Carolina Panthers Met With Enticing Edge Rusher at Senior Bowl

The NFL Draft is 83 days away, and the Senior Bowl is here. The Carolina Panthers have boots on the ground scouting some of the most elite and experienced players in all of college football.

With Senior Bowl week in full swing, scouts from across the entire NFL are there to evaluate the best senior talent in all of college football.

Throughout the week, seniors from across the country come together for a week-long minicamp, going through team and one-on-one drills and daily practices. The week leads to the Senior Bowl game, where the prospects show their skills in real game speed situations

For the Panthers, they’ll be looking more at the defensive side of the ball, with dire needs at multiple positions. The senior pool has a ton of talent when it comes to edge rushers, and the Panthers met with one of the best at the Senior Bowl this week.

EDGE Derrick Moore was one of the standouts for Michigan’s defense this past season. The 23-year-old senior recorded 19 solo tackles, 10 sacks, and forced two fumbles on the season, and he hasn’t missed a step since arriving at the Senior Bowl this week. He’s been one of the top performers in practices and one-on-one drills

The #Panthers met with @UMichFootball EDGE Derrick Moore at the @seniorbowl, per @thaRBW. #KeepPounding

Moore (6’3”, 254 LBS) finished the 2025 season with 30 total tackles (19 solo), 10.5 TFLs, 10 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 3 QB hits & 3 PBUs.

Moore earned First Team All-Big… pic.twitter.com/0E0TSaJfpX
— panthers.breakdown (@panthersbreakd) January 29, 2026

Moore excels in both pass defense and bringing pressure to the opposing quarterback. Due to his stellar last season at Michigan and Senior Bowl performance so far, he’s put himself in for his production in 2025.

The Carolina Panthers reportedly met with Moore on Thursday and for good reason, he fits exactly the type of player that the Panthers need to add to the edge and start bringing pressure ot opposing quarterbacks.

Carolina's defense is young and improving, but the one area where the Panthers were still terrible was pressuring the opposing QB.

#Michigan EDGE Derrick Moore (6'3 260, 23 Y/O) was the best performer at the #SeniorBowl yesterday, and is a player I'm really excited to see perform the rest of the week, if he chooses to do so.

👍
- Good production
- AMAZING power
- 34 inch arms
- Good production
- 19.8% PRWR… pic.twitter.com/j3uoioXIly
— mrlutz (@mr1lutz) January 28, 2026

The only question surrounding a prospect like Derrick Moore for Carolina is if he's worth taking with the 19th pick overall. This year’s draft class is stacked with legit EDGE talent all across the board, and there are a multitude of prospects who would be graded higher than Moore.

In recent weeks, since the season ended, mock drafts have projected many different players to go to edge rushers in the first round, but none of them have projected Derrick Moore.

Instead, the most commonly mentioned names are Cashius Howell, Akheem Mesidor, T.J. Parker, and other position players like linebackers and interior defensive linemen.

All things considered, though, Moore certainly would still be a help to this defensive line group that ranked 31stin pressures in 2025. The question isn't if it'd be a good pick or not; the question is if it will be the best pick possible at that point in the NFL Draft.

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