What will the Panthers do at No. 19?
The draft is here. We look at characteristics of Dan Morgan's selections to see what he may do in round 1.
Dan Morgan will run his third draft as Carolina Panthers President of Football Operations and General Manager on Thursday night.
Morgan has drafted 15 players in total, which is a small sample size compared to other tenured GM’s.
Nine of his 15 draft picks have come from the SEC. He’s also selected two each from the Big Ten, Big XII and one from the Pac XII/Notre Dame.
He has yet to select a player from outside the power leagues.
Per ClevAnalytics’ 2026 GM Command Center, Morgan has also refrained from choosing older players. The average age of Morgan’s draft picks has been 22.2, which is second amongst 25 active GM’s. Additionally, 40 percent of the Panthers selections have been aged 22 or lower.
While athleticism and high Relative Athletic Scores was a trait valued by the prior regime, the average RAS for Morgan’s draft picks is 7.4. He has only selected two players with a known RAS over 9.0: Xavier Legette and Trevin Wallace.
Morgan has also selected five players that the Panthers have hosted as part of their 30 pre-draft visits, including first round picks Legette and Tetairoa McMillan.
Excluding pre-draft deals, Morgan has made six trades during his two drafts. He has traded up four times and down twice.
Will it be a premium position again? Premium positions are considered quarterback, edge rusher, offensive tackle, wide receiver, and cornerback.
From a wide receiver perspective, the Panthers met with wide receiver KC Concepcion, Denzel Boston and Omar Cooper, players often in the first round of mock drafts.
I covered it earlier, but would the Panthers take a wide receiver in the first round three years in a row? I do believe Morgan would do it given the lack of additions in free agency and Legette’s on field play.
Of the three they’ve met with, I do believe Concepcion is definitely the favorite given the home run ability he has.
The Panthers also met with cornerbacks Jermod McCoy and Chris Johnson. They do have Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson but you can’t have enough people who can cover.
McCoy’s medicals are of major concern to a number of teams per reports and it’s possible he falls out of the first round completely per NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero.
Would that preclude the Panthers from drafting McCoy in round 1? They did draft running back Jonathon Brooks in the second round in 2024 coming off of a torn ACL. Brooks retore the ACL and has yet to make an impact on the field.
Arizona State offensive tackle Max Iheanachor also met with the Panthers. We covered the possibility of the Panthers targeting a tackle.
Would Morgan draft a non-premium position in the first round? They met with Oregon safety Dillon Thieneman. He would immediately start across from Tre'von Moehrig.
The Vikings have been linked with Thieneman and pick one spot ahead of the Panthers. If they want him, they’ll likely need to move up and Morgan isn’t afraid to go get his guy given what he’s done in the past.
So Dan, what’ll it be?
I have no inside intel but my gut tells me that there will be a run on offensive tackles, the Panthers will trade down to the mid 20’s and draft Concepcion.