1 week Ago
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers draft started with something of a surprise for fans and media members who thought general manager Dan Morgan should use the No.
8 pick on a defensive player to add to the team’s last-in-the-league defense from 2024. Instead, Morgan took Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan before bringing in a pair of SEC edge rushers in the second and the third rounds – part of a plan that was hatched when Morgan and his scouts looked at what receivers would be available on the second day and didn’t like what they saw. Advertisement “We felt like in that second round we weren’t gonna get a real quality receiver.
So in terms of philosophy, drafting T-Mac, we knew there was going to be a lot of edge rushers in this draft and we’d be able to capitalize there in the second and third round,” Morgan said Saturday. “I think we knew the board. I think we had a feel for the league.
And at the end of the day, it really worked out well for us. To draft a receiver first and then two edge rushers that we think are really damn good players.” While the opinions on McMillan were mixed, draft experts seemed to agree with Morgan’s assessment of second-round pick Nic Scourton and third-rounder Princely Umanmielen.
The two have complementary styles: The thickly built Scourton , who finished at Texas A&M after transferring from Purdue, is a bull rusher, while the angular Umanmielen – a former Florida standout who spent last year at Ole Miss – uses speed to bend the edge. Both were effective in the country’s best NFL proving-ground conference. Corey Fuller, the Panthers’ Southeast area scout, called Scourton a “power rusher that can literally run through you,” different than Umanmielen’s skill set.
“Very finesse, very bendy, very long, good strength to hold his line,” Fuller said of the 6-foot-4 Umanmielen. “So you pick your poison. Do you want to get ran through or do you want to get somebody run under you or around you? I’m fired up to have them both.
” The Athletic breaks down the Panthers’ eight-player class, which features an equal mix of four offensive and four defensive players. Most surprising pick A majority of analysts and mock drafters expected Morgan to go defense at No. 8, with Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker a popular pick.
The Panthers’ defensive coaches would have welcomed a top-10 addition. With Walker still on the board, Morgan and coach Dave Canales opted to take another first-round wideout for Bryce Young, who it turns out had at least some role in bringing McMillan to Charlotte . Advertisement Before the draft, McMillan bumped into Young at a quarterback training facility in Huntington Beach, Calif.
, after stopping in to work Noah Fifita, his QB at Arizona. “Bryce is there and I’m like, ‘Man, let’s get it on,’” McMillan said. “Unfortunately it was only one day, but now we’ve got a lot of days coming up.
” Young lobbied to Morgan and Canales for the 6-foot-4 McMillan, who lacks game-breaking speed but has a huge catch radius and “elite” hands, as Morgan said. Panthers great Steve Smith panned McMillan for his limited route-running in college. After Xavier Legette struggled as a rookie, it falls on Canales and his offensive staff to show they can develop a highly drafted receiver.
Biggest question mark You could put McMillan in this category as well, based on the reactions by Smith and others. Some critics still found praise-worthy elements in McMillan’s game. A Big 12 secondary coach told The Athletic ’s Bruce Feldman he saw “some laziness when he wasn’t getting the ball,” but went on to say McMillan would “make those catches on third-and-6 when you really need it with a corner right on him.
” McMillan must prove he can get fight through press coverage, won’t dog it if the ball’s not coming his way and is a willing student of the game when it comes to watching film. With Walker going to the Atlanta Falcons with the 15th pick, it won’t be hard for Panthers’ fans to track McMillan’s progress against that of the linebacker from Salisbury, N.C.
A franchise can overcome missing on the 32nd pick — and to be clear, the Panthers still believe Legette will develop into a dependable receiver. However, whiffing on No. 8 at the same position would be a bad look for the front office and the coaching staff.
Best value pick Defensive tackle Cam Jackson is a large human, although he wasn’t even the biggest on Florida’s defensive line. That honor went to Desmond Watson, the 6-foot-6, 464-pounder who also lined up as a fullback on occasion. Still, it’s not like Jackson is small.
“When you see him in person and in his pads, that’s a big man – a big, long man,” Morgan said of the 6-foot-6, 328-pound Jackson. Advertisement Dane Brugler, The Athletic ’s draft analyst, projected that Jackson would be taken in the third or fourth round. So getting him in the fifth — with the 140th overall pick — was a good value for the Panthers.
Now, they better start overstocking their cafeteria. Jackson is part of the Panthers’ efforts to beef up their defensive interior after they became just the fourth team in NFL history to allow 3,000 rushing yards in a season. The Panthers signed two defensive linemen in free agency, including the big-bodied Bobby Brown III, who checks in at 6-foot-4 and 332 pounds.
Jackson joins a nose tackle group that includes Brown and incumbent Shy Tuttle, who looks relatively lean by comparison at 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds. Morgan believes Jackson can do more than just take up space and blockers. “I don’t think many people realize just how mobile he is for a big guy.
He can get up and down the line of scrimmage and make plays out on the perimeter,” he said. “So he’s not just a big man and space-eater. He can move a little bit now, too.
” Remaining needs The Panthers waited until the fourth round to take Ohio State safety Lathan Ransom, whose downhill, run-stopping play style is similar to that of free agent acquisition Tre’von Moehrig . So Morgan could look to sign one of the veteran safeties who visited the Panthers before the draft, preferably the younger Julian Blackmon over Marcus Williams, who seems to be fading. Minutes after completing a draft that didn’t include an offensive lineman, Morgan announced the Panthers had picked up left tackle Ikem Ekwonu’s fifth-year option, guaranteed for $17.
56 million in 2026. The Panthers will likely look to fill a couple of other spots they didn’t fill in the draft — kicker, cornerback and inside linebacker — via undrafted free agents or veterans still looking for work. (Some of those undrafted guys will be signed by the time you read this.
) Post-draft outlook Pretty much anything the Panthers did defensively was going to represent an improvement — such was the state of last year’s failings. The second-day pass rushers are both intriguing, and may have been a necessity since the Panthers appear ready to move on from Jadeveon Clowney . Morgan called a few teams before the draft to gauge their interest in trading for the 32-year-old Clowney, according to a league source.
Given Morgan’s comments Friday night, it’s a good bet the Panthers cut Clowney if they can’t find a trade partner. This class likely will be defined by the play of McMillan. If he becomes a perennial, 1,000-yard receiver who helps Young thrive and allows Legette to settle into a WR2 role, we’ll look back and say Morgan – and Young, for that matter – nailed it.
(Photo of McMillan : Stacy Revere / Getty Images).
