The Carolina Panthers are not trying to trade wide receiver Curtis Samuel, according to a report by Joe Person at the Athletic.
If you are wondering why this is a thing, Samuel’s name has been circulating as a potential trade target for some teams ever since Carolina signed former Jets wide receiver Robby Anderson last week. The thinking is that the Panthers may feel deep enough at this position to let somebody go. There’s no evidence to suggest any teams have actually inquired about Samuel, though. As far as we can tell, this is one of those purely media-driven narratives.
It makes sense to suggest it, though. Samuel is entering the last year of his rookie contract and is one of the league’s most underrated receivers. However, it appears the Panthers are aware of that and have no plans to trade him away. Injuries, medical issues and poor quarterback play have all driven down Samuel’s numbers to some extent. However, he has still managed an extremely impressive touchdown rate and may yet show he’s capable of elite production given enough opportunities.
Whether Samuel will have a better rapport with Teddy Bridgewater than Kyle Allen or Will Grier remains to be seen. One thing that’s clear is under offensive coordinator Joe Brady the plan is to continue the four and five receiver sets he used so often at LSU last season. So far, Carolina has signed Anderson plus Keith Kirkwood, Seth Roberts and Pharoh Cooper. They also re-signed DeAndrew White, bringing the total number of wide receivers on the roster to 10.
While the Roberts signing was a bit of a head-scratcher ($3.75 million for one year), building up at this spot is a good idea. Truth be told, Newton never really had a great wide receiver corps to work with during his time in Carolina. By contrast, Bridgewater is being set up to succeed in this area.
Starting with D.J. Moore and going all the way down to Ishmael Hyman, this is one of the deepest receiver rooms in football right now.
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