The Panthers spent the first two days of the draft getting faster. They spent the first of their six picks on Day 3 getting a lot bigger.
With the first pick of the fourth round, the Carolina Panthers have selected 6’4″, 259 pound tight end Ian Thomas of the Indiana Hoosiers. Thomas, who was only a full-time starter during his senior season, entered his final season in Bloomington with only three catches in his college career; he finished second among Big Ten tight ends with a 15 yards per catch average on his 25 catches, five of which resulted in touchdowns.
This pick appears to be less about what Thomas has done and more about what Thomas could do in the future – an athletic, twitchy prospect who will be able to learn from Greg Olsen after Olsen resigned through the 2020 season on Thursday. The 21-year old from Baltimore was referred to as a “sleeping giant” by scouts. While his blocking at Indiana was unpolished, he was a fluid, if inconsistent, route runner – both Thomas and fellow tight end Chris Manhertz are both in the mold of “raw prospect who could grow into a future contributor”, but many scouts view Thomas as having “superstar upside”.
The Carolina Panthers traded back into the fourth round, swapping their early fifth-round pick along with their sixth rounder to move up and draft 6’2″, 235 pound defensive end Marquis Haynes from Ole Miss, continuing to check boxes of need on their defense – Haynes joins CB Donte Jackson and S Rashaun Gaalden in the 2018 defensive draft class. If there is one thing that Marquis Haynes did well, it was rush the passer, breaking the Ole Miss modern-era career sacks leader with 32, surpassing former Panthers defensive lineman Greg Hardy’s mark of 26.5. Essentially, he lived behind the line of scrimmage in college, holding the modern-era career record for tackles for loss with 47.5.
The 24-year old only started four games in 2014, but was a huge disruptive force, forcing three fumbles and adding 7.5 sacks during his first season with the team.
Carter started all 37 games at middle linebacker from 2015 to 2017 and led the team in tackles three consecutive seasons, breaking 100 tackles in two of his last three seasons – the 6’1, 228 pound Carter was named the team’s defensive player of the year in 2017 to go along with honorable mention All-Big Ten honors. Carter, who’s known affectionately as “Pee Wee”, may have his biggest impact on special teams, where he was considered a team leader early in his career with 22 tackles on special teams in his freshman and sophomore seasons.
“I see a guy that got good first-step quickness,” Rivera said about the team’s fifth-round pick. “Plays laterally very well; he played in a defense that was OK, they were a young team that was still growing, so he had to do a lot of work on his own. One thing he plays with is great leverage, he’s not very tall, he’s 6’1 and explosive when he gets into contact. Extends his hands very nicely, works to shed quickly.”
“One thing he does very well is defeats the blocker and then locates the ball as opposed to keeping his eyes in the backfield, which I think is important.”
With their two final picks of the draft, the Panthers took chances on two players they are hopeful can contribute to their roster. The first, selected at 234, was Andre Smith, who was thought to be one of the best linebackers in the country before suffering a knee injury and the second, selected at 242, was a space-eating defensive tackle from Miami.
Smith, a 6′, 240-pound linebacker from UNC who spent most of the 2017 season on the sidelines after suffering a season-ending torn lateral meniscus against Lousville in Week 2 – before he was injured, he was having a great season with 21 tackles and an interception returned for 73 yards (but not a score, which still haunts him) in just under two games worth of work. Coming off of his sophomore season, Smith was expected to be rated amongst the top linebackers in the league after compiling 113 tackles in the 2016 campaign in which he started 12 out of 13 games; he played almost that entire season with a torn pectoral muscle where he said he was playing with “one and a half arms.”
With their second pick, the Panthers selected defensive tackle Kendrick Norton from Miami – contrary to popular opinion, Norton is not related to boxer Ken Norton, Sr; Norton was voted 2017 all-ACC honorable mention as a junior when he finished with 26 tackles and two sacks. The 312-pounder will occupy a lot of space in the middle of the line in the mold of Ndamukong Suh, Dontari Poe or Star Lotulelei and will compete with a crowded tackle room that includes Poe, Kawann Short, former first-rounder Vernon Butler and Kyle Love. Smith says he doesn’t like to compare himself to any current players, because he’s not a big NFL fan and only knows the most famous defensive tackles – but he’s not scared to talk about his own game.
“I go hard,” Norton said just moments after being drafted. “Every play, I leave everything I have out there on the field, whether it’s running 20/30/40/however many yards down the field, jumping on the pile to make a gang-tackle, helping out, going hard and having fun.”
“You could call me a bully. I play like a bully.”
