Carolina Panthers: 3 questions that still need answers

1. Why didn’t the Panthers draft an offensive lineman?

While using all seven of your draft selections on defense brings an immense influx of talent to that side of the ball, one has to wonder why the Panthers didn’t use any of their draft capital on an offensive lineman. The fact that they lost starting guards Trai Turner and Greg Van Roten this offseason makes this decision even more curious.

The Panthers were never passing on Derrick Brown (nor should they) with the 8th overall pick. But guard Robert Hunt went one pick after the Panthers selected Gross-Matos and Josh Jones, a tackle that some experts had a first-round grade on, was available in the third round. The Panthers then failed to take a developmental pick in the later rounds. Head-scratching is the only term I can use for it.

As it stands right now, some combination of Russell Okung, John Miller, Matt Paradis, Greg Little, Dennis Daley, and Taylor Moton will make up the Panthers starting offensive line. The group hardly elicits confidence and with Okung and Paradis in their thirties, it’s likely not a group with longevity. On the bright side, Moton had a quietly solid season in 2019, and Daley and Little both showed promise when given an opportunity.

We knew that defense was going to take precedence in this draft, but not addressing the offensive line seems like a decision that will come back to bite the Panthers later, especially considering that they graded in the bottom half of the league in both run and pass blocking in 2019 per Pro Football Focus. And unfortunately for Teddy Bridgewater and co., they didn’t do much to get better this spring.