LB BRANDON SMITH, PENN STATE
Smith is an athletic project, but he’s a project well worth taking at this stage of the draft. The production profile isn’t overly impressive. Smith earned PFF grades below 60.0 in each of the last two years at Penn State. But the NFL is always going to look for 6-foot-4, 250 pound linebackers who test above the 90th percentile in the 40-yard dash, broad jump and short shuttle. Now, the Panthers just need to figure out how to use him.
EDGE AMARE BARNO, VIRGINIA TECH
One of the twitchiest athletes in this draft, Barno is the ultimate risk-reward edge prospect in this draft. Evidenced by his 4.36-second 40-yard dash, Barno has all the traits to be a contributor off the edge for Carolina but will need years of development to ultimately reach his ceiling.
Mays played 2,131 snaps throughout his four-year career, earning single-season PFF grades between 65.5 and 73.4. The 6-foot-5, 311-pounder allowed just five pressures (and only one sack) across 272 pass-blocking snaps last season.
An exceptional athlete who ran a 4.23-second 40-yard dash while posting a 40-inch vertical jump and an 11-foot-1 broad jump, Barnes has all the tools to develop into one of the steals of the draft. While Barnes has yet to translate those athletic traits to on-field production, as his highest overall defensive grade (73.8) and coverage grade (73.0) came in 2019, Barnes’ athletic profile was well worth the gamble at this point in the draft.