The Panthers Desperately Need to Nail This Draft

Obviously every team needs to nail their draft selections, that’s a given on a yearly basis. For the Carolina Panthers though it feels even more important this season. That’s in large part due to last year’s draft, a draft that has altered the futures of both the Chicago Bears and the Carolina Panthers.

At the end of last season the Chicago Bears had the number one overall pick in a draft class that had a number of interesting quarterbacks, but no consensus number one pick among them. The Carolina Panthers gave up a ton to acquire the Chicago Bears’ pick in what seems to have been a desperate move by an embattled front office that was dealing with an impatient owner.

The Panthers gave up their ninth overall pick in last years draft, their second round pick last year, a 2024 first round pick, and a second round pick in 2025, AND traded DJ Moore to the Bears. When you give up that many high draft picks and a bonafide number one receiver you had best be sure you make the correct selection. The Panthers’ selection? Bryce Young.

Young showed a ton of promise at Alabama, but to say his rookie season was disappointing would be an understatement. It’s not all his fault, Carolina completely failed to surround him with weapons and their new coach was fired halfway through his first season, but still Young didn’t look like a number one pick. It hurts even worse when you look at the incredible season the number two pick, CJ Stroud had for Houston. As bad as the trade and draft day decision looks right now, it could look even worse soon.

The Bears own Carolina’s draft pick and will likely draft Caleb Williams who is one of the most hyped prospects in recent memory. He’ll be surrounded by a plethora of weapons including DJ Moore, and Keenan Allen. The Bears will also have their own draft pick at ninth overall and can use that to further build around Williams. Carolina’s aggressive decision last season to swing for the fences is something that has set up the Bears to have an incredibly bright future. It’s also a decision that could hurt the Panthers for years to come.

The Panthers have made a ton of questionable decisions in recent years, their top draft picks have yielded a ton of misses. They have traded players for much smaller returns than they could have gotten, such as failing to receive a first rounder for Christian McCaffrey the league’s best running back, and originally refusing two first round picks for Brian Burns only to trade him for far less this offseason. These decisions have dug a massive hole for Carolina to crawl out of.

A year ago today, the #49ers acquired star RB Christian McCaffrey from the #Panthers for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th round pick.

This trade would end up going down as one of the best mid-season moves in #NFL history, as CMC is putting up mind-boggling numbers in San Francisco..

-… pic.twitter.com/nBkOdO6pmA
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) October 20, 2023

The Panthers find themselves with one of the least impressive NFL rosters I’ve ever seen, they have an owner who has quickly gained a reputation for being one of the worst owners in all of sports resulting in a fanbase that is feeling more and more disappointed with each losing season. They desperately need to prove Bryce Young was the right decision and that the cost was worth it, and in order to do this they need to nail this year’s draft. A draft in which they don’t pick in the first round and have two picks between number thirty-three and thirty-nine.

This is one of if not the most important draft in Carolina’s history. If they fail to find value with their picks and fail building around Bryce Young then the franchise will be set back for years to come. They’ll find themselves still at the bottom of the league years from now, all while they watch Caleb Williams in Chicago and CJ Stroud in Houston. If both are successful it will hurt that much more, all because they are responsible for landing in their respective situations. If the Panthers want to avoid years of irrelevance and disappointment then they need to make every pick count this year. Their future depends on it.

Check out my Instagram Below