10-30-2024, 09:22 PM -
PANTHERS RIP BAND-AID OFF WITH SECOND DIONTAE JOHNSON TRADE
The Panthers clearly weren’t going to re-sign Johnson. So, the next logical step for them was to get value for him before he shipped off in free agency. According to a source with knowledge of the trade negotiations, the Panthers initially spoke with two teams about Johnson a little over a week before the agreement with Baltimore was made on Tuesday. Per the same source, the Ravens entered the mix later as the third interested party. The issue for the Panthers was that the Pittsburgh Steelers essentially told the league that he was worth the equivalent of a high sixth-round pick in March when they traded him to Carolina. The Panthers sent a sixth-round pick and soon-to-be-cut cornerback Donte Jackson to Pittsburgh in exchange for Johnson and a seventh-round pick. The market — which is regularly studied by general managers and execs around the league — didn’t change much in the next seven-plus months. While Johnson had been the Panthers’ No. 1 wideout all offseason and into training camp and the regular season, his 30 catches for 357 yards and three touchdowns weren’t enough to entice a team to trade major assets for him. In Baltimore, he will be no better than the third wideout behind Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, most likely. Last week, a different league source told The Observer that the Panthers’ initial asking price for Johnson was a third-round pick. Clearly, there wasn’t enough interest to warrant a player-for-pick swap, let alone a Day 2 pick for Johnson. With all that said, the Panthers got seven games of Johnson’s production, a 2024 seventh-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick for the price of two sixth-round picks and Jackson, who was essentially a throw-in asset in the initial trade. It feels like a wash at best. A swindling at worst. But probably just a shoulder shrug in reality. Johnson, despite stating he wanted to stay in Carolina, clearly didn’t have a future with the Panthers, based on the front office’s actions. The Panthers got to prolong his value by jumping a round in the draft (probably 10-15 picks of a leap), but overall, this feels like a rough example of the cost of doing business when you’re a bad team. It’s also an example of why fire sales don’t really work in a league that values youth. If there’s a positive to all of this, undrafted rookie Jalen Coker won’t see his playing time drop off. If anything, he will to develop even further with more playing time.
Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports...rylink=cpy
The Panthers clearly weren’t going to re-sign Johnson. So, the next logical step for them was to get value for him before he shipped off in free agency. According to a source with knowledge of the trade negotiations, the Panthers initially spoke with two teams about Johnson a little over a week before the agreement with Baltimore was made on Tuesday. Per the same source, the Ravens entered the mix later as the third interested party. The issue for the Panthers was that the Pittsburgh Steelers essentially told the league that he was worth the equivalent of a high sixth-round pick in March when they traded him to Carolina. The Panthers sent a sixth-round pick and soon-to-be-cut cornerback Donte Jackson to Pittsburgh in exchange for Johnson and a seventh-round pick. The market — which is regularly studied by general managers and execs around the league — didn’t change much in the next seven-plus months. While Johnson had been the Panthers’ No. 1 wideout all offseason and into training camp and the regular season, his 30 catches for 357 yards and three touchdowns weren’t enough to entice a team to trade major assets for him. In Baltimore, he will be no better than the third wideout behind Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, most likely. Last week, a different league source told The Observer that the Panthers’ initial asking price for Johnson was a third-round pick. Clearly, there wasn’t enough interest to warrant a player-for-pick swap, let alone a Day 2 pick for Johnson. With all that said, the Panthers got seven games of Johnson’s production, a 2024 seventh-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick for the price of two sixth-round picks and Jackson, who was essentially a throw-in asset in the initial trade. It feels like a wash at best. A swindling at worst. But probably just a shoulder shrug in reality. Johnson, despite stating he wanted to stay in Carolina, clearly didn’t have a future with the Panthers, based on the front office’s actions. The Panthers got to prolong his value by jumping a round in the draft (probably 10-15 picks of a leap), but overall, this feels like a rough example of the cost of doing business when you’re a bad team. It’s also an example of why fire sales don’t really work in a league that values youth. If there’s a positive to all of this, undrafted rookie Jalen Coker won’t see his playing time drop off. If anything, he will to develop even further with more playing time.
Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports...rylink=cpy