One month before the 2021 NFL draft, we shared a projected depth chart for the Panthers. Safe to say it’s now completely useless following a quarterback trade, several free agent pickups and the largest rookie class coming in since 1995.
Let’s try again and see where all the new pieces might fit. Here’s our updated depth chart projection after the draft.
Offense
| QB | Sam Darnold | P.J. Walker | Tommy Stevens | Will Grier | Peyton Ramsey | ||
| RB | Christian McCaffrey | Chuba Hubbard | Reggie Bonnafon | Trenton Cannon | Rodney Smith | Darius Clark | Spencer Brown |
| FB | Mikey Daniel | Mason Stokke | |||||
| WR | D.J. Moore | Robby Anderson | Terrace Marshall | David Moore | Shi Smith | Keith Kirkwood | Brandon Zylstra |
| WR (cont.) | Omar Bayless | Micah Simon | Marken Michel | Ventell Bryant | Ishmael Hyman | ||
| TE | Dan Arnold | Tommy Tremble | Ian Thomas | Colin Thompson | Stephen Sullivan | Giovanni Ricci | |
| LT | Brady Christensen | Trent Scott | Cameron Erving | Greg Little | |||
| LG | Pat Elflein | Dennis Daley | |||||
| C | Matt Paradis | Sam Tecklenburg | David Moore | ||||
| RG | Deonte Brown | John Miller | Mike Horton | ||||
| RT | Taylor Moton | Matt Kaskey | Aaron Monteiro | Martez Ivey |
The big question here is do the Panthers see Christensen as a left tackle at this level, and if so how long will it take him to supplant the veterans on the roster? Our guess is he won’t start right away but eventually will become LT1, hence the projection.
Defense
| DE | Brian Burns | Morgan Fox | Marquis Haynes | |
| DT | DaQuan Jones | Bravvion Roy | Daviyon Nixon | P.J. Johnson |
| DT | Derrick Brown | Mike Panasiuk | Phil Hoskins | |
| DE | Yetur Gross-Matos | Christian Miller | Austin Larkin | Frank Herron |
| OLB | Shaq Thompson | Clay Johnston | Daniel Bituli | |
| MLB | Denzel Perryman | Jermaine Carter | Paddy Fisher | |
| OLB | Haason Reddick | Frankie Luvu | Chris Orr | |
| LCB | Donte Jackson | Rashaan Melvin | Stantley Thomas-Oliver III | Keith Taylor |
| RCB | Jaycee Horn | A.J. Bouye | Jalen Julius | |
| SCB | Troy Pride Jr. | |||
| SS | Jeremy Chinn | Sam Franklin | Myles Hartsfield | J.T. Ibe |
| FS | Juston Burris | Sean Chandler | Kenny Robinson |
On this side of the ball, Carolina added a lot more depth to the interior of the defensive line, making it much easier to project who will go where. We still have major questions about who will play slot and free safety, though.
Special Teams
| K | Joey Slye | Matt Ammendola |
| P | Joseph Charlton | Oscar Draguicevich |
| LS | J.J. Jansen | Thomas Fletcher |
| PR | Darius Clark | |
| KR | Chuba Hubbard |
Competition is the name of the game here, with each specialist from 2020 having to deal with another player at their respective positions. As far as the return game goes, these are only wild guesses at this point and the answers may not be on the roster.
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