Are Panthers-49ers talking trade for #2 pick … Our friends over at The Huddle Report are reporting that Carolina and San Francisco have talked about a deal involving a flip of the 2nd and 8th overall picks at next month’s draft. As far as we can tell nobody else in either the national or local press has picked up on the story so it remains very much in the unconfirmed category. That said, it is a deal that makes some sense for both teams. Carolina, for example, would really like to add an elite edge rusher, but likely won’t have any shot at either of DEs Myles Garrett of Texas A&M and Stanford’s Solomon Thomas, the top two 4-3 outside pass rushers in this year’s draft, at the 8th pick. In fact, Panthers’ head coach Ron Rivera was at the Stanford pro day last week; for the record, that’s a long way for an East coast exec to go at a time when there were other more prominent pro days far closer to home. At the same time, it should be noted that the Panthers would also like to add a big-time RB – Rivera is scheduled to be at LSU’s pro day next week where Len Fournette, this year’s top back will workout – and Stanford also has a pretty good RB in Christian McCaffrey who would be a nice consolation prize if Fournette and Florida State’s Dalvin Cook were off the board. For its part, San Francisco would really like to get a QB with their #1 pick, but its not clear any of this year’s top passers are worthy of the second pick overall. To make matters worse for the 49ers, the positional players who would be value picks at that spot – DEs Thomas and Alabama’s Jonathan Allen – play the same position as both of San Francisco’s last two first-round picks. Move down to #8, though, and a QB makes more sense. Stay tuned!
