B
Carolina Panthers
Grand theft in No. 120: the Panthers steal Lew and grade out a B.
by SixSevn ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 7 picks
· 5 steals
· 0 reaches
Somewhere a general manager is explaining how Connor Lew got past him. The Panthers do not have to explain a thing at pick No. 120. They moved the roster forward and banked a B for it.
The cornerback hole is the one line item this class does not answer. They left with wide receiver solved and the rest of the wish list mostly ticked off.
Nearly every premium pick went to that side of the ball. The phones were busy but the ledger stayed level.
In short, they left a little better than they arrived, which is the whole idea.
Pick-by-Pick
They read the board right and Arvell Reese was the payoff at the 19th pick. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Value with a capital V on Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in Round 2, Pick 19, a genuine coup. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A top-tier interior defensive lineman at a bargain, Lee Hunter in slot 83, plain and simple. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Connor Lew in the Round 4 slot should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Skyler Gill-Howard in No. 158 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
A tidy little value on Jaeden Roberts in the 159th overall pick, a step better than break-even. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Reggie Virgil in pick No. 200 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.