Carolina could walk out of the draft with as many as nine new starters
The Carolina Panthers are entering the 2025 NFL Draft with nine draft picks and a dizzying array of holes across their roster. Let’s take a look at their projected two-deep depth chart to see where the biggest holes actually are:
Offense
Quarterbacks: Bryce Young, Andy Dalton
Running backs: Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle
Wide receivers: Adam Thielen, Xavier Legette, Jalen Coker, David Moore
Tight ends: Ja’Tavion Sanders, Tommy Tremble
Offensive line: Ikem Ekwonu, Damien Lewis, Austin Corbett, Robert Hunt, Taylor Moton, Brady Christensen, Cade Mays, Yosh Nijman, Chandler Zavala
Defense
Defensive line: Derrick Brown, Tershawn Wharton, A’Shawn Robinson, Bobby Brown III, Shy Tuttle, LaBryan Ray
Edges: Jadeveon Clowney, DJ Wonnum, Patrick Jones II, DJ Johnson
Inside linebackers: Josey Jewell, Trevin Wallace, Christian Rozeboom, Claudin Cherelus
Cornerbacks: Jaycee Horn, Mike Jackson, Chau Smith-Wade, Shemar Bartholomew
Safeties: Tre’von Moehrig, Demani Richardson, Nick Scott
Specialists
Kicker: Matthew Wright
Punter: Sam Martin
Long snapper: JJ Jansen
Long story short, there isn’t a position on this roster that wouldn’t benefit from a signficant talent infusion. The teams priorities are probably at edge, safety, and wide receiver, but tight end, center, offensive tackle, cornerback, and inside linebacker could easily enter the conversation for top 100 picks depending on how the draft board falls.
The focus on edge and safety, however, stand above the rest. The projected starters at edge, Clowney and Wonnum, are not guaranteed to be quality NFL starters across a 17-game season. The depth behind them inspires little confidence. The secondary is undermanned in general right now, but only having three safeties under contract simply will not be viable entering the season.
Fanduel is offering odds on who will be taken with the 8th overall pick. Those odds are a mix of who would fit the Panthers and the best overall players who might be available. That’s why you’ll see Jalon Walker (+100) sitting above Ashton Jeanty (+2700), even though nobody would weight them against each other in that way based on talent alone.
What I’d rather see are odds on the composition of the final draft class. If I had to bet on that I’d expect to see, with eight picks made when all is said and done, two edge players/linebackers, two defensive backs, an offensive tackle, a wide receiver, a quarterback, and a kicker. Those last three wouldn’t come before round five.