Three thoughts on Carolina Panthers’ roster ahead of the 2024 NFL trade deadline
The Carolina Panthers made it clear on Tuesday that they are willing to sell on the NFL trade market.
Entering Week 9, the team moved wideout Diontae Johnson to the Baltimore Ravens in exchange for a late-round pick swap. The trade, which left to a lot to be desired on the Carolina front, showed this year’s swap exchange will be a buyer’s market.
With less than a week before the Nov. 5 trade deadline, the Panthers have shown that they are focused on the future. And at 1-7, who could really blame them?
Here are three thoughts on the Panthers’ roster entering the trade deadline:
Panthers rip band-aid off with second Diontae Johnson trade
The Panthers clearly weren’t going to re-sign Johnson. So, the next logical step for them was to get value for him before he shipped off in free agency.
According to a source with knowledge of the trade negotiations, the Panthers initially spoke with two teams about Johnson a little over a week before the agreement with Baltimore was made on Tuesday. Per the same source, the Ravens entered the mix later as the third interested party.
The issue for the Panthers was that the Pittsburgh Steelers essentially told the league that he was worth the equivalent of a high sixth-round pick in March when they traded him to Carolina. The Panthers sent a sixth-round pick and soon-to-be-cut cornerback Donte Jackson to Pittsburgh in exchange for Johnson and a seventh-round pick.
The market — which is regularly studied by general managers and execs around the league — didn’t change much in the next seven-plus months.
While Johnson had been the Panthers’ No. 1 wideout all offseason and into training camp and the regular season, his 30 catches for 357 yards and three touchdowns weren’t enough to entice a team to trade major assets for him. In Baltimore, he will be no better than the third wideout behind Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, most likely.
Last week, a different league source told The Observer that the Panthers’ initial asking price for Johnson was a third-round pick. Clearly, there wasn’t enough interest to warrant a player-for-pick swap, let alone a Day 2 pick for Johnson.
With all that said, the Panthers got seven games of Johnson’s production, a 2024 seventh-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick for the price of two sixth-round picks and Jackson, who was essentially a throw-in asset in the initial trade.
It feels like a wash at best. A swindling at worst. But probably just a shoulder shrug in reality.
Johnson, despite stating he wanted to stay in Carolina, clearly didn’t have a future with the Panthers, based on the front office’s actions. The Panthers got to prolong his value by jumping a round in the draft (probably 10-15 picks of a leap), but overall, this feels like a rough example of the cost of doing business when you’re a bad team.
It’s also an example of why fire sales don’t really work in a league that values youth.
If there’s a positive to all of this, undrafted rookie Jalen Coker won’t see his playing time drop off. If anything, he will to develop even further with more playing time.
Fire sales sound nice but are unrealistic
When a team bottoms out, the natural inclination from the national talking heads and the fan base is to pitch a fire sale. The typical logic is that the season is lost and the long-term future is all that matters.
That’s a nice thought and all, but there is also a reason why a team bottoms out year after year: a lack of talent. So, while the Panthers should pursue future assets for aging or expensive players, the idea that they will stack up on trades is unrealistic.
The team has a few desirable pieces — Jadeveon Clowney and Xavier Woods, for instance — but it’s unclear what they’d fetch on the market or if the Panthers are even willing to move on from them.
Woods is on an expiring contract, while Clowney’s two-year deal could prove to be problematic because of the way he pursues contract value. Clowney famously said during the summer that he was hoping to renegotiate his contract next offseason before even playing a regular-season snap, for instance.
Cornerback Jaycee Horn and running back Chuba Hubbard appear to be in the Panthers’ long-term plans based on comments made by head coach Dave Canales and GM Dan Morgan dating back to training camp. Those two players, out of the entire roster, would likely garner the most value of the group, but Carolina seems to be invested in both of their futures, even with Hubbard in the final year of his deal.
The Panthers do have solid enough wide receiver depth with Coker and Xavier Legette emerging, so there stands a chance that second-year wideout Jonathan Mingo could still be moved. But Mingo, last year’s second-round pick, has caught one pass for 1 yard over the past three weeks, despite playing 74 total snaps in those contests. So, it seems unlikely other teams would be calling to claim his services for a solid return.
Running back Miles Sanders feels like a player the Panthers should try to move if they can, but his contract and lack of inspiring play over the past two years could make a deal difficult to pull off. Perhaps a future late-round pick swap — for instance, Sanders and a 2026 seventh-round pick for a 2026 sixth-round pick — would suffice.
Either way, the cost for Sanders probably won’t be all that high if a playoff contender needs a running back, especially with Jonathon Brooks (knee/NFI) on the cusp of a return. Maybe the Panthers would be willing to pay part of Sanders’ salary for the right price in return.
Trading Bryce Young now would offer little return
Young got another opportunity on Sunday against the Denver Broncos, and the performance still left a lot to be desired. He’s 2-17 as a starter and has thrown 15 interceptions to just 13 touchdowns in 19 starts. At this point, he’d be viewed as nothing more than a reclamation project on the trade market — at best.
Right now, teams interested in Young are probably trying to take advantage of a tough situation for Carolina. A playoff contender isn’t going to offer a lot for a player that will clearly be used as a backup for the rest of the season and likely beyond. That’s why trading Young now makes little sense, as rosters are largely static, even at the deadline.
The best return would probably come in the offseason when salary inventory is reshaped and rosters are fluid. Instead of negotiating against a deadline, teams can study Young and their respective situations and assess the long-term value in trading for a struggling former No. 1 overall pick. The Panthers can also poke holes in the buyer’s roster and understand how Young would be utilized within the team’s plans and ask for a return price accordingly.
For now, Young should be viewed like a rotational starting pitcher who can eat innings. Andy Dalton is nursing a thumb injury and is 36 years old. If Dalton struggles or re-injures himself, Young knows the offense and can play when necessary to get through the season. Perhaps he can even increase his potential value on the trade market.
Making a rash decision to trade him now for a potential Day 3 pick doesn’t make a ton of business sense. His personality isn’t the type to disrupt the locker room or create drama behind the scenes. That’d be the only reason to move him now.
Panthers mailbag: Speed-round edition
Here are a couple of standout questions from social media:
Chris asks: Are we getting the No. 1 pick again? Has this ever happened? 3 years in a row with the No. 1 pick?
Mike Kaye: In the modern era, no one has picked first overall three consecutive times. And to be fair, the Panthers didn’t “earn” their first overall pick in 2023, so to say that they’d have the No. 1 overall pick three years in a row would be a tad misleading.
There have been quite a few teams that have selected the top pick in back-to-back drafts. As recently as 2021 and 2022, the Jacksonville Jaguars owned consecutive first overall picks, selecting QB Trevor Lawrence and OLB Travon Walker.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked first overall in 1976 and 1977, and then in 1986 and 1987 due to a supplemental draft technicality in 1986. The Cincinnati Bengals picked first overall in 1994 and 1995, and the expansion version of the Cleveland Browns did the same in 1999 and 2000. Cleveland also had back-to-back No. 1 overall picks in 2017 and 2018.
The Panthers, of course, traded up for the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, which led to them trading away their own first overall pick in 2024 to the Chicago Bears.
Regarding the outlook for the 2025 first overall pick, the Panthers are positioned for that pick entering Week 9 at 1-7. The Tennessee Titans — who have arguably a worse roster — are 1-6, as they had an early bye week.
Seven teams are 2-6, including the Panthers’ next two opponents: the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants.
David asks: When we get the No. 1 pick in the draft, no way we go quarterback, right? The defense has been worse than the quarterback play this year.
David, your optimism is appreciated, but I would hold your horses on that first overall selection. You’ve seen the Titans and Giants, right?
Anyway, for the sake of this mailbag, we’ll play along. Depending on who declares in 2025, the Panthers should keep their options open.
Pass rusher has been a clear void for this team for the past five years, even as Carolina housed Burns and Frankie Luvu on the roster during the majority of that space. This team could use a dynamic edge-setter, so going for that position would make a ton of sense, especially after everything the team has invested in the offensive line on the other side.
If the Panthers really want to build from the inside out, adding a top-tier pass-rushing prospect would be a great place to start.
Regarding QB, it depends on who is available. The front office-head coach dynamic also plays a factor, as well as who is available in free agency and for how much. It’s hard to completely rule out a QB pick for a relatively young front office and an offensive-minded head coach in Dave Canales.
There are a lot of factors, and it’s hard to nail down a definitive answer in late October.
PantherTime asks: Some good news to spice things up: We all like Jalen Coker. What player comps do you see in him?
There are plenty of reasons to like Coker. He has been excellent since getting promoted to the 53-man roster last month. Through five games, he has caught 12 passes for 186 yards and a touchdown. That’s phenomenal production for an undrafted rookie who was on the practice squad for the first three weeks of the season.
Regarding his player comparison, the guy who he reminds me of is Tyler Boyd, which would also explain the chemistry between him and Dalton during their first four games together. Boyd, a 2016 second-round pick out of Pitt, played eight seasons with the Bengals before signing with the Titans as a free agent this year.
Boyd had 1,000-yard seasons in his third and fourth years in the league, and often provided versatility as the perennial No. 2 wideout to A.J. Green during the prime of their respective careers.
Coker has similar size (6-foot-1, 208 lbs.) to Boyd (6-2, 203 lbs.) with similar speed numbers (4.57 40-yard dash vs. 4.58). They are both crafty route runners who understand how to leverage coverage with their length and physicality. Both also excel as slot receivers, because they are big targets with reliable hands and understated quickness.
This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
