Panthers fans guessed wrong, to their great joy
Last week we ran a poll to see what Carolina Panthers fans thought was going to be the deepest position group—the group that had the most players selected—in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
The results of that poll, as you can see, show a comfortable plurality of y’all were in favor of edge rushers being taken the most often. 47% of y’all voted for Abdul Carter and his fellow pass rushers. Another 36% of y’all had defensive lineman. The third place finisher was offensive tackle.
In last night’s first round, five edge defenders were selected, per their position designations on NFL.com. That put them in a three-way tie for the most players selected from a given position as the first round also saw five offensive tackles and five defensive tackles selected.
The good news for Panthers fans is that, in a deep edge class, the deep offensive and defensive tackle classes have left a large number of talented edge rushers available for Day 2 of the NFL Draft. Some are projected to be available around the Panthers’ picks, while others may require some strategic trades to acquire.
The full order of positions falls out as follows:
- Edge, offensive tackle, defensive tackle (5)
- Wide receiver (3.5)
- Guard (3)
- Cornerback (2.5)
- Quarterback, Running back, tight end (2)
- Linebacker, safety (1)