Subscribe
Follow Us
To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack, the 2024 Carolina Panthers need to sell, sell, sell at the 2024 NFL trade deadline.
Sitting in the doghouse of the NFC with a 1-5 record and a point difference of -100, the Panthers aren't a team bereft of talent per se, but most of those players fall into one of two categories: developmental prospects and veteran contributors on short-term deals.
When it comes to the former, the Panthers should tread lightly, carefully playing the market to secure premier assets or interesting players worth taking a shot on. But for the latter? Fire sale: anyone born in the 1990s – with few exceptions – needs to go, and a Day 3 pick will get you most of them, from Xavier Woods to Jadeveon Clowney and everyone in between.
Fortunately, this is very much a seller's market, so the Panthers might be able to load up on a few quality picks for players they no longer need while getting to play younger players where they would have anyway. Bad news for short-term winning prospects but good news for the draft junkies already eyeballing the next great class of Panthers.
1. Trade Jonathan Mingo to the Commanders for Emmanuel Forbes
When the Panthers drafted Jonathan Mingo out of Ole Miss, it looked like he had all the makings of a future WR1 for Carolina's offense. Paired up with a bright young quarterback, the athletic receiver looked primed to become a mainstay of Carolina's offense for years to come, serving as the young foil to Adam Thelein's veteran experience following DJ Moore's exit.
Keyword? Looked.
Over the past two seasons, Mingo really hasn't done much in the NFL, catching just 51.4 percent of the balls thrown his way while averaging just 9.8 yards per reception. He hasn't really found a role in Frank Reich's, Chris Tabor's, or Dave Canales' offense, and still famously hasn't scored a touchdown over 21 games of action.
Could Mingo figure things out over the next two seasons and change? Sure, maybe he will, but considering how quickly NFL teams give up on perceived busts nowadays, especially when the front office that drafted them is working for another team, trading a second-year wide receiver drafted in the top 40 really isn't that unusual, as it happened already this year with Jahan Dotson in the division no less.
Considering Commanders executive Scott Fitterer was a member of the Panthers front office that drafted Mingo, maybe they still see something they like in the collegiate Rebel, and they just so happen to have a similar reclamation project worth shopping to get a deal done: Emmanel Forbes.
Like Mingo, Forbes was drafted by the previous regime, is more prospective than a player, and even went to college in Mississippi, which doesn't really matter but is interesting nonetheless. Despite his pedigree as a former first-round pick, Forbes has fallen out of the Commanders' secondary rotation and now finds himself as the team's fourth cornerback because he simply doesn't fit neatly into the scheme Dan Quinn wants to run.
Now granted, does Forbes really fit the Panthers' scheme? Debatable, but he is a better player than current nickel cornerback Chau Smith-Wade and is probably better than Mike Jackson overall. With multiple years left on his rookie-scale contract, Jackson is a perfect buy-low player for Ejiro Evero's defense, especially since there's no guarantee he's their guy long-term.
2. Trade Miles Sanders to the Dallas Cowboys for a sixth-round pick
The Dallas Cowboys are a team in desperate need of help at the running back spot.
They whiffed on Derrick Henry last season, opted against signing a really good free agent this year despite having multiple quality options on the market, and didn't use a premier draft pick on the position either, despite most fans pegging them as an ideal landing spot for future Panthers back Jonathan Brooks.
Article Continues Below
Can Dallas make it through 2024 without upgrading the position? Sure, that's possible, but they likely won't be very good on the ground until someone other than Ezekiel Elliott, Rico Dowdle, or Deuce Vaughn is running the ball.
Enter Miles Sanders, the Panthers' one-time RB1, who is currently the clear number two behind Chuba Hubbard.
A player the Cowboys know very well from his time with the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East, Sanders has proven pretty definitively that he was a product of Jeff Stoutland's offensive line, looking like a shell of himself playing in three different Panthers offensive schemes. His yards-per-game is down by an insane 41 yards, and in 2024, he only has one game with more than 30 yards rushing despite averaging five carries per game.
Can Sanders recapture his former magic in Dallas, who has a better offensive line and a more dynamic offense? Maybe so, as he did average 5.0 yards per carry in Philadelphia versus 3.3 in Carolina, but for a sixth-round pick, the Cowboys may be willing to find out.
Panthers bonus: Bryce Young should be on the table
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when it looked like the Panthers were going to get to have their cake and eat it too.
In the short-term, they could shine with Andy Dalton under center, as they did defeat the Las Vegas Raiders in his first start of the season. But long-term? Long-term Young would learn from Dave Canales, learn from Dalton, and seamlessly transition back into the starting lineup, looking like the player fans were hoping for when he was drafted first overall.
Unfortunately, that dream lasted all of a week, as the Panthers have lost three straight, Dalton hasn't come close to his incredible effort in Week 3, and the team just looks lost more often than not, surrendering an average of 36 points per game while scoring less than 18 on offense.
With a very good chance of finishing the 2024 NFL season with a top-5 pick and not one, not two, but at least four quarterbacks who could go in the first round next spring, from Shadeur Sanders to Carson Beck, Jalen Milroe, and Cam Ward, maybe it's time to admit that Young isn't going to be the guy, at least not in Carolina's ecosystem, and trade him away while he still has good-to-great value with teams looking for a midseason bump.
Take, for example, the situation in Miami. Sure, it looks like Tua Tagavailoa is going to return sooner rather than later, and he certainly isn't retiring from the game, but what if he takes a step back before the deadline? What if the Dolphins see that they don't have another “guy” on the roster and are willing to pay up big time for Young? Or maybe a team like the Rams, who have a more attractive win-now quarterback in Matthew Stafford but don't have a future at the position? Would Les Snead be willing to trade a second-round pick for Young to have a better developmental guy than Stetson Bennett, regardless of what happens to Stafford?
No matter how the market shakes out, if a playoff team's older veteran quarterback suffers a season-ending injury or another outlet opens up for a team looking to land a first-overall pick on a discount, the Panthers need to keep all of their options on the table, which means putting Young on the block to test his market.
