The very affordable salaries for Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen highlight the incredible value of Day 2 picks.
The Carolina Panthers selected eight players in the 2025 NFL draft. As part of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, rookie contracts last for four years and are predetermined before the draft based on the salary cap. There’s no negotiation so websites like Spotrac are able to inform us of the contract details before the players actually sign. Here are the salaries for the Panthers eight draft picks, per Spotrac:
Day 1 pick
Tetairoa McMillan, WR – 1st round, No. 8
4-years, $27.9M, $6.97M annual average, $16.9M signing bonus
The Panthers signed a potential Pro Bowler in the 6-foot-5, 212-pound receiver from Arizona. The team is also on the hook for nearly $17 million in a signing bonus and about $7 million per year, on average, in salary. If McMillan develops into a Pro Bowler, that’s chump change. If he doesn’t live up to his lofty draft status, that’s a lot of cap space for just a little return.
Day 2 picks
Nic Scourton, DE – 2nd round, No. 51
4-years, $8.6M, $2.15 annual average, $2.8M signing bonus
Princely Umanmielen, DE – 3rd round, No. 77
4-years, $6.5M, $1.62 annual average, $1.4M signing bonus
Okay, I’m officially salivating when looking at the delicious salaries of the Panthers two Day 2 picks. One of the reasons I play the role of benevolent dictator of Trade Down Island and constantly implore the Panthers front office to smartly trade down in Round 1 to get more picks in Rounds 2-3 is because of these types of salaries.
Scourton and Umanmielen have the potential to be starters at some point while playing on their rookie contracts. Over the next four years their combined annual salary will be just $3.8 million. Combined! For four years! That’s basically a rounding error against a 2025 salary cap of $279.2 million, a figure that will continue to grow every year. From my vantage point on Trade Down Island, no asset in the NFL has a greater “very low risk, very high reward” potential than picks in Rounds 2-3.
Day 3 picks
Trevor Etienne, RB – 4th round, No. 114
4-years, $5.2M, $1.30 annual average, $1.0M signing bonus
Lathan Ransom, S – 4th round, No. 112
4-years, $5.2M, $1.29 annual average, $955K signing bonus
Cam Jackson, DT – 5th round, No. 140
4-years, $4.7M, $1.17 annual average, $472K signing bonus
Mitchell Evans, TE – 5th round, No. 163
4-years, $4.6M, $1.15 annual average, $390K signing bonus
Jimmy Horn Jr, WR – 6th round, No. 208
4-years, $4.4M, $1.10 annual average, $195K signing bonus
First of all, props to all five of these guys for fulfilling their lifelong dreams of being selected in the NFL draft. If they can stick in the league, each of them will earn a shade over $1 million per year, on average, over the next four years. That’s potentially life-changing money for guys in their early twenties, provided they manage it well.
With average annual salaries of just over $1 million through the 2028 season, any contributions the Panthers get from these five players is gravy. And should they not work out and eventually get released by Carolina, their signing bonuses which range from $195k to $1 million mean there are essentially no issues with dead cap money to consider.
Let’s hope the Panthers get some production from their five Day 3 picks over the next four years as they play with salaries that barely register against the NFL’s salary cap.