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Carolina Panthers: Halfway There

By John Woodcock

Apr 28, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Vernon Butler (Louisiana Tech) after being selected by the Carolina Panthers as the number thirty overall pick in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft at Auditorium Theatre. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 28, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Vernon Butler (Louisiana Tech) after being selected by the Carolina Panthers as the number thirty overall pick in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft at Auditorium Theatre. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Carolina Panthers played to form with their first three draft picks in 2016.

The Carolina Panthers have completed sixty percent of their draft. The results have been Louisiana Tech defensive tackle Vernon Butler, Samford cornerback James Bradberry, and finally West Virginia cornerback Daryl Worley.

With that trio, the Panthers have done the two things they needed to do coming into the draft. They wanted the best available player and they needed cornerback depth.

  1. The Butler did it for them

The name of the game for Dave Gettleman has always been the inside out along with the philosophy of getting the best player available. Vernon Butler fits both of those ideas but does leave some of us scratching our heads.

The hulking 320 pounder’s only real sin is that he does not play corner or defensive end. For a mock drafter me like me who got overly attached to Kevin Dodd and Kendall Fuller, it was a surprise but again was not out of the blue. My record in this draft was pretty spotty since Dodd and Fuller both ended up in the second round. The Panthers even passed on Fuller at 62.

On the other hand, Butler is a great insurance policy when Kawann Short and Star Lotulelei come up for extensions. Just like Kony Ealy reduced the trouble of missing Greg Hardy, Gettleman has his next tackle should one of the negotiations go awry. That is more likely to be Lotulelei believing that his deal should be equal to Short’s and getting turned away.

  1. Myles Jack?

The UCLA linebacker fell down the board all the way to the Jaguars in the second round. The biggest argument against the Panthers taking Butler is that Jack was a better available player. However Gettleman told reporters that Jack’s potential microfacture surgery had him further down the Panthers board as a result.

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  1. Big cornerbacks

If there is a common theme between the Panthers’ second and third round draft picks then it was getting tall cornerbacks. Bradberry and Worley were both over six feet tall and have backgrounds of being physical corners.

Drafting Bradberry and Worley back to back allows for the two to become big competitors in training camp for the spot opposite Bene Benwikere in the defensive backfield. Either could win out at this point so that was an additional bonus for the Panthers.

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  1. Work Left to Do?

The Panthers cannot ignore the offensive side of the ball as the draft as the draft continues. Unfortunately they have only two picks to work with since they moved up to get Worley. They traded their fourth rounder to Cleveland and flopped their fifth rounder. They pick second in the fifth round and second to last in the seventh round tomorrow.

Look for an offensive lineman to be one of those two picks.

Next: Four Draft Day Scenarios

The NFL Draft returns tomorrow at noon.

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