Hello CSR! Welcome to Brian Answers, part two of your weekly Panthers fan mailbag for everyone! We’re chugging along as we’re about 3-4 weeks away from free agency, so fans are chomping at the bit with mock drafts and projections of where rookies might fit. I brought in a member of the staff to help out with one of the questions this week, let me know if you’d like to see more of that!
Micash: Drop your favorite 7 round Panthers mock below please!
I realized upon writing that you may have been calling for mock drafts in the comments, but I tapped Daniel Belton for the first ever special guest to answer a question for this week! I don’t really do mock drafts this early in the off-season, but I know plenty of you friends exist, including the artist formerly known as DBelt. Here’s his picks and some quick reasoning behind them.
1-19: OT Caleb Lomu (Utah) – help on the line with older Taylor Moton and Ikem Eckwonu injury
2-51: LB Anthony Hill Jr. (Texas) – need better run defenders at LB to pair with Trevin Wallace
3-83: S Genesis Smith (Arizona) – center field type of safety to replace Nick Scott (sorry)
4-119: WR Bryce Lance (ND State) – Trey’s brother, tall and fast, vertical threat that the offense doesn’t have
5-157: EDGE Max Llewellyn (Iowa) – good size, what Ejiro Evero looks for in edge defenders
5-161: TE Dallen Bentley (Utah) – sleeper tight end, good blocker and reliable receiver
6-198: QB Drew Allar (Penn State) – developmental/backup QB, excellent tools, could be great with time, injured last year.
Overall, I like his Draft. Share your thoughts below!
brake23: You’re the GM and we’re at the #19 pick with the options below, which one do you pick?
Prospects of interest available:
F) Trade back with Broncos for Picks 30 & 62
Obviously, as we saw up above, depending on who you ask Anthony Hill Jr is available in the 2nd round. I really don’t like trading into the late part of the first round with the needs the Panthers have. So among my choices, I’d be inclined to take OT Spencer Fano or EDGE Keldric Faulk, though you could talk me into Peter Woods being the pick. Let’s go with Faulk for this exercise, but a draft board falling like this gives the Panthers a lot of options. Faulk would be the highest impact player right away, but I think the value pick is Fano.
@WTMealey: I know we haven’t done FA or the draft yet. I’m trying to filter out homerism and have a realistic view of how much better we could be next year. We obviously exceded most outsiders expectations. Is that because they underestimated us or because we outperformed our actual ability?
__% chance we regress and have a worst season than 2025
__% chance we hold serve and have a very similar season to 2025
__% chance we continue to level up and have a better season than 2025
I give it a 40% chance of regression. The Panthers lost a few games they should have won and won a few games they should have lost. They have a harder (on paper, as of this writing) schedule going into 2026, so there’s a decent chance it goes sideways.30%. This team has a lot of needs to fill, and even if they continue on their upward trajectory, its highly possible the moves they make only keep them in the “playoff contenders” conversation due to the NFC South. I’d call 9 wins a “similar season).30%. I think many fans expect them to be better, and barring significant injury problems, its likely. So I’d say they have an equal chance of being better to being simply in the same area as 2025. To me, leveling up and being better is 10+ wins.
leazer88: Why does everyone have us picking a WR or DT in the 1st round? We have a lot of $ tied up on the DL, we need edge rushing, inside linebackers, and OL depth. We don’t need to be picking Sadiq with the first pick when we could sign a TE in FA or make a trade for Cole Kmet. Edge rushing and linebackers should be the MAIN focus in free agency AND the draft. We can sign a reliable veteran as a WR3.. like JuJu. Someone that doesn’t threaten targets for Tmac or Coker and can catch and create YAC. The Panthers don’t have that kind of guy.
Dcangio09 touched on the point about a defensive tackle quite well, so linking his comment here. To add my own thoughts, personally I have the mindset that you should always bolster the barracks on both sides of the line, so if an EDGE player isn’t available at the right value, a defensive tackle will help just as much since pairing Derrick Brown with another force on the interior would have just as much of a positive effect as another EDGE, since the inside takes a lot of pressure off the outside when you have a couple of high end players there (see Star Lotulelei and Kawann Short).
As far as wide receiver goes, Tetairoa McMillan is great, I think Jalen Coker has emerged into an absolutely reliable WR2, beyond that its a lot of youth and question marks. Adding another weapon to that group wouldn’t hurt, but I’d be slightly miffed if they did. Still, as the NFL evolves, having 3 upper tier wide receivers is not necessarily a poor allocation of resources. But if they do take one, that’s probably all but the end for Xavier Legette in Carolina as any kind of long term contributor. It will highly depend on what they do regarding Coker, as they can give him an RFA tag but I would expect them to give him much more than that in a contract extension.
dayneb12: One thing I’ve noticed during Dan Morgan’s time as GM is that each year there has been a pretty big UDFA class (19 each year). This has brought in some pretty solid players in guys like Jalen Coker, Ryan Fitzgerald, and Corey Thornton. Do you expect another big UDFA class after this year’s draft and could we see another solid UDFA pickup for the Panthers?
I spent years making my own brand off of favoring veterans over everyone’s favorite undrafted free agent darling in the previous decade, but I’ve been impressed with Carolina actually finding those coveted UDFA gems the last two seasons. Jalen Coker was a home run, Corey Thornton probably would have contributed a lot more as the season went on were it not for an unfortunate injury. Carolina is in less of a talent deficient situation as they were in 2024 and 2o25, but I still expect them to bring in some guys. I don’t know if it will be 19, but they have done a good job of identifying guys with traits they covet and making them contributors with their UDFA classes. A guy you didn’t mention was Brycen Tremayne, and he could realistically make the roster again as a wide receiver. I could see it happening again, hopefully at ILB, S, or along the offensive line or a RB.
Brazilian Panther: You have Ponds from IU and Chris Johnson from SDSU available to replace CSW in the slot, who do you take and why?
I’d take D’Angelo Ponds if the specific purpose is to take over for Chau Smith-Wade in the nickel spot, but I like Chris Johnson as a guy who can take over as an outside corner. So it really depends on what the Panthers overall cornerback room looks like come April.
Panthers75: Darrell Bevell hiring move anyone’s needle?
I actually really like the hire since Dave Canales cut his teeth working under Bevell in Seattle. I don’t know if it will have any major noticeable impact, but having someone with a ton of experience in the NFL around to evolve an offensive system he’s already familiar with can’t really hurt. I would imagine he can help Canales refine some things as well. But I don’t expect it to be a ground breaker of a move.
That’s all for this week, Panthers fans! Join us next week for another edition of the mailbag!