{"id":871446,"date":"2026-04-21T21:33:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871446\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:33:50","slug":"best-draft-picks-in-carolina-panthers-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871446\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Draft Picks in Carolina Panthers History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stacker<\/a> compiled a list of the best draft picks in Carolina Panthers history using career Weighted Approximate Value (wAV), a metric developed by Pro-Football-Reference.com<\/a> to estimate career impact. The ranking also lists individual accolades such as Pro Bowl selections, First-Team All-Pro honors, and total years as a starter. Players were assigned to their originally drafted teams, excluding any draft-day trades. Data is as of April 2026.<\/p>\n

#10. Jordan Gross (2003, Round 1, Pick 8)
– Position: T
– Career wAV: 69
– Pro Bowls: 3
– First-Team All-Pro: 1
– Games Played: 167
– Seasons as Starter: 11<\/p>\n

#9. Ryan Kalil (2007, Round 2, Pick 59)
– Position: C
– Career wAV: 72
– Pro Bowls: 5
– First-Team All-Pro: 2
– Games Played: 155
– Seasons as Starter: 9<\/p>\n

#8. Thomas Davis (2005, Round 1, Pick 14)
– Position: LB
– Career wAV: 80
– Pro Bowls: 3
– First-Team All-Pro: 1
– Games Played: 199
– Seasons as Starter: 12<\/p>\n

#6. Muhsin Muhammad (1996, Round 2, Pick 43) (tie)
– Position: WR
– Career wAV: 83
– Pro Bowls: 2
– First-Team All-Pro: 1
– Games Played: 202
– Seasons as Starter: 12<\/p>\n

#6. Kerry Collins (1995, Round 1, Pick 5) (tie)
– Position: QB
– Career wAV: 83
– Pro Bowls: 2
– First-Team All-Pro: 0
– Games Played: 198
– Seasons as Starter: 11<\/p>\n

#5. Christian McCaffrey (2017, Round 1, Pick 8)
– Position: RB
– Career wAV: 86
– Pro Bowls: 4
– First-Team All-Pro: 3
– Games Played: 112
– Seasons as Starter: 6<\/p>\n

#4. Luke Kuechly (2012, Round 1, Pick 9)
– Position: LB
– Career wAV: 91
– Pro Bowls: 7
– First-Team All-Pro: 5
– Games Played: 118
– Seasons as Starter: 8<\/p>\n

#3. Steve Smith Sr. (2001, Round 3, Pick 74)
– Position: WR
– Career wAV: 102
– Pro Bowls: 5
– First-Team All-Pro: 2
– Games Played: 219
– Seasons as Starter: 14<\/p>\n

#2. Cam Newton (2011, Round 1, Pick 1)
– Position: QB
– Career wAV: 115
– Pro Bowls: 3
– First-Team All-Pro: 1
– Games Played: 148
– Seasons as Starter: 9<\/p>\n

#1. Julius Peppers (2002, Round 1, Pick 2)
– Position: DE
– Career wAV: 130
– Pro Bowls: 9
– First-Team All-Pro: 3
– Games Played: 266
– Seasons as Starter: 16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stacker compiled a list of the best draft picks in Carolina Panthers history using career Weighted Approximate Value…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,7,6,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-871446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116444853103146341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871446","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=871446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}