There are some… interesting rumors circulating regarding Sam Darnold and what the New York Jets might or might not have done leading up to last week’s trade with the Carolina Panthers. The truth is far too much fun to ignore in any case and the details for this deal are fascinating enough.
Albert Breer at Sports Illustrated is one of several journalists who have dug deep on how the trade developed between these franchises. The negotiations began with an awkward SNL joke over the phone and culminated with the Panthers sending three draft picks to the Jets for their starting QB.
Apparently, Carolina felt it was important to hang on to their first three picks in the 2021 NFL draft. Here’s how they worked out a compromise with New York, per Breer’s report.
“For the Panthers, based on how their draft board sets up and their needs, it was important to hold onto their slotted picks in the first (No. 8), second (No. 39) and third (No. 73) rounds. So the compromise, with the Jets asking for “a second-rounder plus,” was to have the two come in 2022. And initially, the concept Carolina was working off was to have two later 2021 picks as part of the deal, but the sides couldn’t quite make the terms work under those parameters. So Carolina moved the sixth-rounder it was offering this year down (Carolina has three sixth-rounders and gave the Jets the last one), and the 2021 fifth-rounder they were offering up to a fourth-rounder and into next year.”
Interesting stuff. Does this mean the Panthers are unwilling to part with those picks no matter what they get offered when they’re on the clock?
Time will tell and anything can happen once the draft begins. Clearly the franchise has a plan going in that they want to stick to.
