B-
Carolina Panthers
A respectable, level-headed haul for the Panthers: B-.
by Kenny proctor ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 7 picks
· 1 steals
· 5 reaches
There is reaching, and then there is Quintayvious Hutchins at pick 158. The Panthers jumped the board by 49 and dared it to prove them wrong.
That is an offensive lineman worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly. That linebacker hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall. 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.
Good work on the whole, with linebacker the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 19 they get a lockdown presence outside. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Derrick Moore at Round 2, Pick 19 jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They liked Deion Burks enough to skip the value, taking him in No. 83. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Max Llewellyn at slot 119 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Quintayvious Hutchins at the 158th overall pick is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Wesley Williams well ahead of where he belonged. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Matt Gulbin at No. 200. A need, and now a little less of one.