Touchdown Wire’s pre-combine mock draft: Chase Young, Jerry Jeudy are pivot points

Everybody does mock drafts, most everybody does more than one, and every mock draft is done for different reasons. To get clicks? Well, duh. That would be reason No. 1, dear reader. Let’s not be arch about this. That aside, what we’re trying to do …

7. Carolina Panthers (5-11): Isaiah Simmons, LB, Clemson

(Adam Hagy-USA TODAY Sports)

The Panthers are about to undergo a major rebuild with new head coach Matt Rhule, and if there’s one thing Rhule learned in his time as a college head coach — especially at Baylor over the past three seasons — it’s that you want as many athletes as possible on defense, no matter the situation. With Thomas Davis off to the Chargers last season and Luke Kuechly recently retired, the Panthers’ longtime linebacker paradigm could easily change. Shaq Thompson has become an athletic force as a new-school, built-like-a-safety linebacker, and Simmons fits a similar suit. At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, this is not a traditional run-fit thumper; per Pro Football Focus, Simmons played over 100 snaps on the defensive line and at free safety, and over 200 snaps in the box and in the slot. As long as his NFL team doesn’t try to turn him into Mike Singletary, Simmons has the potential to be a lockdown modern defender at the highest level.

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