Why did the Carolina Panthers trade for Laviska Shenault Jr.?
By the time of the deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars back on Aug. 29, the wide receivers room was already a bit crowded. Heck, even 2021 second-round pick Terrace Marshall Jr. had trouble holding down a spot.
Plus, the 23-year-old Shenault Jr. was walking into quite the uphill battle. Between learning offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo’s exhaustive playbook and battling for prospective touches, he needed some time to acclimate.
Well, he has—and we finally have a firm answer as to why the Panthers made that move for him.
“People in this room have kinda heard me talk—I think he was gonna give us a spark,” head coach Matt Rhule said of Shenault Jr. after his team’s 22-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints. “Laviska’s kinda a competitive guy. So that’s why we traded for him. He’s come far enough along that we feel like we have a feel for him. He was good, he had a great kickoff return. We’ll just continue to up his workload now that we’ve seen what he could truly do.”
What he did was amass a team-high 90 receiving yards on just two catches. One of those grabs—an electric 67-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown—gave the Panthers a nice 19-7 cushion en route to their first win of the season.
He also provided some much needed stability in the return game. Shenault Jr. fielded a pair of kickoffs and, as Rhule alluded to, brought one of those attempts back for a nice 36-yard take.
Now, we’ll see what else Shenault Jr. can truly do and what else Rhule and the Panthers have in store for their new weapon.
