Following the retirement of Jordan Gross in 2014, the Carolina Panthers tried, tried and tried again at replacing him on the blindside. Actually, we may have to add another “tried” or two (or 13) to that last sentence.
Over those eight seasons, the franchise mustered up 16 different men to start at left tackle—perhaps the second-most important position in the sport. So, care for a trip down memory lane . . . ?
The list stacked up quickly in that time—Byron Bell, David Foucault, Michael Oher, Mike Remmers, Matt Kalil, Taylor Moton, Chris Clark, Marshall Newhouse, Daryl Williams, Greg Little, Dennis Daley, Russell Okung, Trent Scott, Michael Schofield, Cameron Erving and Brady Christensen.
But now, that list may stop for a while with Ikem “Ickey” Ekwonu.
On Thursday night, the Panthers selected Ekwonu with the sixth overall pick of the 2022 NFL draft. And what they now have, besides one heck of a surprise considering he probably shouldn’t have lasted that long, is that left tackle of the future.
What the Charlotte native and local University of North Carolina State product brings, at least from the jump, is all the right makeup. During his three years in Raleigh, he was routinely commended for his leadership abilities, his football intelligence, his academic ventures and—perhaps most appealingly to the game itself—his nasty and violent demeanor on the field.
He’s got it physically as well. Ekwonu measured up in Indianapolis at 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds along with an 84 1/4-inch wingspan. (That good enough for ya, Matt Rhule?)
Those physical attributes, obviously, did him justice at the collegiate level. Ickey exhibited eye-opening power, quickness, flexibility and agility on the Wolfpack front—with his premier strength coming as an elite run blocker.
The lone knock on his game, if you can really call it such, is that he isn’t the most polished pass protector this draft class had to offer. He has to improve on honing in his tenacity, hand placement and footwork at the next level—where his athleticism won’t make up for mistakes like it did in college.
Now, could that come back to bite the Panthers—who let two better technicians go in Alabama’s Evan Neal and Mississippi State’s Charles Cross? To put it simply, that’s highly unlikely.
At worst, Ekwonu is a top-end talent as a guard. Even if he doesn’t develop as a worthy blocker off the edge—which, again, is not a distinct possibility given his tools both physically and mentally—Carolina has itself an All-Pro caliber presence on its interior for years to come.
Such a scenario could see the Panthers go with Christensen as the left tackle and Ekwonu at left guard along with center Bradley Bozeman, right guard Austin Corbett and right tackle Taylor Moton. Not too shabby, huh?
The ultimate goal, however, is to get the Ick to stick as the pillar on the blindside. And we don’t know about you, but we’re not betting against that.
