How Next Week's Free Agency Can Totally Change NFL Draft for Panthers

The Panthers can clear up to $70 million in cap space with a bevy of moves. They won't make all of them, so let's just assume, for the purposes of this article, that they end up around $50 million to spend this year.

They need quite a few things, so here's how that money could be spent:

• EDGE Bradley Chubb: $15 million
• WR JuJu Smith-Schuster: $3 million
• LT Justin Skule: $3 million
• ILB Demario Davis: $9 million
• QB Zach Wilson: $3 million
• C Cade Mays: $12 million
• S Alohi Gilman: $5 million

If the Panthers make these moves, it totally changes the draft board. Suddenly, they don't necessarily need an edge rusher or an inside linebacker. They can skip wide receiver. The tackle position can be put off until later in the draft. They won't need a new center or a safety.

Where would they go in that scenario? That still leaves a need at tight end, cornerback, and interior defensive line. Suddenly, the Peter Woods mock drafts make a lot of sense. So does a Kenyon Sadiq pick in round one.

The Panthers could still draft an edge, but they wouldn't be as hard-pressed to get one early to make sure they grabbed an elite prospect. The same goes for linebacker, while other things (safety, wide receiver, center) would just totally fall off the draft board.

This would free them up to attack a couple of positions of need while mainly targeting best player available, which is a better scenario for the Panthers to be in. They need talent, and it almost doesn't matter where it comes, especially in this hypothetical.