Carolina Panthers president of football operations and general manager Dan Morgan has been workin’ day and night to get his roster together for the regular season.
He continued on Thursday by completing a little bit of a thriller with the Seattle Seahawks, trading rookie linebacker Michael Barrett in exchange for cornerback Michael Jackson.
But why did the Panthers already give up on a pretty young thing? And who exactly are they rocking with now?
Here are the biggest takeaways from today’s swap:
Beat It
Remember the time Morgan and the Panthers selected Barrett in the seventh round of this year’s draft? Well, despite that, the 24-year-old still wasn’t a lock for the team’s initial 53-man roster.
Barrett wasn’t alone in the middle linebackers room, one already headed by long-time Panther Shaq Thompson and free-agent signee Josey Jewell. The depth behind those veterans has been filling out as well—with fellow rookie Trevin Wallace and special teams contributors Chandler Wooten and Claudin Cherelus impressing this summer.
Barrett clearly hadn’t done enough to jam himself into that equation. But at least the 2023 national champion gets to reunite with Mike Macdonald, his defensive coordinator at the University of Michigan in 2021.
Wanna Be Startin’ Someone
Carolina’s plan to start free-agent addition Dane Jackson at cornerback was quite clear. But that plan took a bad hit a little over a week ago, when the team learned they’d be without their projected No. 2 for “six-ish” weeks due to a “significant” hamstring injury.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, Stephon Gilmore recently let them know that he didn’t want them back and joined the Minnesota Vikings instead—leaving the defense with a handful of inexperienced options to replace Jackson.
This newer Jackson, however, has quite the experience as a featured corner—as he’s made 21 starts over 36 outings for Seattle between the last two seasons. 17 of those nods came in all 17 games of the 2022 campaign.
Smooth Criminals?
Did the Panthers just pull of a heist for Jackson?
The Pro Football Focus numbers were rather solid for the 6-foot-1, 210-pounder in 2023. He earned an overall defensive grade of 77.0 (19th-best amongst cornerbacks with at least 450 defensive snaps), a coverage grade of 76.9 and a run defense grade of 71.5.
Carolina probably isn’t healing their world with Jackson, but he could end up being a steal—especially for a seventh-rounder who wasn’t going to be on the roster.
