Now that the Super Bowl–which ended with another Kansas City Chiefs championship and another blown lead by Kyle Shanahan in a championship game–is over, it is now time to shift focus into the 2024 NFL offseason. What better way to do so than by thinking about the best team (the Chiefs) in the NFL to the worst the Carolina Panthers.

The Panthers had a disastrous 2023 season. Not only did they finish with the worst record in the NFL (2-15), they did so without control of their first round pick in 2024 and saw the quarterback they passed over for Bryce Young (CJ Stroud) wreck the league as a rookie and win a playoff game. 2023 was a challenging season, but the hiring of Dave Canales as head coach and having $31 million of cap space to sign sneaky free agents like Darnell Mooney and Noah Fant has them in a position to improve sooner than later.

It's impossible to get much worse than what the Panthers were in 2023. But it sure does sting to not have a first-round pick, let alone the first overall pick, for a team that was the worst in the NFL. Carolina has to be efficient and surgical with their draft picks and cap space in the offseason and find values on the margins. It won't be easy, but it is definitely possible. The two players listed above stand out as potential great values the Panthers can pluck in free agency and help them win games next season and beyond.

Darnell Mooney, Wide Receiver

Darnell Mooney quickly became an afterthought in the Chicago Bears' offense. After the Bears acquired DJ Moore from these Carolina Panthers, Mooney's involvement in the offense plummeted. Mooney posted a 14.1 percent target share in 2023. That's by far the lowest in his four-year career. He was never below 25 percent in each of the past two seasons.

It's easy to forget how efficient Mooney was during his breakout 2021 season. He averaged 2.04 yards per route run according to playerprofiler.com, which ranked 24th among all wide receivers that season. He caught 81 passes for 1,055 yards and four touchdowns that season. He averaged 2.2 yards per route run the next season as well, so it isn't as if he was a one-hit wonder. But that efficiency crashed down to 0.94 yards per route run in 2023 as his involvement in the offense cratered.

Mooney is a good receiver and the Panthers badly need one of those. The 34-year-old Adam Thielen was the only Panther to exceed 550 receiving yards in 2023 and half of those yards came in the first six weeks of the season. Mooney could be a great addition next to him and the rookie Jonathan Mingo. The Bears made lemonade with a former Panther receiver. Why can't Carolina do the same but in reverse?

Noah Fant, Tight End

This pairing makes sense for a lot of reasons. For one, the Panthers need a tight end. Hayden Hurst left the team with a serious medical situation that hopefully he can come back from. But outside of him, the Panthers don't have a lot at tight end. Tommy Tremble, Stephen Sullivan and Ian Thomas combined for 375 yards and three touchdowns in a combined 39 games played between them. Oof.

Noah Fant has the pedigree to be a top notch tight end. His athletic measurables don't put him far off from George Kittle as an athlete according to playerprofiler.com. He's also been a productive tight end before in his career. As a rookie, he averaged 1.86 yards per route run, which ranked 16th among tight ends that season. In 2020, that number was 1.75, still very good. It was 1.64 in 2021, 1.47 in 2022, and 1.28 in 2023. It can't be a coincidence that his efficiency and usage dipped while competing for targets among the likes of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. But it isn't as if Fant has been awful either.

Lastly, there is familiarity in Carolina now with the brass in charge of the team. New head coach Dave Canales was the Seahawks' quarterbacks coach in 2022 when Fant was in Seattle. Carolina's new general manager Dan Morgan spent a few years in Seattle, too. He never overlapped with Fant, but they should have some intel on Fant's game based on their time there.

The Panthers just need to bring in good players any way they can find them. Darnell Mooney and Noah Fant qualify as such. They'd be a couple of lowkey signings that could help the Panthers turn their fortunes for the better in 2023. Hopefully, Carolina can make something happen this offseason.