As the draft approaches and our first round targets become clearer, I think it’s helpful for us as fans to start thinking about Carolina’s overall draft strategy. Luckily, we have some great resources available to us at this stage, like the Panthers Prospect Visits Tracker and, as of this week, Dane Brugler’s The Beast. I decided to combine those tools into this visualization to make clearer what draft weekend might look like for this franchise.
This graph shows the number of prospect meetings per projected round of the draft, sorted by position group. Prospect meetings are based on the Visits Tracker, with a couple of additions made (Mykel Williams – we were present at his pro day – and kicker Ryan Fitzgerald, who our coordinators met with at the combine). Projected Round is based on Dane Brugler’s grades from The Beast – I’ve included snapshots of his grading of all prospects we met with, per round, at the end of this post. Decimals in the Projected Round number means Dane graded them in-between rounds (1.5 = 1st/2nd Round grade, etc.). Lastly, I did not include players with 7th Round / UDFA gradings. Like every team, the Panthers have met with a lot of prospects in this range (26 by my count) with hopes of filling out their training camp / practice squad roster. Including these would have skewed the data, making this graph difficult to read.
There’s a lot of information here, but based on this data, here are some observations:
- This front office is very clear on their team needs – the leading position groups are EDGE with 15 prospects, and DT with 8. Interestingly though…
- RB comes in 3rd place with 7 prospects interviewed. These prospects are concentrated around the back half of the third round; we may be targeting a RB with one of our early 4th round picks.
- This team appears very open to trading back in the 1st round, made evident by the large volume of players with 1st/2nd Round grades. Given the right offer, look for the Panthers to opt out of the 8th pick.
- While there have only been 5 WRs interviewed in this range thus far, all but one of these prospects have grades in the first two rounds. If we do draft a pass catcher, look for them to do so early. To that point…
- There is a notable volume of 3rd/4th round graded EDGE/DT prospects. That tells me either A) they’re looking to double-up at one of these positions, or B) this team would not be nervous about drafting offense early, against our current expectations.
- No CBs we have interviewed have 1st round grades. It doesn’t guarantee anything, but unless they view Will Johnson or Jahdae Barron as a slam-dunk, I wouldn’t expect either to be drafted by us in the 1st.
- OL has been talked about as a draft target for us, and while they seem open to drafting one early if the right prospect is there, most of their interviewees at these positions have 7th/UDFA grades. If any additions are made along the o-line, they may be more depth-focused rather than looking for future starters.
- There’s a notable gap in between the top 2 safeties we’ve interviewed (Emmanwori and Starks) and the only other two we’ve met with in draftable range (Billy Bowman and Jonas Sanker). Considering team needs, if we don’t draft either of the former two prospects, expect one of the latter two to be a Panther this fall.
- This team is clearly looking to add another ILB, and has options throughout the draft based on their visits. However, based on the way this board falls, if Jalon Walker isn't the pick on Day 1, I don't see us drafting an LB until Day 3.
- Regarding specialists: while they did meet with projected UDFA kickers Ben Sauls and Tyler Loop, two other kickers they met with have draftable grades. Carolina may be willing to use draft capital to secure their placekicker of the future.
My main takeaway from this whole exercise: this is a team that is focused, flexible, and clearly has a plan going into this draft. While this franchise certainly has a priority on the defense, it clearly wants to improve the offense as well. Lastly, we as fans should feel fairly confident that this franchise is in good hands going into draft weekend. Here’s the rest of the data, for anyone interested:
5 comments
Wow awesome post thanks
RB to me is interesting. I would love for us to take Scatterbo but you have to think that with Dowdle now signed (albeit for a year) and Chuba being his dominant self + Blackshear (mainly depth & special teamer) RB wouldn’t be that high of a priority for us but the data tells a different story. What’s also working against Cam is that I wouldn’t want us to reach for him in the third when the defense needs a lot of help. 4th I’d be perfectly fine with.
Yes this is a super deep RB draft and Brooks is most likely out the entire 2025 season- and who knows if he will return to his college form which is super depressing because I loved the talent he displayed at Texas. All that to say they may just be doing their due diligence based on how stacked of a class this is. Just weird for them to potentially carry 4-5 RBs on the roster when we know that WR is a bigger priority.
I still think the best option is trade back from 8 into late first round and acquire an extra pick or two then grab either Golden or Mykel Williams. If we stick at 8 then Jakob Walker or Will Johnson please. I don’t see Graham lasting past Jacksonville.
This is an excellent post with good information.
I would like to note that many teams don’t bring in players they deem having a clean assessment. For example Starks and Warren haven’t gotten many visits from teams. This doesn’t mean a lack on interest. It means teams think they know who they are and don’t need to see more.
Sometimes teams will bring in a player just to cross them off their draft board, if that makes sense.
Sooo, edge, defensive tackle, corner back, wide receiver are.the pics in that order.
This is great work. Thank you!