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As we enter June, let’s take a crack at projecting the Panthers’ initial 2023 53-man roster.
With one of the franchise’s most exciting offseasons in the books, the Carolina Panthers might be primed to contend this upcoming season. And although there still may be moves on the horizon, we can still sift through the 88-player program to make an opening-week projection.
So, here is our current set of predictions of how the team’s 53-man roster will look come Week 1.
(Side note: Players are listed in alphabetical order. So, no, this is not a depth chart projection.)
If the Panthers’ 2023 NFL draft haul could be boiled down to a GPA, this would be it:
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Have you ever had a test graded by every single teacher in your school? Well, the Carolina Panthers just have . . . kind of.
Twitter user René Bugner recently rounded up 2023 NFL draft grades from 29 evaluators across the web. Using those marks, Bugner compiled a cumulative grade point average (GPA) for each of the league’s 32 teams.
Here’s how the grades stack up:
🏈🧑🏻🎓 I´ve compiled 29 evaluations of the 2023 NFL draft and totaled the team grades.
Here is the spreadsheet. Sorted by GPA for all 32 teams.
I also sorted the 29 evaluations by GPA. From left (soft graders) to right (hard graders).
Thanks to all who give out grades every year! pic.twitter.com/lEvqCkViCT— René Bugner (@RNBWCV) May 25, 2023
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar, who got in in Bugner’s action, had the following to add about the Panthers’ 2023 class:
The success of this draft of course depends on how well Young plays at the next level. I might have preferred C.J. Stroud here, especially given what the Panthers had to spend for the first overall pick, but we’re splitting hairs here. If Young was 6-foot-2 and weighed 220 pounds, nobody would have a question, and he has every other attribute you want in a franchise quarterback. Mingo might be a bit of an overdraft here to me, but there are a lot of people I respect who like him better than I do.
Johnson is a hybrid end whose production last season made him a bit underrated, and I absolutely love the last two picks. Zavala is one of the better power guards in this class, and he has a positive history with former college teammate Ikem Ekwonu. And Robinson might be a bit undersized, but you wouldn’t know it when you’re watching his tape — he has a tonesetter’s alpha personality that shows up all over the place. The Panthers were clearly going for players who could win in the locker room as well as on the field.
Will a 3.12 GPA, however, translate into winning on the field? Can the wiz kid Bryce Young lead his fellow rookie teammates (and the rest of the Panthers, for that matter) in acing the 2023 season?
That’s another test for another time. So study up, cats.
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Panthers 2023 OTAs: Projecting the current offensive depth chart
With some new additions following this year’s rookie minicamp, things just got a bit more crowded for the Carolina Panthers. So, let’s try to sort it all out as we head into the next phase of the offseason.
Here is our projected offensive depth chart going into this week’s organized team activities.
Projecting the rookie stat contributions from the 2023 NFL draft picks by the Carolina Panthers
With the NFL draft over and rookie camps underway, it is a good time to evaluate the draft picks and see what kind of impacts the projected contributors will make.
Let’s take a look at the Carolina Panthers draft picks and project some stats for the early role players:
The Panthers have agreed to terms with fourth-round pick Chandler Zavala.
As officially announced on Monday afternoon, the Carolina Panthers have agreed to terms with fourth-round pick Chandler Zavala. The 24-year-old guard is now the second member of the team’s 2023 NFL draft class to get a deal done—following safety and fifth-rounder Jammie Robinson, who came to his agreement last Tuesday.
Zavala was taken by the Panthers with the 114th overall selection of this year’s draft. The local product transferred to North Carolina State University for his fifth and sixth seasons of eligibility, having spent the first four years of his college career over at Fairmount State University.
He appeared in five games during the 2021 campaign, alongside current Panthers left tackle and last year’s sixth overall pick Ikem Ekwonu, and 12 in 2022—all from the left guard spot. Per Pro Football Focus, Zavala allowed zero sacks, one quarterback hit and seven hurries over those two years in Raleigh.
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Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar named NC State G Chandler Zavala the Panthers’ best draft steal of 2023.
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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Every NFL draft has its selection of steals — those players who could surprise despite their low selections — and here’s one for every NFL team.
One of the many reasons the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII was the job that general manager Brett Veach did outside of the first round of the 2022 draft. Three defensive backs (Bryan Cook in the second round, Joshua Williams in the fourth, and Jaylen Watson in the seventh) were difference-makers all season, and seventh-round running back Isiah Pacheco became the team’s bellcow back down the stretch. Also, second-round receiver Skyy Moore joined Pacheco with touchdowns in that Super Bowl victory over the Eagles.
First-round hits are nice, but it’s almost worse to miss in the first round than it is better to win there from an opportunity cost perspective. If you want to refresh your roster at a championship level, you had better get those picks right on the second and third day. Veach and his staff did that, and it was the difference that made all the difference in the end.
Moving to the 2023 NFL draft, we’ve selected one second- or third-day pick for every NFL team who could have a similar impact on their NFL roaters sooner than mater. Each of these players have reasons for their relatively low picks in line with their tape, stats, and talent, but these are the kinds of finds that can turn a team around over time.
Here are the uniform numbers for the Panthers’ five 2023 draftees.
No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young wasn’t the only member of the Carolina Panthers’ 2023 draft class that officially got his digit this morning.
Here are the uniform numbers, as announced by the team on Tuesday, for the entire group.
Here are the salary cap details for each of the Carolina Panthers’ 2023 draftees.
Courtesy of the good folks over at Spotrac, let’s take a look at the salary cap details (when they are signed, sealed and delivered) for each of the Carolina Panthers’ 2023 draftees.
How athletic is the Panthers’ 2023 draft class? Let’s take a look at the RAS metrics for the group.
The Carolina Panthers may have gotten themselves a franchise quarterback from the 2023 NFL draft, but they did find themselves some high-end athletes as well?
Let’s see what Kent Lee Platte’s Relative Athletic Score (RAS) metrics say about this year’s class.
