What kind of player can the Panthers reasonably expect to draft at No. 19?
· Yahoo Sports
Few things fill NFL fans with more hope than first round picks. It’s part of our nature as football fans to pull up our favorite team’s list of upcoming picks then selectively scour Football Reference to see which Hall of Famers were drafted somewhere near where our team picks.
For us as Panthers fans, that’s No. 19 this year.
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As we look forward to April’s draft with high hopes Carolina will land a stud an No. 19, let’s also take a look back on previous drafts and see what types of players have actually been selected around that part of the draft. In order for us to have enough recent, valid data points to reference, let’s give players at least four NFL seasons before we grade them so nobody drafted after 2022. Let’s also consider not only pick 19, but the pick that precedes it (No. 18) and follows it (No. 20).
And while this is subjective, I’ll do my best to fit each player into one of five boxes to summarize their career to this point: Fringe player, Reserve, Average Starter, Quality Starter, and Absolute Stud. Here we go:
2022 Draft Class
No. 18 Treylon Burks, WR – Reserve. Over four seasons he has appeared in 35 games with 20 starts. His total production of 63 receptions for 839 yards and two touchdowns isn’t a needle mover.
No. 19 Trevor Penning, OG – Reserve. He has started 33 of 53 career games, including 27 of 30 over the last two seasons for the Saints and Chargers. His 53.5 PFF grade last year ranked 65th of 81 guards and he recently re-signed with the Chargers on a 1-year, $3.5 million deal.
No. 20 Kenny Pickett, QB – Skip. Drafting a quarterback at No. 19 is very different than every other position in football, so we’re going to bypass evaluating Kenny Pickett.
No. 21 Trent McDuffie, CB – Absolute Stud. Let’s see, in four seasons he has an All-Pro First Team and an All-Pro Second Team nod under his belt and he just signed a 4-year, $124 million contract. Is there any category higher than “Absolute Stud”?
2021 Draft Class
No. 18 Jaelan Phillips, OLB – Quality Starter. This is a name Panthers fans are familiar with after he recently signed with Carolina on a 4-year, $120 million contract. With 205 tackles and 28 sacks in 63 career games, Phillips will be in search of his first Pro Bowl season in his debut campaigns with the Panthers.
No. 19 Jamin Davis, OLB – Reserve. Davis’s career started off really strong. In his first three seasons he racked up 76, 104, and 89 tackles, respectively, and seven sacks. But in 2024 the Commanders declined his fifth-year option and released him halfway through the season. Since then he has bounced around the waiver wire and signed with four different teams, playing sparingly. He enters 2026 on a $1.2 million future/reserve contract with the Raiders.
No. 20 Kadarius Toney, WR – Fringe. The mercurial and sometimes controversial receiver played for three teams in his first four NFL seasons, producing 82 receptions for 760 yards, and three touchdowns. In April 2025 he apparently retired from football on Instagram Live, only to then deny it. He went un-signed in 2025 and is still a free agent today.
2020 Draft Class
No. 18 Austin Jackson, OT – Average Starter. Through six NFL seasons, all with the Miami Dolphins, Jackson has started 60 of 62 games. While he’s never made a Pro Bowl, he has started for over half a decade. Last year PFF graded him as the No. 51 of 89 tackles in the NFL. He will remain in Miami in 2026 on a 1-year, $7 million deal.
No. 19 Damon Arnette, CB – Fringe. In a truly sad case of making incredibly poor choices, Arnette was released in 2021 after a video surfaced of him brandishing a gun and threatening to kill someone. At the time he was also facing multiple lawsuits stemming from a hit-and-run incident. In 2024 he was arrested on meth and firearms charges. Even then, last year he appeared in two games for the Houston Texans, his first game action since 2021. He is currently a free agent.
No. 20 K’Lavon Chaisson, OLB – Average Starter. Through six NFL seasons Chaisson has started 25 of 88 games with 136 tackles and 17.5 sacks. However, he seems to be just now hitting his prime with 12.5 sacks over the last two seasons which is squarely puts him in “average starter” territory. He recently signed a 1-year, $11 million deal with the Washington Commanders.
2019 Draft Class
No. 18 Garrett Bradbury – Average Starter. Bradbury might be what the dictionary shows under “Average Starter”. He has started 105 of 105 career games with no Pro Bowls. He was recently traded from the New England Patriots to the Chicago Bears on the second year of his 2-year, $9.5 million contract. PFF graded him out as the No. 30 of 40 centers in the league last year.
No. 19 Jeffery Simmons, DT – Absolute Stud. Over his seven-year career Simmons has four Pro Bowl selections, two All-Pro Second team selections, and was named All-Pro First Team last year. Beast.
No. 20 Noah Fant, TE – Quality Starter. In his seven seasons in the NFL Noah Fant has always been good, but hasn’t quite passed the threshold to “great”. He has started 90 of 110 career games with a very solid 334 receptions, 3,593 yards, and 18 touchdowns to show for it.
What the Panthers can expect
Here’s how the 12 players in scope for today’s exercise have fared:
Fringe – 2 (Toney, Arnette)
Reserve – 3 (Burks, Penning, Davis)
Average Starter – 3 (Jackson, Chaisson, Bradbury)
Quality Starter – 2 (Phillips, Fant)
Absolute Stud – 2 (McDuffie, Simmons)
As Panthers fans prepare for the 2026 draft, we are probably dreaming of landing the next Trent McDuffie or Jeffery Simmons at No. 19. What’s most likely, however, is the teams lands an average starter who will still be producing six or seven years from now on a reasonable contract, but not moving the needle.
The Panthers have only drafted one player at No. 19 in the team’s history, and that was tackle Jeff Otah back in 2008. His career in Carolina was unfortunately cut short due to injuries, lasting just 29 games over three seasons.
But for now, we’ll put aside thoughts of Kadarius Toney, Will Arnette, and Jeff Otah.
Let’s hope GM Dan Morgan goes out and lands the next absolute stud at No. 19.