We learned late last week that Saints quarterback Derek Carr has a shoulder injury that could require surgery and that revelation led to increased speculation that the team will take former Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders with the ninth overall pick.
It also increased chatter that another team with interest in Sanders might try to jump ahead of the Saints in order to secure his rights. The Panthers have the eighth overall pick and their General Manager Dan Morgan was asked at a Tuesday press conference if he’s heard from teams about trading with them since the Carr news broke.
“I don’t think yet,” Morgan said. “It’s still a little early for that, but maybe down the line I’ll expect it a little more. Right now, things are quiet.”
Morgan had expressed a willingness to trade down earlier in the press conference and reiterated that “we’ll be waiting if somebody wants to come up” after being asked about the Saints angle. Sanders might not be the only target for a team looking to move up, so the Panthers will be ready for all possibilities next Thursday night.
Panthers General Manager Dan Morgan has decisions to make about what players to add in next week’s draft and he also has to make a call about one of the team’s past first-round selections.
Morgan and the Panthers have until May 1 to decide about exercising their option on left tackle Ickey Ekwonu’s contract for a fifth season. Ekwonu was the sixth overall pick of the 2022 draft.
Ekwonu’s option would carry a fully guaranteed salary of $17.56 million and Morgan said at a press conference on Tuesday that the team is taking its time before deciding whether to pick it up.
Ekwonu has started 49 games since entering the NFL and he turned in his strongest season in 2024, so the Panthers will either bet on his continuing improvement or they’ll set him up for a prove it year in 2025.
The unexpected news that Saints quarterback Derek Carr has a shoulder injury makes it even more likely that the Saints will take a serious look at Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders when New Orleans is on the clock with the ninth overall pick in the draft.
ESPN’s Louis Riddick — who recently said he believes Sanders hopes the teams holding the top three picks in the draft won’t pick him — tweeted this: “That 9th pick gonna be all kinds of interesting.” Colorado coach Deion Sanders (Shedeur’s father) retweeted Riddick’s message, with the two eyeballs emoji.
It’s an accurate description of the situation. And it puts the team that holds the eighth overall pick in a position that is even more interesting.
And that team just happens to be one of the Saints’ division rivals, the Carolina Panthers.
Any team that wants Sanders now knows it must jump the Saints, like the Chiefs did in 2017 when the sprang up to get quarterback Patrick Mahomes at No. 10 before the Saints could take him at No. 11.
That could compel the Saints to move up to No. 7, with the Jets. Or even to No. 6, with the Raiders. Or maybe to No. 5, with the Jaguars.
Regardless, the ninth pick will indeed be “all kinds of interesting.” Earlier picks could end up being a lot more interesting, too.
Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson recently visited the Cowboys and Panthers, Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports reports.
Henderson earlier in the month had a visit with the Bengals.
The Cowboys are expected to draft a running back to join a room with free agent signees Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders. The Panthers, who have Chuba Hubbard, Rico Dowdle and Raheem Blackshear at the top of their depth chart at the position, won’t have Jonathon Brooks this season after he tore the ACL in his right knee again.
The Bengals signed Samaje Perine to go with Chase Brown and Zack Moss.
Henderson ran 144 times for 1,016 yards and 10 touchdowns during the final of his four years at Ohio State. He also caught 27 passes for 284 yards and a touchdown.
Henderson scored 19 touchdowns as a freshman, but missed time with injuries in his other two seasons, playing a combined 18 games.
Panthers quarterback Bryce Young has learned the lesson about how quickly circumstances can change in the NFL.
Young went from being the first overall pick in the draft in 2023 to being benched two games into the 2024 season and the Panthers didn’t plan for it to be a brief pause when Andy Dalton took over. Dalton was injured in a midseason car accident, however, and Young got another chance to play. He made the most of it and looked more like the star from Alabama than he ever did as a rookie.
That resurgence created a lot of optimism about what 2025 can bring, but Young knows that there’s no guarantee things will remain the same. While hosting a youth football camp last weekend, Young said the team has “to continue to build and grow” in order to fulfill last year’s promise.
“For me, it all resets year by year,” Young said, via the team’s website. “We’re able to finish on a strong note, which is great, but we’re starting next year 0-0, and it doesn’t carry over. We understand that we have to build off of that stuff; we’re not just entitled to it. So, for me, I want to make sure that I’m working just as hard, if not harder, in the offseason, making sure that I have good habits, be as consistent as possible to do all the little things, and we all have that mindset which I’m grateful to be a part of a team like that.”
Young will be working with the same coaching staff and key skill position players, which should help the Panthers’ chances to build on what they started last year and perhaps make some noise in the NFC South for the first time in many years.
