We’re counting down the days until the start of the 2025 Panthers season!
84 days to go until we get to watch real Carolina Panthers football, CSR! We’re celebrating that by taking a deeper dive on number 84 for the Panthers; rookie tight end Mitchell Evans!
Mitchell Evans was selected out of Notre Dame with the 163rd overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Panthers, joining his fellow Irishman Tommy Tremble in the tight end room. He caught 77 passes for 903 yards and 5 TDs in college (and ran for one touchdown too!), with the bulk of his receiving production coming in his final two seasons at Notre Dame. However, sandwiched between those two seasons, he tore his ACL towards the end of 2023 and was still recovering from it in 2024. Still, he played in all 16 games of his final college season even while still on the mend from said injury, meaning the 2025 rookie season might be our first look at him fully healthy in over a year.
Evans is described as a jack of all trades type tight end. He has good receiving skills without high end athleticism, and he’s a solid blocker with “adequate” strength. He’ll need to refine his blocking skills at the NFL level, and his ceiling as a receiver is certainly capped, but a player who can do a little bit of everything well should round out this tight end room quite nicely. With Ja’Tavion Sanders as the proven receiving threat, and Tommy Tremble a tremendous blocker with receiving upside he’s still scratching the surface of, Evans should comfortably fit in as a second tight end in just about every situation, especially if he really develops his blocking ability. I smell some tight end jail-break screens in his future on some heavy personnel looks!
I think Evans should at least see out his rookie contract as a Panther, and potentially more if he ends up being the solid well rounded player his draft profiles claim he is. What are your thoughts on #84 for the 2025 season, Panthers fans?