Carolina Panthers traded back four times in 2nd night of NFL draft

Alaina Getzenberg
·2 min read

The Carolina Panthers entered the second day of the NFL draft with two picks for the night and seven remaining on the final two days.

Four trades and a whole lot of chaos later, Carolina added three players to the roster and still have five picks in the final four rounds of the draft. The Panthers also picked up a 2022 fourth-round pick from the Houston Texans in the process.

The four trades — three down and one up — tied the most in a single draft in franchise history. General manager Scott Fitterer got off to quite a start in his first year with the organization.

“I thought Scott was masterful today,” Panthers coach Matt Rhule said. “We came into today, Day 2, thinking we were gonna to get two players, we came away with three. The way personnel people look at it, a three this year equates to a (second-round pick) next year and then we picked up a (fourth-round pick) year, so basically the Sam Darnold trade is paid off now.”

The four Panthers trades:

▪ The Panthers sent No. 39 and 151 to the Bears in exchange for Nos. 52, 83 and 204.

▪ The Panthers traded back to No. 59 in the second round from No. 52, sending the Cleveland Browns pick No. 113. Carolina also got pick No. 89.

▪ The Panthers traded up to No. 70, and sent No. 73 and 191 to the Philadelphia Eagles.

▪ The Panthers traded No. 89 to the Texans. They received No. 109, No. 158 and a 2022 fourth-round pick.

Panthers players drafted:

Pick No. 59: LSU WR Terrace Marshall Jr.

Pick No. 70: BYU OT Brady Christensen

Pick No. 83: Notre Dame TE Tommy Tremble

The remaining picks are:

Fourth round: Pick No. 109

Fifth round: No. 158

Sixth round: Nos. 193, 204, 222

Fitterer previously worked with the Seattle Seahawks, who are known for trading back, especially in the first round.

The Panthers are looking to add to a variety of positions in this year’s draft and getting more picks was a priority coming into the weekend. Often, the most successful teams in the draft are those with the most draft selections.

Carolina was not known for trading back under former general manager Marty Hurney, and made big moves to trade up in the order during each of the last two drafts. In 2019, the Panthers traded up to acquire left tackle Greg Little in the second round and moved into the second round in 2020 to take hybrid defender Jeremy Chinn.