The Carolina Panthers have selected defensive tackle Lee Hunter out of Texas Tech with the 17th pick of the second round and 49th overall after trading up two spots.
The Panthers traded with one of their recent trade partners to move up. They swapped the 51st pick with the 49th pick, and in return the teams traded the 159th and 196th pick. Essentially the Panthers dropped 37 picks in the 5th/6th round to move up two spots in the second round. It seems like a big drop in the later rounds, but by that
point of the draft, the players are all kind of in the same tier anyway. The most important thing is that the Panthers didn’t lose any picks; they’ll still be making the same number of total selections. Clearly they felt Hunter was in a tier all alone and were worried about him getting sniped by either the Jets or someone else angling to get in front of them. It’s hard to see the importance of moving up just two spots so far down in the draft, but maybe there’s something they really like about him that’ll bear out once he gets in the building.
Hunter was one of the players to watch we talked about this morning. He’s a big boy, weighing in at 319 pounds with a 6’9” wingspan. He uses that size and length to muck up run lanes and wrap up ball carriers. He had elite production stopping the run and added a couple of sacks. He’s not an advanced pass rusher by any means, but he can push the pocket with his strength. He might be limited to early downs due to his lack of pass rush refinement, but he should be a difference maker when he’s on the field. Michael Peterson has a more advanced breakdown of his strengths and weaknesses as a player.
The Panthers next pick will come at 83 overall, the 19th pick of the third round.
