NFL scout has Jalon Walker to Panthers in ESPN mock draft, but had WR on the mind

With one week to go before the beginning of the 2025 NFL draft in Green Bay, we're at the point where pretty much everybody agrees on what's going to happen in the first round - at least for the first top 10 picks or so. For the Carolina Panthers that means 99.87% of the mock drafts you see will have Georgia Bulldogs I/OLB Jalon Walker going to Carolina with the eighth overall pick.

The latest to mock Walker to the Panthers in Round 1 is an anonymous NFC East national scout, who was picking for Carolina in a top-10 mock draft from ESPN. Even though the scout went with the Walker crowd, he strongly considered a wide receiver pick, instead.

"As bad as the defense was, I still considered a wide receiver here and would probably pick one in Round 2. We still have to build around Bryce Young."

It might be simply the fact that we've seen his name connected to Carolina so much, but we've soured of late on Walker as a potential 8th overall pick. Walker might turn out to be a great defender at the next level and our objection has more to do with the relative depth of the positions that the Panthers need to be targeting early, or at least before Day 3.

Specifically, edge might be the deepest position group in this draft class. For example, Dane Brugler has 17 edge rushers ranked in his top 100 overall prospects. That means edge-needy teams can afford to wait to target that spot and don't need to force their first-round pick on it to get a good one. Some experts, such as Trevor Sikkema believe teams can still get an impact DL/EDGE as late as the fourth round.

By comparison there are not nearly as many high-quality wide receivers in this class (Brugler has 12 WRs in the top 100 and five in the top 50). Tight end also needs to be on the menu but that's also a deep position and can wait a while.

Bottom line - the Panthers should be looking to take the best wide receiver on the board with that No. 8 overall pick - unless a blue-chip piece like Abdul Carter or Mason Grahams falls and is still available. That said, if they're going to insist on an edge with that pick we'd prefer one of the prospects who had significantly better college production than Walker - perhaps someone like Marshall's Mike Green.

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