The Carolina Panthers’ hog mollies pride themselves on having “the meats.” And last weekend, they added some more—at a discounted price, no less.
On Friday, Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire rolled out his list of the 2023 NFL draft’s best steals. For the Panthers, he highlights North Carolina State University guard Chandler Zavala—who is joining a good friend over in Charlotte.
Farrar writes:
The Panthers wanted to add power to their offensive line with the 2022 sixth-overall pick of Ikem Ekwonu, and they’ve now reunited Ekwonu with his former battery-mate Chandler Zavala with the 114th in the fourth round of this draft. That should amount to a lot of ibuprofen for enemy defensive lines.
The 6-foot-5, 325-pound Zavala is an excellent power/movement guard who allowed no sacks and four total pressures last season in 422 pass-blocking snaps, and there should be no question about his ability to move and seal people off in the run game.
At the very least, the Panthers corralled themselves some much-needed interior depth on their growing offensive front. But with starting right guard Austin Corbett expected to miss some time to begin the 2023 campaign, Zavala may be able to work himself into the starting lineup to kick off his rookie season.
Not bad value for a fourth-rounder, huh?
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