ESPN: Carolina Panthers' selection of South Carolina WR Xavier Legette among best Round 1 picks

The Panthers didn’t own a first round pick until they traded up for one, landing Xavier Legette. And at least one analyst is applauding the selection as one of the best of the draft’s opening day.

Field Yates, an NFL Draft analyst for ESPN, released his best picks and top steals of the draft early Tuesday. He’d had a few days to think about all the moves and 257 picks of the seven-round draft.

The Panthers selected Legette at No. 32, the final pick of the first round. The draft was deep in elite wideouts. Legette, who most thought would end up as an early second-round pick, represented the seventh receiver off the board and has coveted size (6-3, 227 pounds).

Before he released the names of his best picks, Yates named his caveats. The draft picks, he said, weren’t necessarily the best players of each round. Rather, they were the “the best picks. I factored in value, fit and what the player will bring to the team, among other things,” Yates said.

So why Legette, the former South Carolina star who was the favorite of quarterback Spencer Rattler? Hint, it’s all about another quarterback.

“Legette was the 28th player on my board, as one of the most explosive players in the draft class,” Yates wrote. “Get the football in his hands and good things are bound to happen, thanks to his power and acceleration as a ball carrier.

“His combine measurables and testing results (6-foot-1, 221 pounds, 4.39-second 40-yard dash and 40-inch vertical jump) jumped out to me because they aligned with the tape. This pick continues a really strong offseason for the Panthers, who have poured countless resources into improving the environment around Bryce Young. I expect a major turnaround for Young this season, and Legette can help.”

The others Yates singled out were:

Bears: Rome Odunze, WR Washington)
Colts: Laiatu Latu, Edge (UCLA)
Eagles: Quinyon Mitchell, CB (Toledo)
Bucs: Graham Barton, C (Duke)

The Panthers weren’t done with the offense and the help they giving Bryce Young, last year’s No. 1 pick of the NFL Draft. In the second round, Carolina selected former Texas Longhorn running back Jonathon Brooks. He’s coming off ACL surgery, but his doctor believes Brooks is on track to return by training camp. Brooks also was the first running back off the board.

“He’s a bigger back, he’s got range,” new Panthers coach Dave Canales told reporters about Brooks. “There’s so much that he brings from a versatility standpoint, that’s probably the biggest thing that stood out and then just vision, patience, contact balance, acceleration, like he’s got it all, he’s the best back in this class.”

Then in the fourth round, the Panthers opted for tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders, a teammate of Brooks’ at Texas.

“He’s a guy that can do a lot of different things,” Canales said of Sanders. “He’s made some dynamic plays with the ball in his hand, and he’s really strong at the catch, and that’s probably one of the biggest things that we saw in him is just the contested catch part. (Plus) he’s got massive hands, and he really does attack the ball.

“Any more in this league, tight ends to really get that separation from man to man is pretty hard. Most of them are around the same speed, except for a few guys. So since they’re going to be covered, the contested catch is big, and that’s where he really separated himself from the rest of the guys.”

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