Carolina Panthers: More Noise About Browns Trade
The Carolina Panthers are reportedly one of the teams that the Cleveland Browns have approached about trading up into the first round.
The Carolina Panthers don’t have a lot of time for deal-making now, but that does not mean that people are going to stop talking about deal making. At number eight, the Panthers are essentially in a cannot lose position as anyone they would miss out on would already have gone and the crew of guys they would be looking at don’t change much in the intervening picks.
The desperation would seemingly lie in the teams around them. Cleveland is playing Russian Roulette trying to figure out if they can nab both Myles Garrett and a quarterback in their two first round picks. Maybe they can, maybe they can’t. If Mitch Trubisky is the best quarterback in the draft then it is unlikely he falls to twelve unless teams and scouts really don’t like the quarterback class as a whole and just have not told the rest of us.
Therefore, the Browns have sent out feelers to four teams in the first eight picks according to reports from Mike Silver at the NFL Network. That may be an indication that they have talked to everybody between those points, but it is clear that there is one team they have talked to, the Carolina Panthers. You can’t say top eight unless the eighth team was specifically mentioned.
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I have explored the world of trading down in another article, so I will only summarize here. The NFL Trade Value Chart says certain picks have certain values, but there is also a more vague notion of how much a team needs a certain pick. The trade chart assumes both teams get equal value.
For the Panthers, I don’t think it would take much to get them to move back in the first round, particularly not from eight to twelve. They can’t justify a heavy ransom for the Browns because the Browns are talking to everyone. The Panthers also don’t need much more than an additional pick to call the trade a win. It would just be good business to amass more picks. It might even be a future selection (1st or second rounder) in a later draft.
Next: NFL First Round Mock Draft
Either way, don’t expect the Panthers to walk up to the podium tomorrow and announce that they have won the lottery and won’t be picking eighth. A trade will yield a mild victory for the team, but not a big one.