significant draft capital for Young and others over the past few years. In 2022, they didn't have a second-round pick because of their trade for quarterback Sam Darnold and then moved up in the third and fourth round for signal-caller Matt Corral and linebacker Brandon Smith, respectively. In 2023, the Young trade left them with just five selections, with their second-rounder going toward since-traded wideout Jonathan Mingo. In 2024, without the No. 1 overall pick, Carolina moved into the first round to draft receiver Xavier Legette, then used its second-round pick on running back Jonathon Brooks, who will miss most or all of 2025 after tearing his ACL for the second time in two years. All of this is to say the Panthers could use extra picks. Their second-rounder is going to the Bears as the final vestige of the Young deal, although Carolina does get back a second-rounder from the Rams as part of Los Angeles' move for Braden Fiske last April. Picking up another Round 2 selection would give the Panthers front offense a chance to add multiple impact players along the line of scrimmage. On the other side of this deal, it's not like Seahawks general manager John Schneider to make a major move up the board, but with five top-100 picks, he has the capital to be aggressive. A move up here would get Seattle ahead of the Bears, 49ers and Dolphins for much-needed help at offensive tackle. Adding Armand Membou could give the Seahawks the option of starting the rookie at guard before eventually moving him outside or kicking Abraham Lucas inside. Will Campbell could also be in play.

ESPN free agency The article is a compilation of opinions from ESPN NFL experts recapping free agency. Naturally I tried to seek out relevant Panthers references. Which is the most improved team after free agency? Jeremy Fowler, national NFL reporter: The Carolina Panthers. Carolina's defense was the league's thinnest last season, so the front office aggressively pursued quality starters and depth. Most teams agreed that Tre'von Moehrig played better than any other free agent safety in 2024. The Panthers secured him for three years as a dynamic player in the secondary. They missed on Milton Williams but got two interior rushers -- Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown III -- for a combined $22 million per year, less than what Williams got on his own ($26 million). Couple that with some quality adds at other positions, and Carolina is much better positioned for success than it was a year ago. What was the best bargain signing of free agency? Moody: The Panthers signing running back Rico Dowdle. The Panthers needed another proven running back behind starter Chuba Hubbard, especially with 2024 second-round pick Jonathon Brooks still rehabbing from ACL surgery on the same right knee he injured in college. It was impressive for the Panthers to land Dowdle on a one-year, $3 million deal (up to $6.5 million); he shined for the Cowboys after Week 11 with 22 touches and 108.0 total yards per game. There was also notably a section on most head scratching free agent move. Panthers weren't mentioned at all. I worried maybe someone would bring up how much we paid Wharton but instead, they brought up deals for Grady Jarrett and Javon Kinlaw so I guess in a market where DTs were getting a king's ransom, the Wharton deal is comparatively less egregious.

The contract isn't quite atrocious. At the very least, there's a simple out after year 2. We're basically on the hook for 2 years, $30 million with the option to keep him on for a 3rd year at $15 million if he actually plays up to the contract. And in 2027, $15 million will probably be average starting DT salary.

I don't see that there's a player likely to be there that we would be racing up to the podium to draft at 8. I think there's probably 5 or 6 guys we'd feel pretty good about taking. And with that being the case, I think the ideal scenario would be trading back into the 13-16 range for perhaps an extra 3rd and taking whoever is available between: Warren, McMillian, Jalon Walker, or Will Johnson. Could also be ok with Membou or Will Campbell as an heir apparent to Moton if either of them are still on the board and the others are gone. If we trade back a little further, I'd add Emmanwori to the list as well. Then we could package the extra 3rd to move our 2nd towards the top of the 2nd and draft either Schwesinger (assuming we don't take Walker) or Malaki Starks (assuming we don't take Emmanwori). Then our defense would more or less feel set.

One more caveat to keep in mind. If I'm reading the report correctly, this is an extension on top of the 5th year option. So either you can look at it as a 5 year, $112.5 million contract (22.5 million average), or a 4 year contract starting in 2026 when the cap will be even higher and he'll inevitably be paid less than a couple other corners signing extensions by then. It still seems like a lot given his injury issues but I can at least understand it, particularly with the cap savings this year. If, and obviously a big if, he can stay reasonably healthy, it will end up a very solid deal.