2021 NFL Draft: 5 Teams that should be tanking for Trevor Lawrence

3. Carolina Panthers

Entering the 2020 offseason, it appeared obvious that a full-blown rebuild was in store for the Carolina Panthers. The team hired Matt Rhule as their new head coach, a program builder coming from the college ranks at Baylor. Meanwhile, it was obvious they were prepared to part ways with Cam Newton. Thus, the stage for tearing it all down was set.

Instead, the Panthers signed guys like Teddy Bridgewater and Robby Anderson in free agency before focusing exclusively on defense in the draft. Is that going to be enough for the Panthers to win the loaded NFC South? Almost surely, that won’t be the case. Yet it might be enough to push Carolina out of having a top-five pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Because of their offseason moves that brought in a solid veteran quarterback — for three years, no less — it’s hard to decipher how the Panthers would truly tank for Trevor Lawrence. Having said that, something that we’ll talk about again shortly is that good players on the roster shouldn’t prohibit teams from taking great players.

That applies in Carolina. If Bridgewater is fine but not special and the Panthers, on the whole, struggle in the 2020 season to where they are close enough to make a move for the Clemson quarterback, they need to prepare themselves in every way possible to make that move.