{"id":274763,"date":"2026-04-14T18:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=274763"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:45:51","slug":"panthers-expected-to-trade-former-first-round-pick-during-2026-nfl-draft-3-potential-fits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/04\/14\/panthers-expected-to-trade-former-first-round-pick-during-2026-nfl-draft-3-potential-fits\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers Expected to Trade Former First-Round Pick During 2026 NFL Draft; 3 Potential Fits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After coming off a down season this past year, the Carolina Panthers are likely to explore the idea of trading Xavier Legette during the 2026 NFL Draft. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MySportsUpdate\/status\/2044143047831704053\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent press conference<\/a>, Panthers GM Dan Morgan was asked if Carolina would select a receiver in the first round this year again. Morgan responded: &#8220;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a rule that says you can\u2019t draft a WR three years in a row.&#8221; It&#8217;s interesting to decipher what he means, but if the Panthers select another WR, especially in the first-round, this likely spells the end of Legette in Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, he hasn&#8217;t been able to find his groove in this offense led by Bryce Young, but first-year <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/02\/06\/tetairoa-mcmillan-rookie-of-the-year-panthers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Tetairoa McMillan<\/a> and Jalen Coker exploded. Legette has been connected to several trade rumors this offseason, and if they receive calls over the draft weekend, they will likely listen. The receiver is still a capable weapon for an offense that needs a decent receiver who can excel in the right system.<\/p>\n<p>The Panthers haven&#8217;t said that they&#8217;re open to moving him, but it doesn&#8217;t mean they won&#8217;t. Legette is barely exceeding 800 receiving yards, which is a concern for the offense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 600px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB3jNQ5eXN\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 4668px; aspect-ratio: 4668\/3114;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>Panthers Expected to Trade Former First-Round Pick Xavier Legette During 2026 NFL Draft; 3 Potential Fits<\/h2>\n<p>However, it&#8217;s nothing concerning what the Panthers are building. McMillan and Coker have proven that they can thrive under Young&#8217;s system- something Legette can&#8217;t figure out. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.panthers.com\/news\/gradually-then-suddenly-panthers-moved-quickly-and-patiently-to-land-their-top-free-agent-targets-jaelan-phillips-devin-lloyd\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signing Jaelan Phillips and Devin Lloyd<\/a> to strengthen this defense, it&#8217;s time for the team to upgrade its offense.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise to see the Panthers dangle Legette on the trade block, too. Legette probably won&#8217;t ever get established, and with two years left on his rookie contract, he&#8217;s a valuable trade candidate for teams wanting a low-risk, high-reward receiver.<\/p>\n<h2>Potential Destinations<\/h2>\n<h3>Philadelphia Eagles<\/h3>\n<p>A rare NFC trade might explode headlines across the league. The Eagles aren&#8217;t expected to trade <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/04\/25\/philadelphia-eagles-contract-extension-aj-brown\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">AJ Brown<\/a> until at least June 1, but if they receive an offer from the Panthers that they can&#8217;t turn down, the team could consider it. Philadelphia might accept a first- and second-round pick along with Legette in exchange for Brown. The Eagles are already actively trying to move on without Brown, signing Marquise Brown and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philadelphiaeagles.com\/news\/eagles-agree-to-acquire-dontayvion-wicks-from-packers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">trading for Dontayvion Wicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It works for the Eagles to completely move on and start fresh with Legette as their long-term slot weapon for Jalen Hurts.<\/p>\n<h3>Los Angeles Chargers<\/h3>\n<p>The Chargers&#8217; pursuit of Legette sounds reasonable. Justin Herbert needs a high-caliber offensive weapon, and John Harbaugh has to understand that this team can&#8217;t rely on putting the responsibility on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/02\/02\/ladd-mcconkey-nfl-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Ladd McConkey<\/a>. He&#8217;s explosive, but he isn&#8217;t going to carry this receiver unit forever. KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Tre Harris are still getting acclimated to the offense, while Quentin Johnston showed some type of improvement.<\/p>\n<p>The team has cap space even for Brown, so if they don&#8217;t want to spend, they could pivot and acquire Legette.<\/p>\n<h3>Baltimore Ravens<\/h3>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Ravens are trying to find a new WR3 to upgrade the aerial attack behind Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/11\/07\/how-deandre-hopkins-is-changing-chiefs-passing-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">DeAndre Hopkins,<\/a> Nelson Agholor, Odell Beckham Jr. and Diontae Johnson were all temporary, so it&#8217;s time for the team to find something long-term. Legette is a low-stakes grab who could thrive in a fast-paced offense with Lamar Jackson under center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Carolina Panthers could be exploring the idea of trading WR Xavier Legette this month after the latest comments from GM Dan Morgan. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":274766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":true,"sfio_embed_code":"<smartframe-embed customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB3jNQ5eXN\" style=\"width: 100%;max-width: 4668px;aspect-ratio: 4668\/3114\"><\/smartframe-embed><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support -->","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,10,30,18,1647,6431,21],"tags":[33533,9415,7723,7739,32330,32193,246,7661,7393,7638,33031,32429,9722],"class_list":["post-274763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-ravens","category-panthers","category-chargers","category-nfl-draft","category-nfl-teams","category-eagles","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-aj-brown","tag-baltimore-ravens-news","tag-carolina-panthers-news","tag-ladd-mcconkey","tag-lastest-nfl-news","tag-nfl-news","tag-panthers-featured","tag-philadelphia-eagles-news","tag-ravens-featured","tag-tetairoa-mcmillan","tag-xavier-legette","tag-zay-flowers"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274763"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274790,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274763\/revisions\/274790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}