It’s a small, but positive brick in our building wall of optimism
The Carolina Panthers are set to enter their rookie mini camp tomorrow on a much brighter note than last year. All eight of their draft picks are entering their professional careers healthy. This is only worth discussing after last year’s saga with 2024 second round pick Jonathan Brooks.
Brooks, as many Panthers fans sourly recall, was such a big target for new general manager Dan Morgan that the Panthers traded up in the second round to nab him. This rubbed folks the wrong way in two different directions, even though Brooks was widely rated as the best running back in the class. First, he was a running back and folks wanted to know who trades up for those. Second, he was injured.
Brooks was coming off of an ACL tear suffered during his senior year of college and missed the entire offseason and the first ten weeks of the 2024 season. He was then active for three games, carrying the ball nine times, before re-tearing his ACL in Week 13 against the Philadelphia Eagles. He had a successful surgical repair and is expected to miss the entire 2025 season during his recovery.
The Panthers’ 2025 draft class has been widely lauded amongst fans in large part to it not containing any stories like Brooks. The Panthers have one of the shallowest rosters in the league and all eight draft picks from this year have a shot at being significant contributors by the end of the season. That starts tomorrow at rookie mini camp with each of them having the opportunity to participate in the full offseason program.
Last season, the Panthers announced the signing of their complete draft class at the start of rookie mini camp, so be on the look out for that again this year. Here is a reminder of what each rookie contract will look like.