The combine has come and gone. The measurements are all well and good, but for a lot of teams, the chance to meet with players face to face is just as, if not more important. The Carolina Panthers likely met with a lot of players, but we only got a few reported to us. While a combine visit doesn’t necessarily mean the team is going to try to pick the player on draft night, Dan Morgan and company have shown a tendency to make their affection for prospects pretty well known and tend to stick to picking
players the meet with. And there’s a trend with the players the Panthers reportedly visited with that shows exactly what the front office is trying to improve.
This visit tracker by Reddit user Dayne_B12 has tallied seven visits at the combine. One of them, Sawyer Robertson, is a quarterback, which goes along with what Dan Morgan has said about bringing competition into the quarterback room. The rest are all defensive players, and half of those are off ball linebackers. Here’s the list:
- Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State
- CJ Allen, LB, Ohio State
- Jacob Rodriguez, LB, Texas Tech
- Kedrick Faulk, Edge, Auburn
- Genesis Smith, S, Auburn
- Daylen Everette, CB, Georgia
- Sawyer Robertson, QB, Baylor
The Panthers have met with three prospects projected to go in the first round—Styles, Allen, and Faulk. Rodriguez is expected to go on Day 2. Clearly, defense is the priority, and linebackers and edge rushers top the wish list.
Styles seems like the crown jewel, an athletic freak that also produced at a high level for one of the best programs in the country. The only way he makes it to Carolina is if he’s devalued simply for the position he plays. After him is Allen, who doesn’t have nearly the pop but is a good intangibles guy. Rodriguez is our annual uber productive linebacker that for some reason is expected to test poorly then tests well so he gets a big bump in the pre-draft rankings. He’s definitely in play in round two.
Kedrick Fualk is a high character guy with elite traits. He’s a bet on potential, but he’s also the exact type of human that is most likely to reach that potential.
The other visits are mid round guys that would shore up depth.
Regardless of the names of the players visited, it’s very clear what the Panthers want to do with this draft class. There’s a good chance it’s at least partially reminiscent of the 2020 draft where Carolina drafted all defensive players. While this one probably won’t be that extreme, there’s a good chance the blueprint is similar.
