Mel Kiper Jr. projects Panthers to draft two-way star Travis Hunter with No. 1 pick over QB

The ESPN draft guru expects the Panthers to land the top pick in the draft again.

Schuyler Callihan | Oct 11, 2024

Cris Tiller / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Carolina Panthers

During a recent segment on ESPN First Draft with Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates, a fan asked Mel to fill in the blanks with who will have the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and who they will select.

"The Carolina Panthers take Travis Hunter," Kiper said.

Well @MelKiperESPN was pretty quick with his choice…

“With the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft the Carolina #Panthers select…Travis Hunter.” pic.twitter.com/nyWxcBGbQ7
— Keep Purring Podcast (Ben) (@KeepPurringBen) October 11, 2024

KIper's reasoning for the pick

“If a team desperately needs a quarterback, do they take one? Let’s say it’s New England…they have Drake Maye, they don’t need one. Carolina, you talk about the new situation in the NFL…are you going to say we want the new guy? Or do we want to stick with the quarterback we drafted number one overall not that long ago in Bryce Young. Is Bryce Young going to see the field again? He did this past week. What’s going to happen as that whole thing plays out this year? We don’t know. Even if you desperately needed a quarterback and said we don’t have anybody, we got to get a quarterback, and we’re picking number one is there a quarterback right now that you would take number one?"

Thoughts on Hunter

Hunter makes a lot of sense for the Panthers. He is a two-way player at Colorado, one of just a few in the entire country, but he plays both wide receiver and corner at such an elite level. Personally, I think he looks more natural at corner and it would also give Carolina one of the better young duos at the position, pairing him with Jaycee Horn. He could try to play both ways, but doing it in the NFL is just a different beast.