Carolina still has big needs after the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft
The Carolina Panthers addressed their biggest need on offense last night when they selected Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan with the eighth overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. That was an incredible investment in the future of Bryce Young, but it also left the team’s biggest needs (read: every position on defense) out in the cold.
The biggest need that the team has, above all others, is at edge. The Panthers need more and better players to rush the passer. Luckily for them, two of the best remaining players in the draft for day two are edge rushers. Unluckily for them, they will be long gone before Carolina is currently slated to pick at the 57th overall pick in the draft.
Donovan Ezeiruaku, from Boston College, and Mike Green, from Marshall University, are players two and three on JP Acosta’s big board. To guarantee a shot at either of them, the Panthers would have to trade up from one of their later selections to the 32nd or 33rd overall picks. Let’s take a look at what that might cost.
If you’re reading this on mobile, the table above is imperfectly formatted. The first number in each section is the round of the pick, the second number is the overall pick, the third is the value of that pick in the Jimmy Johnson trade chart, and the fourth is the value per the Rick Hill trade chart. You may remember from the bonanza of trades over the last few years that we prefer the Rick Hill chart when calculating trade values.
The first pick tonight is valued at 180 points on the Hill chart. That means the Panthers would have to trade 57 (96 points) and 74 (64 points), plus either 111 (29 points) or 114 (28 points) to even sniff that rarified air. Giving up three of your highest remaining picks for one prospect is probably not worth it for the Panthers at this point in the draft.
Packaging 74, 111, and 114 would potentially get the Panthers to Miami’s pick at 48, nine slots ahead of their own current second round pick and in the neighborhood where players like safeties Xavier Watts and Nick Emmanwori are projected to go.
Packaging 57 and 74 would get them approximately to New England’s pick at 38. That puts them in the range of guys like linebacker Carson Schwesinger and edge Nic Scourton.
The bottom line is that, if team’s are willing to deal, then the Panthers have the ammunition from later in the draft to move up the board if a can’t-miss-prospect drops into the late 30s to 40s, but don’t expect them to make a move to the top of the second round to grab somebody like Ezeiruaku. This team is more than one player away from having a competitive defense and they need to take every shot they can at drafting quality players.