Describe the Carolina Panthers’ NFL Draft in 4 words and give it a letter grade? You bet

In case you don’t have time to read this entire column, let me give you a quick evaluation of the Carolina Panthers’ 2024 NFL Draft in four words:

Bryce will be happy.

This draft was about surrounding second-year quarterback Bryce Young with more talent to give him at least a fighting chance, and the Carolina Panthers succeeded in that mission. They and their fans should be pleased with this set of selections, which at the least upgraded their offensive firepower a little bit and at the most just added three serious threats and potential stars to the offense.

While nationally the Panthers didn’t get nearly the same amount of attention in this draft as they did in 2023, owing to the controversial big-splash trade and the ensuing selection of Young a year ago, this group may be more significant as a whole.

In fact, after I wrote in a pre-draft column what I hoped the Panthers would do, they fulfilled most of those wishes from Thursday to Saturday at the draft in Detroit. They:

▪ Picked a wide receiver in the 30s, moving up from No. 33 to No. 32 to select South Carolina’s Xavier Legette.

▪ Traded away their other pick in the 30s, ultimately moving down from No. 39 to No. 46 after a couple of deals, to get some more draft capital.

▪ Picked two Texas Longhorn skill players, in running back Jonathon Brooks (second round) and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (fourth), who could flourish.

▪ Ended up with a new second-round pick in 2025 (from the Los Angeles Rams) after all of new general manager Dan Morgan’s dealing.

Carolina also tried to help the defense with third-round linebacker Trevin Wallace (Kentucky), fifth-round cornerback Chau Smith-Wade (Washington State), sixth-round defensive tackle Jaden Crumedy (Mississippi State) and seventh-round linebacker Michael Barrett (Michigan).

But what I like about this draft was the Panthers didn’t overthink it. They were horrible at scoring last season, getting shut out in the final two games and not doing a lot better before that. Young, who somehow missed only one of 17 games due to injury, kept getting up to get knocked back down again. He was sacked a team-record 62 times.

So in the early rounds, the Panthers simply picked up some more guys who can put the ball in the end zone. Of the Panthers’ three offensive picks in the first 101 overall NFL selections, Brooks will be the most iffy to contribute immediately, since he’s coming off a torn ACL in November and may or may not be ready for training camp.

But as for Legette and Sanders — if you watch enough highlights, you know that Young just got a couple of gifts with those two, and they’re ready to be opened right away. Both of them are going to help right away in the contested-catch department. And who knows? ACL recoveries are a good deal faster than they used to be, and Brooks may be ready in late summer too.

“With running back, receiver and a tight end, skill-wise we’re really bringing a little bit of juice there to really challenge that whole group and elevate the offense,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said after the draft. “So I’m really excited about what we did there.”

As for Young, Canales said he had texted with his QB and that Young was “very fired up” about the new pieces.

Add those to the acquisition of wide receiver Diontae Johnson and the two starting offensive guards Panthers have gotten — well, not scary. You can’t say that, not with a team that was an NFL-worst 2-15 last season.

But they’ve at least put themselves in position to have a reasonable chance at scoring 20 or more points in most games, which you certainly couldn’t say about the 2023, when the Panthers never ran a single offensive play with the lead in the fourth quarter in 17 contests.

This team is going to be more exciting. In particular, I have high hopes for Legette and Sanders. Carolina didn’t get everything it wanted — an edge rusher in the first two days of the draft would have been nice, for instance.

But overall, I’m giving the Panthers a grade of B+ for the 2024 NFL Draft. Which, given the team as a whole got an F last year, is quite an upgrade.