Jaguars Trade WR Laviska Shenault to Carolina Panthers

The Jaguars have traded their second top 2020 draft pick to the Panthers in as many years.

For the second time in as many seasons, a top Jacksonville Jaguars draft pick from 2020 is heading to the Carolina Panthers. 

The Jaguars announced Monday the team had traded 2020 second-round receiver Laviska Shenault to the Panthers, a move that comes 11 months after the Jaguars traded 2020 No. 9 overall pick CJ Henderson to Matt Rhule's squad. 

Sources have told Jaguar Report the Jaguars spent the last several days examining the trade market for Shenault, which is why he wasn't among the first waves of players waived or released on Monday. By 5:30 p.m. on Monday, the Jaguars found their trade partner. 

According to The Associated Press' Mark Long, the draft pick in play for Shenault is a 2023 pick. 

The Jaguars drafted Shenault at No. 42 overall in 2020, making him their third pick of the draft behind Henderson (No. 9) and K'Lavon Chaisson (No. 20). Now, only Chaisson remains. And after two sacks in two seasons, Chaisson is set to be solely a backup for the Jaguars this season, largely a result of a lack of depth at the outside linebacker position.

Shenault had tumbled down the depth chart for the Jaguars this spring and summer following the additions of Zay Jones and Christian Kirk, with Jamal Agnew also leaping him on the wide receiver depth chart. Shenault played in the final preseason game along with many other released players, and was projected to be the Jaguars' No. 3 slot receiver.

"Yeah, that's something we've got to continue to make sure Laviska is healthy and available for us at all times so we can see exactly what his skillset is," Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said during training camp. 

"We have a vision like we mentioned earlier what the role could be for him, but that's something we have to continue to work through and hopefully that comes up in game situations and competitive practice situations and we can really see if that's what we want it to be.

As a rookie, Shenault caught 58 passes for 600 yards and five touchdowns on the NFL's worst team. On a one-win team badly in need of playmakers, Shenault stood out time and time again. But then the 2021 season happened. Just like for every other Jaguar, the Urban Meyer era brought some especially shaky moments from Shenault.

In 16 games, Shenault caught 63 passes for 619 yards and zero touchdowns, bringing his yards per catch mark down from 10.3 to 9.8 and his yards per target figure down from 7.6 to 6.2. Shenault's catch percentage also took a big hit; after catching 73.4% of his targets in 2020, he caught just 63% in 2021 as Pro Football Reference credited him with eight drop after just three as a rookie.

Shenault played in two preseason games for the Jaguars, catching eight passes for 25 yards. He returned two punts, returning one five yards and fumbling the other.

In 30 career games with the Jaguars, Shenault caught 121 passes for 1,219 yards and five touchdowns.