Carolina Panthers: Making the case against drafting Chase Young

The Carolina Panthers have a lot of defensive needs to address but giving up so much draft capital to trade up in the 2020 NFL Draft would be a terrible decision.

In case you didn’t know, the Carolina Panthers have spent the majority of the offseason rebuilding. They’ve made some difficult decisions when it comes to their coaching staff and roster with hopes of making the necessary moves for better days ahead. It won’t be easy as they’ll be hiccups but the general idea is to start rebuilding now through the NFL Draft and in a few years, hopefully, field a winning team.

At this point in time, the Panthers have the No. 7 overall pick and will more than likely use it on a defensive lineman. It’s the biggest area of need for the Panthers and at No. 7, they should be able to draft a premier defensive lineman that will instantly bring an upgrade to their defense. There are already a ton of mock drafts and bold predictions out there but former NFL running back Tiki Barber started a storm with his thoughts on how the first five picks will go.

Barber predicts that the Panthers will make a blockbuster move in trading up from the No. 7 pick to the No. 2 pick in order to draft the best defensive end in this year’s draft, Chase Young out of Ohio State. Young is definitely the best of the best but the Panthers should not make any such move.

The Carolina Panthers should not trade up in the 2020 NFL Draft

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In the grand scheme of things, this would be a dire mistake for the Panthers to do. This is simply because when you’re a team that is coming off a 5-11 season, at the bottom of the NFC South, you know that dire change is needed. The Panthers aren’t miraculously going to be a contending team this upcoming season either as they need to use all of their draft picks now to bolster various areas of need on the roster.

To give up so much draft capital in this year’s and even next year’s draft just to move up five spots would undoubtedly increase how long this rebuild is going to take. If the Panthers stick to the draft picks they have now and keep rebuilding over the next few seasons, they could easily be a competitive team again within the next two to three years.

If they start messing around with their draft capital now just to trade up in the first round, it’s going to take even longer. A move like what Barber predicts is going to happen in the first round will set the Panthers back with other areas of need they need to address. What could be two to three years of rebuilding will become three to five years because they’ll have less draft capital to work with.

It’s best the Panthers stick to what they have now and approach the NFL Draft as it traditionally should be for teams that are rebuilding. You acquire draft capital to bring in more talent, not give it away to work with less and hope every pick you make works out in the long term. The Panthers are just starting their rebuild and aren’t a team that’s coming off a double-digit winning season or just being eliminated in the NFC Championship Game. Those kinds of teams need to make big moves like this to land a star player to put everything together for next time. Not the Panthers who have so many needs to fill, it’ll easily take them a few years to bolster the roster.

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Overall, it would be a mistake for the Panthers to trade up to land Young and give up so much in the process. They’re a team with many holes to fill and giving up so much just to trade up and land one extraordinary defensive end would prolong their rebuild. It’s not recommended at all for a team that has a lot of work ahead of themselves before they’re contenders again.

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