{"id":853966,"date":"2026-04-04T21:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853966\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T21:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T21:31:33","slug":"panthers-upgrade-ol-lb-corps-in-espns-3-round-mock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/853966\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers upgrade OL, LB corps in ESPN’s 3-round mock"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 2, 2026, 12:01 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Going into the 2025 season, the Carolina Panthers’ offensive line was supposed to be one of the team’s biggest roster strengths. It didn’t turn out that way, though.<\/p>\n

Aside from a stalwart year from left guard Damien Lewis, the rest of the unit left much to be desired. To be fair, injuries played a big role in the drop-off\u2014especially for star right guard Robert Hunt. However, it’s clear that the team was not satisfied with the results based on what they have done so far this offseason.<\/p>\n

In free agency, the Panthers went out and signed<\/a> Rasheed Walker, who may have to replace Ickey Ekwonu at left tackle due to his injury status<\/a>. They also signed Luke Fortner to play center<\/a> and Stone Forsythe as depth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

General manager Dan Morgan is probably not done trying to upgrade this group, either.<\/p>\n

In a new three-round mock draft from ESPN<\/a>, Carolina hits this unit hard\u2014starting at the No. 19 overall pick with Utah’s Spencer Fano. Analyst Jordan Reid writes:<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

Fano can play all five spots up front, and he could even fill in at center as a rookie prior to moving to another spot after his first season. He’s light on his feet and plays with urgency.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not exactly clear where Fano (6-foot-6, 308 pounds) would line up as a rookie, but that’s a good problem for head coach Dave Canales to have. Fano could fill in at all five spots, in theory.<\/p>\n

The next time the Panthers are on the clock is in Round 2 at No. 51 overall. Reid has Carolina taking Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez:<\/p>\n

Devin Lloyd was a\u00a0huge signing, but the Panthers still need significant linebacker upgrades. Rodriguez would be another instinctive second-level playmaker.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez (6-foot-1, 200 pounds) put in one season at Virginia, but didn’t see the field much. That changed after he transferred to Texas Tech, where he appeared in 44 games<\/a> over the last four years.<\/p>\n

All together, he totaled 178 combined tackles, six sacks, 25.5 tackles for a loss, 12 pass breakups and 13 forced fumbles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rodriguez could wind up starting next to Devin Lloyd in his first year. All he’d have to do is beat out 2024 third-round pick Trevin Wallace, who has struggled on the field since he was drafted.<\/p>\n

In Round 3, the Panthers go back to the offensive line\u2014taking Iowa center Logan Jones at No. 83:<\/p>\n

Jones is more of an insurance pick at center in the short term but could give the Panthers a potential long-term answer in the middle of the front.<\/p>\n

After signing Fortner, this might be a head-scratching pick. But keep in mind, he’s only under contract for a cheap, one-year deal\u2014so we can’t consider him a long-term solution for that spot just yet.<\/p>\n

Adding Jones gives Carolina more ammunition to fix a spot that’s been problematic more often than not since franchise great Ryan Kalil departed in 2019.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0@ThePanthersWire<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter\/X for more Panthers content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 2, 2026, 12:01 p.m. ET Going into the 2025 season, the Carolina Panthers’ offensive line was supposed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":853967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[95878,235,260,2567,7,6,236,97114,97115,95882,96511,96041,95892,97060,95897,95899,98563,96332,95883,112690,99269,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-853966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-panthers","15":"tag-sstssportsnflpanthers","16":"tag-sstsnpanthers","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagdave-canales","19":"tag-tagdevin-lloyd","20":"tag-tagespn-inc","21":"tag-tagikem-ekwonu","22":"tag-tagoverall-negative","23":"tag-tagoverall-neutral","24":"tag-tagrasheed-walker","25":"tag-tagrobert-hunt","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-tagstone-forsythe","28":"tag-tagtrevin-wallace","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116348576620987968","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853966","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=853966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}