NFL offseason wish list: Carolina Panthers

Welcome to our fantasy football wish lists, where we’re going through each NFL team and listing three things we’d love to see them do this offseason for fantasy reasons (but also real football reasons).

Sign Colin Kaepernick to a one-year deal

I was going to lead off with “sign a capable veteran quarterback,” but where’s the fun in that? No, the Panthers shouldn’t sign 32-year-old Joe Webb or 38-year-old Matt Schaub, as at least one beat has suggested (seriously). Kaepernick might come cheaper than Tyrod Taylor (I’d imagine) and Kaep might have extra motivation to join Carolina given the presence of his pal Eric Reid. The same Eric Reid that Carolina just signed for three years and more than $22 million. I mean, isn’t this the perfect situation? Kaep could sign on a “show-me” sort of deal, one that wouldn’t threaten the incumbent Cam Newton. Kaep can put his legs to work (career 6.1 Y/A) and show off his excellent Int% (career 1.8%). I love it. Sign Kaepernick, feature Christian McCaffrey, and don’t punt a full season due to Cam’s shoulder woes. Let Cam take his time healing, and let Kaepernick and McCaffrey run roughshod over the NFL in 2019.

Draft offensive line reinforcements

SB Nation’s own Cat Scratch Reader is all over this one. No matter who is under center, let’s find a tackle (or two) to protect that person. And to pave the way for Christian McCaffrey. The Panthers aren’t in dire need of skill players, so this is an area they can improve in this year’s NFL Draft.

Sign Spencer Ware

I hyped Ware last offseason and wound up right about Kareem Hunt for the wrong reasons. One of the points I attempted to make is that Ware is an underrated athlete. This isn’t me saying Run-CMC isn’t great—on the contrary, I want the Panthers to sign a running back they feel comfortable giving backup touches to. Apparently that wasn’t C.J. Anderson, so take a shot on the underrated and versatile Ware, and let’s protect Run-CMC just a tad. Heck, even an 80/20 split would be preferred over last year’s workload. Sure, CMC garnering the lion’s share of touches is epic for fantasy football, but I don’t want to lose McCaffrey due to an injury brought on by overuse.

And yes, I could have said Carolina should find an edge rusher, but most NFL teams will be doing that early in this year’s draft anyway. It’s sort of a given. There’s still room for the Panthers to add some teeth to the D-line early, AND target the O-line in the middle rounds.

What say you, haters? Give me all your arguments against Kaepernick becoming a Carolina Panther. Football arguments, I mean. Don’t cite how long he’s been away from football, either. I’ll invoke the name of Mark Sanchez if you do that. Come at me.