The Carolina Panthers selected a wide receiver in the first round each of the last two seasons, taking offensive rookie of the year Tetairoa McMillan at No. 8 last year and Xavier Legette at No. 32 in 2024. Does that fact make general manager Dan Morgan wary of using a third straight top-round pick on a WR?
“No,” Morgan said Tuesday via the team’s official website. “I think with anything, we’re going to take the best player. So if the best player we think is 19 years old, I wouldn’t hesitate to take another wide receiver. I don’t think there’s a rule that says you can’t draft a wide receiver three years in a row. So I’m not really going to put ourselves in the box and say we’re not going to take him.”
To confirm Morgan’s flippant comment: No, there is no rule that prohibits a team from taking a first-round wide receiver in three consecutive seasons. That rule would be the definition of boring.
However, this measure has only been done once before. According to NFL Research, during the joint draft era (since 1967), the only NFL team to draft a wide receiver in the first round was the Detroit Lions three years in a row from 2003-05: Charles Rogers, Roy Williams and Mike Williams. Two of the three struggled with injuries and ineffective play before he was washed out, and Roy Williams had just one Pro Bowl season. What’s perhaps more interesting about the Lions’ odd draft is that by striking out three times at the position, they ended up with one of the best WRs in NFL history, when they took Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson no. 2 combined two years later (2007).