Carolina Panthers select Chau Smith-Wade in fifth round of 2024 NFL Draft

The Carolina Panthers selected Washington State cornerback Chau Smith-Wade in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft. Carolina acquired the pick from the San Francisco 49ers.

Panthers offensive lineman Chandler Zavala announced the pick from Germany in hilarious fashion. With a pretzel in his hand behind the card, it made for quite a scene as the Panthers made their first fifth-round selection of the day.

They ultimately landed on Smith-Wade.

Chandler Zavala and The Panthers just gave us one of the most awkward draft moments I’ve seen pic.twitter.com/f9ht56VjC8

— Jacob Seliga (@jacob_seliga) April 27, 2024

Smith-Wade started the first seven games of the year for Wazzu before suffering a season-ending injury and missing the final five. He earned honorable mention All-Pac-12 selections a year ago and was a preseason all-conference player heading into 2023, and he still put up solid numbers. In his seven appearances, Smith-Wade had 36 tackles and two tackles for loss.

On the whole, Smith-Wade totaled 103 tackles, six TFLs and three interceptions during his four years at Washington State.

The Panthers have had an interesting draft so far after a rough 2-15 season in 2023. They didn’t make a pick until No. 32 overall and traded up to do so. That’s when they took wide receiver Xavier Legette out of South Carolina to give Bryce Young a high-level target, and the franchise got more offensive firepower in former Texas running back Jonathon Brooks in the second round. Smith-Wade was their fifth pick and followed tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders to get things going on Saturday’s final day of the draft.

What NFL Draft analysts are saying about Chau Smith-Wade

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein provided his scouting report of Smith-Wade ahead of the draft and noted the deficiencies he has with his height and weight. But he has some intangibles that could set him up for success at the NFL level.

“A slender cornerback with plus athleticism and speed, Smith-Wade is a capable defender in zone or man coverages,” Zierlein wrote. “He’s below the desired NFL mark on height and weight for an outside cornerback, which could hurt his draft slotting. Smith-Wade is a sticky man-cover corner when he gets into the receiver and he has closing burst that can make up for lost ground.

“He can be feast-or-famine in zone coverage, as he tends to look to jump short throws and loses his deep-cover responsibility. He could end up outplaying his draft slot due to his ball skills, competitiveness and athletic traits.”