Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Been waiting on those new uniform numbers for the Panthers’ 2022 draft class? Well, here they are.
Tomorrow, the Carolina Panthers will be officially dropping dates for this year’s regular-season schedule. But today, they dropped a few digits of a different type.
Here are, as announced by the team on Wednesday morning, the uniform numbers for the Panther’s 2022 draft class.
On Tuesday night, the Panthers announced they agreed to terms with the 2022 draft’s sixth overall pick Ikem Ekwonu.
Two Thursdays ago, the Carolina Panthers got their guy. And today, they’re signing him.
As announced by the team on Tuesday night, offensive tackle Ikem “Ickey” Ekwonu has agreed to terms on his first NFL contract. The deal, of course, is a standard one for a first-round draft pick—which spans over the next four seasons with a fifth-year option.
The Panthers selected Ekwonu with the sixth overall pick on April 29. The North Carolina State University product, in what turned out to be a dream scenario for general manager Scott Fitterer and head coach Matt Rhule, was the first offensive player taken off the board from the 2022 class.
Although not yet solidified for sure, Ekwonu is expected to overtake the all-important starting duties at left tackle. The 6-foot-4, 310-pounder was the (rather large) cherry on top of an overhaul along the offensive line which also included free-agent signings Austin Corbett and Bradley Bozeman.
Ickey joins sixth-rounder Amaré Barno and Cade Mays and seventh-rounder Kalon Barnes amongst Panthers rookies who have made their professional leaps official.
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The Carolina Panthers became the latest team to come to an agreement with their first-round pick, reaching a deal with tackle Ikem Ekownu.
The Carolina Panthers became the latest team to come to a contract agreement with their first-round selection, agreeing to terms with offensive tackle Ikem Ekwonu from N.C. State.
The organization announced the deal on their website Tuesday evening. From the statement on the team’s website:
The Panthers have high expectations for the Charlotte native, as they identified him as the top overall player on their board. That made his availability with the sixth overall pick an unexpected but welcome surprise.
He’s a key component of the offseason’s renovation of the offensive line, which also included the signings of guard Austin Corbett and center Bradley Bozeman.
Ian Rapoport from the NFL Network reported the terms of the deal:
It’s a 4-year deal worth $27,568,052 with a signing bonus of $17,229,492, source said. Fully guaranteed with a club option for year 5. https://t.co/tebzKzHK6X
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 11, 2022
The Panthers entered the draft with two critical needs and just one pick in the first three rounds: Offensive line and quarterback. They addressed the first need with their selection at six overall, adding Ekwonu. The offensive tackle rose up draft boards in the fall thanks to a spectacular final season for the Wolfpack.
The Panthers were also able to take advantage of the quarterback slide, and when Matt Corral from Mississippi was still available late in the third round, Carolina executed a trade with the New England Patriots so they could address the other critical need.
The Panthers’ 2022 draft class landed right into NFL.com’s top-10 list. So, how far up did the group go?
The Carolina Panthers came into the 2022 NFL draft with their hands tied. Without any picks in the second or third rounds, and pretty glaring needs at a few pretty important positions, expectations had to have been set relatively low for what the braintrust could do.
Well, they untied their hands and somehow wound up with one of the most impressive draft classes of the event. Or, at least that’s what they did according to NFL.com editors Gennaro Filice and Dan Parr.
Filice and Parr ranked the Panthers’ haul as their ninth-best overall, crediting the team’s calculated roll of the dice on high-end athletic traits.
“Going back to his college days at Baylor and Temple, Matt Rhule has always bet big on traits. And when those traits intersect with value and need, that’s a formula for success,” Filice writes.
“Coming into Thursday night, there was some question as to whether any of the top three offensive tackles would be still be available at No. 6 overall. As it turned out, Carolina had its pick of the litter, and the Panthers pounced on the Charlotte native. Ekwonu’s game still needs some polish, particularly in pass pro, but the explosive tools are plain to see in the O-line porn that is his highlight reel.”
Oh, sounds sexy.
In addition to that, uh, highlight reel, Ekwonu is one heck of an athlete for a 6-foot-4, 310-pounder. The sixth overall pick, based off Kent Lee Platte’s Relative Athletic Score (RAS), ranks 183rd out of 1,218 offensive tackles tested since 1987.
Filice then lauded Rhule and the Panthers for their following selections.
“The Panthers traded into Round 3 and stopped Corral’s slide at No. 94,” he added. “While the Ole Miss product is a polarizing eval, on and off the field, he offers plus athleticism and the quickest release in this class. Darnold remains the incumbent starter, but Corral’s simple presence on the roster makes this team more interesting. On Day 3, Carolina went FULL RHULE, collecting three freak athletes in Smith, Barno and Barnes, the last of whom ran the second-fastest 40-yard dash in combine history (4.23).”
Hopefully, “FULL RHULE” is a good thing this time around for Carolina.
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How good of a bet is Panthers QB Matt Corral in 2022’s Offensive Rookie of the Year race?
Do you have some extra cash and really believe in Carolina Panthers quarterback Matt Corral? If so, you might want to put a little something down on the third-rounder right about now.
Here, courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook, are the current AP Offensive Rookie of the Year odds for the 2022 season.
Will Matt Corral overtake Sam Darnold for starting duties come Week 1? Here’s what we think in our post-draft projection of the Panthers’ 2022 offensive depth chart.
Amongst its impressive 2022 NFL draft class, the Carolina Panthers got as much as they could at two key positions right off the top of their card. Those investments—hopefully both long-term ones for the middling franchise—could finally solidify the left tackle spot and the all-important quarterback position moving forward.
But how forward?
Here is our post-draft projection for the Panthers’ offensive depth chart:
| Position | Starter | Depth | |||
| QB | Sam Darnold | Matt Corral | P.J. Walker | ||
| RB | Christian McCaffrey | Chuba Hubbard | D’Onta Foreman | Spencer Brown | Darius Bradwell |
| FB | Giovanni Ricci | ||||
| WR | DJ Moore | Terrace Marshall Jr. | Brandon Zylstra | C.J. Saunders | |
| WR | Robby Anderson | Rashard Higgins | Shi Smith | Aaron Parker | |
| TE | Ian Thomas | Colin Thompson | |||
| TE | Tommy Tremble | Stephen Sullivan | |||
| LT | Ikem Ekwonu | Cameron Erving | Aaron Monteiro | ||
| LG | Brady Christensen | Michael Jordan | Dennis Daley | ||
| C | Bradley Bozeman | Pat Elflein | Sam Tecklenburg | ||
| RG | Austin Corbett | Deonte Brown | Cade Mays | Mike Horton | |
| RT | Taylor Moton | Austen Pleasants |
Matt Corral wasn’t the first player Carolina took, but his place on this chart is a tad more intriguing than Ikem Ekwonu’s. So we’ll start there.
The kicker in all of this is Sam Darnold—who may not even be on the roster come September. Look for the Panthers to still swing some sort of deal for a veteran quarterback—likely Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield—to guide the way early on ahead of the third-rounder.
But if we’re forecasting the unit based off what’s there now, Darnold gets the first crack and a short leash. Corral goes over P.J. Walker simply because the franchise, with a juicy 2023 quarterback class ahead, will need to see if he’s worth hitching their wagon to beyond 2022.
Now, we head to Ekwonu—the first offensive player taken in the entire class. While there are some improvements for him to make as a pass protector, the 6-foot-4, 310-pounder didn’t have the sixth overall pick used on him for nothing.
He’ll likely earn his way onto the blindside, which’ll slide Brady Christensen to the inside. Fellow rookie and sixth-rounder Cade Mays, however, should serve as a nice depth piece for what was a painfully thin interior for Carolina in 2021.
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As detailed in a tremendous deep dive by Darin Gantt of Panthers.com, Ikem Ekwonu was GM Scott Fitterer’s No. 1 prospect all along.
When the 2022 NFL draft’s sixth overall pick hit the clock last Thursday night, we knew—with each of the top three offensive linemen still available—that the Carolina Panthers were going to have their way. But now, we know that they really had their way.
Exactly one week after the team selected North Carolina State University’s Ikem Ekwonu with that pick, Panthers.com published one heck of a dive into how the unthinkable draft went down. Longtime Charlotte scribe Darin Gantt, in tremendous and riveting detail, gave us a look behind the scenes of the event—from the film room to the war room.
And that look dated as far back as March 29 at Palm Beach, Fla.—where general manager Scott Fitterer already knew who he would be taking if he held the draft’s No. 1 overall pick. Gantt writes:
“Yeah,” Fitterer said behind his sunglasses, an easy grin creeping across his face. “It would be the tackle. I would go Ickey, the local guy. Not only is he a good player, he brings the mentality that we want, that toughness, that edge. Probably him.”
The word probably was a bit of a hedge, but you could tell he didn’t mean it that way. He mentions a few other players, noting that they’d be excellent choices any team would love to have. But in a perfect world, he keeps coming back to one guy.
“Yeah,” he said with another nod. “It would be Ickey.”
Getting your top-rated prospect at the sixth spot ain’t too bad, right? Plus, it only helps when that particular prospect fills a very particular need—one that has plagued the franchise for the past eight seasons.
While there is somewhat of a question as to if Ekwonu will, in fact, start at left tackle right away, there’s no question about the blindside ultimately being his. There’s also no question that Fitterer, in a shocking string of developments, got his guy in the end.
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Pro Football Focus is the latest publication to show the Panthers some love for their 2022 draft class.
The critical acclaim continues for general manager Scott Fitterer, head coach Matt Rhule and the Carolina Panthers for their performance in the 2022 NFL draft. This time, it’s Pro Football Focus handing down the props.
Sam Monson, the site’s lead NFL analyst, identified his biggest winners of the weekend—delivering roses to six of the league’s 32 teams. One of those lucky recipients, obviously, is the Panthers—who did a pretty nice job of digging themselves out of a hole according to Monson.
“They chose to roll the dice, eschewing passer with the sixth pick and taking Ikem Ekwonu instead, a tackle atop many draft boards who was in the running to be drafted No. 1 overall at one point,” Monson writes of their first-round selection.
The board somehow fell exactly how they would’ve liked it—with each of the class’ top three offensive linemen there for the taking. In fact, according to Fitterer, the team even had a few trade-down offers before cornerbacks Derek Stingley Jr. and Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner got scooped up.
Talk about an absolute dream for the swap-happy GM.
Carolina’s dream continued when they also saw another target begin to fall in Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral, who Monson pinpoints as their best pick of the draft.
“From that point, all the Panthers could do was wait and hope they had a chance at a quarterback in a year when the class won’t be coveted by the rest of the league,” he adds. “Late in the third round, they eventually decided they were in range to trade up and grab Corral, who had been expected to go in the second round or even sneak into the bottom of Round 1.”
The Panthers then finished off with some high-end athletes—linebacker Brandon Smith, defensive end Amaré Barno, offensive lineman Cade Mays and cornerback Kalon Barnes.
“Later on, the team added some legitimate athletes with upside, but this draft is about the first two picks,” Monson then notes. “Whether by luck or by design, the Panthers were able to come out of this draft with an elite player at No. 6 overall and a quarterback with starting potential. That’s not something that seemed possible heading into the event.”
Well, it doesn’t really matter now if the Panthers benefitted from luck or from design. What matters is they got what they needed, and they really needed it for what’ll be an important 2022 campaign for a lot of folks in that building.
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According to Ellis L. Williams of The Charlotte Observer, there are people within the Panthers’ organization who are 100 percent behind starting Ikem Ekwonu at LT right away.
This past Thursday night, the Carolina Panthers invested one heck of an asset into North Carolina State University’s Ikem Ekwonu. That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean the 2022 NFL draft’s sixth overall pick is guaranteed the job many thought he was selected for.
Even with Ekwonu now in the fold, head coach Matt Rhule could still go a number of ways at the left tackle position—at least for the upcoming campaign. As the promising 21-year-old continues to develop his craft, possibly pushing him into the inside of the line come Week 1, Brady Christensen and Cameron Erving may remain options for the Panthers on the blindside.
But, these are all ifs here on May 4. And, according to Ellis L. Williams of The Charlotte Observer, there may be no ifs, ands or buts about who Carolina really wants to man that spot right away.
“I think there’s a really good chance,” Williams said of Ekwonu’s outlook as the Day 1 starter on Tuesday’s edition of The Nick Wilson Show. “I’m comfortable with putting it over 70 percent. I know there’s people inside that building who would say there’s a 100 percent chance of it.”
Although Ickey is still a work-in-progress as a pass protector, that’s not to say he won’t be effective in holding up against NFL edge rushers. In fact, Pro Football Focus charged him with just three sacks over 500 pass-blocking snaps in 2021.
For our early projection of what the Panthers’ offensive line could look like to start the campaign, we’d say bet on Ekwonu to undertake those all-important duties. That’ll likely leave Christensen at left guard, Bradley Bozeman at center, Austin Corbett at right guard, Taylor Moton at right tackle and Erving at left out.
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On Monday, Panthers GM Scott Fitterer said the team had three “really good offers” for their sixth overall pick before two particular defenders were snatched off the board.
New Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Ikem Ekwonu seems pretty happy that he’s staying home in Charlotte. And he may have the Houston Texans and New York Jets, in part, to thank for that.
General manager Scott Fitterer, the famed draft-pick merchant himself, was featured on Monday’s episode of Movin’ the Chains on SiriusXM NFL Radio. When covering what went down this past weekend, particularly about how he and the team landed on Ekwonu, he told hosts Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller that the chance to wheel and deal with the sixth overall pick was very much alive.
That prospect died, however, when a pair of cornerbacks were scooped up before the Panthers hit the clock.
Scott Fitterer on @SiriusXMNFL: “we had 3 really good offers” for the 6th overall pick. Says those teams were going for corners, and when they came off the board, that ended that.
— John Ellis (@1PantherPlace) May 2, 2022
Those corners, of course, were Derek Stingley Jr. of Louisiana State University and Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner of the University of Cincinnati. After the draft started with a pair of pass rushers in Travon Walker and Aidan Hutchinson, Stingley Jr. and Garnder went third and fourth overall—respectively—to the Texans and Jets.
Two picks later, Carolina took their guy Ickey and him the first offensive player to have his name called on Thursday night. So even though Fitterer might’ve had that itch to trade down, it was probably scratched by the fact that they may have finally gotten their franchise left tackle.
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