It was only 2008 when the Carolina Panthers were 12-4 and tied for the best record in the NFC. In those playoffs, Jake Delhomme went vintage Delhomme with six turnovers against the Cardinals, paving the way for Arizona’s Super Bowl run. Sure, Jake’s collapse into a colorblind quarterback who kept throwing the ball to the other team weighed heavily on their issues, but how is it possible that the Panthers destructed from 12-4 to 2-14 in only two years? How could they have had the seventh best offense in football in ’08 and by far the worst last season? If you want to find out where things went wrong in Carolina (besides with Jake Delhomme), you don’t have to look further than three horrific trades made by GM Marty Hurney (pictured).
In the 2008 draft, the Panthers picked Jonathan Stewart with their first selection. Then they decided they wanted to hit the Daily Double and traded a second, fourth, and first-round pick in ’09 to move back into the first round to take Jeff Otah with the 19th pick. They surrendered a first rounder, second rounder, and fourth just for another first-round pick. Does that sound like good value to you? Of course not. And the worst part is Otah was hurt last season and has only played 25 games in three years.
As a result of the Otah trade in ’08, the Panthers didn’t have a first-round pick for ’09. Because they had a 12-4 season, they were picking at the back of the draft and didn’t have a selection until the 59th overall pick. That wasn’t good enough for Carolina, so they decided they had to get into the action and made another absurdly foolish trade. They traded their first-round pick in 2010 just to get a second-round pick. Yes, a first for a second. Does it get any dumber than that? Their logic was that Everette Brown was still around with the 43rd overall pick and they rated him as a first rounder, plus with Julius Peppers leaving, so they needed another pass rusher. Still, the math sucks — you don’t trade a first for a second.
Now if you thought Carolina’s draft day stupidity ended there, you would be wrong.
Last year, the Panthers traded their 2011 second-round pick for New England’s third-round pick. Yes, you read that correctly. They traded with the Pats to take Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards 89th overall. Because Carolina was the worst team in the league, the second-round pick turned out to be gold for New England — it was the 33rd overall and essentially a first-round pick. Carolina was pretty convinced Cam Newton was their guy this year, but imagine if they also had the 33rd overall pick. That would have given them a lot more flexibility with their decision-making; they could have picked a guy like Marcell Dareus first and gone with an Andy Dalton second.
It’s one thing to have bad luck with a draft pick getting hurt. It’s another to have questionable scouting and just not have some picks pan out — that happens to anyone. But it shows a clear lack of understanding of value when you consistently trade away high picks in the future for low picks in the present. That is a fireable offense and matter of utter stupidity.
