OLB and G targets at 39, 93, and beyond

Possibilities at 39: One of the dangers of looking for pass-rushers is that everyone is looking for pass-rushers. They tend to go off the board in clumps. Elite ones (such as Alabama’s Will Anderson) go in the top five, and because of the need across the league, projects are routinely overdrafted.

So they have to look at their board with the realization that after they take a quarterback first, this field will thin considerably before they come back around. Players such as Texas Tech’s Tyree Wilson, Iowa’s Lukas Van Ness, and Georgia’s Nolan Smith will likely be gone in the top half of the first round.

Once the draft moves into the 20s, a group of players, including Clemson’s Myles Murphy, Iowa State’s Will McDonald, and LSU’s BJ Ojulari will likely come into play. If they lasted until the late first or early second, you could see the Panthers being tempted to go up and get one of them (though it will be costly for a team entering the weekend with just six picks).

Kansas State’s Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Georgia Tech’s Keion White are also possibilities in that 25-40 range, but the law of supply and demand works against them here.

Possibilities at 93 and beyond: Once you get past the first two rounds, many of the guys you’re looking at have holes in their games, and you’d have to adjust your expectations accordingly. Because of the way the position gets picked over, it’s hard to find starting-caliber players past the first couple of rounds. So finding someone who could fit into a rotation and be developed becomes more of the thought process.

And honestly, the Panthers might need to move up from their late third-rounder at 93 if they want to get in on players such as Auburn’s Derrick Hall or Ohio State’s Zach Harrison. Wisconsin’s Nick Herbig is a player who showed a lot of pop as a pass-rusher in college, but lacks the ideal size to play on the edge, and may shift inside in the NFL.