{"id":851036,"date":"2026-04-03T09:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851036\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:14:15","slug":"what-the-odds-tell-us-about-the-panthers-1st-round-pick-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/851036\/","title":{"rendered":"What the odds tell us about the Panthers’ 1st-round pick for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Panthers<\/a> have used their last two first-round draft picks on receiver prospects. In 2024, they traded up to the bottom of Round 1 to grab<\/a> South Carolina’s Xavier Legette, then stayed put at No. 8 overall in 2025 to take<\/a> Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan.<\/p>\n

So far, the two picks couldn’t have diverged anymore than they have. While McMillan became the first Panther to win Offensive Rookie of the Year honors since quarterback Cam Newton (2011), Legette has been wildly inconsistent and unproductive\u2014struggling with the basics such as drops and footwork.<\/p>\n

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If Legette was panning out, perhaps the outlook on their next first-round selection may be different. But for now, according to the latest odds at Draft Kings Sportsbook<\/a>, Carolina’s most-likely choice in Round 1 is yet another wideout.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at their odds to pick each position:<\/p>\n

Panthers first-round pick odds<\/p>\n

Defensive line\/Edge: +260<\/p>\n

The top wide receiver prospect in this class<\/a> is Ohio State’s Carnell Tate, who should be long gone by the time Carolina is on the clock at No. 19 overall. USC’s Makai Lemon, Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson, Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr. and Washington’s Denzel Boston round out the top five.<\/p>\n

It may sound like overkill to go wide receiver again, but the fact is that quarterback Bryce Young has one of the league’s worst skill groups to work with. And if he’s going to take the next step, the Panthers have to continue investing in those pieces around him\u2014especially with a potential contract extension looming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Panthers Wire: Panthers’ 2026 NFL Draft odds show pattern continuing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Carolina Panthers have used their last two first-round draft picks on receiver prospects. In 2024, they traded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[375,1476,7571,235,260,2567,1972,7,6,236,1686,1453,7421,1505],"class_list":{"0":"post-851036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-bryce-young","10":"tag-cam-newton","11":"tag-carolina","12":"tag-carolina-panthers","13":"tag-carolinapanthers","14":"tag-first-round-selection","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-panthers","18":"tag-south-carolina","19":"tag-tetairoa-mcmillan","20":"tag-wideout","21":"tag-xavier-legette"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116340019156941999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}