Panthers' trade for Ihmir Smith-Marsette gives the team three skills it desperately needs
In the hours spanning from late Monday night to Tuesday morning, the Carolina Panthers traded for Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette. The team secured Smith-Marsette for a swap of conditional 2025 seventh-rounders. With Smith-Marsette on the team, he brings three key skills that the Panthers can use moving forward. Those skills? Playmaking, blocking, and returning. […]
In the hours spanning from late Monday night to Tuesday morning, the Carolina Panthers traded for Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette.
The team secured Smith-Marsette for a swap of conditional 2025 seventh-rounders. With Smith-Marsette on the team, he brings three key skills that the Panthers can use moving forward.
Those skills? Playmaking, blocking, and returning. Prevalent in the decision made is the addition of more versatility to the Panthers' wide receiver room ahead of the 2023 regular season.
Smith-Marsette's playmaking
Throughout the preseason, Smith-Marsette proved himself a viable playmaker. He caught nine of his 10 targets this preseason, totaling 195 yards and two touchdowns.
Those are pretty good numbers, especially when you take into consideration that he was catching passes from Chiefs backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert.
Take a look for yourself:
Smith-Marsette is a willing blocker
Finding a wide receiver that is a willing blocker isn't easy. Most times, wide receivers want to catch passes. But in Smith-Marsette's case, he is more than willing to put his body on the line to execute a key block.
And for a team whose offensive line is suspect and impact blocking limited, having a player willing to do the dirty, unglamorous work is critical for the Panthers moving forward.
Smith-Marsette can be a returner
Though limited at the NFL level, Smith-Marsette has a history of being a quality returner.
He won the Big Ten's Rodgers-Dwight Return Specialist of the Year award in 2018 and finished his collegiate career with 1,520 yards on 53 returns, an average of 28.7 yards per return, with two touchdowns.
Though he won't put up those same numbers in the NFL, it is still an interesting idea to place him in a returner role on the Panthers if Frank Reich and his staff think it makes the most sense.
Panthers trade for Ihmir Smith-Marsette, adding another WR option ahead of Tuesday’s deadline
The Carolina Panthers added depth at wide receiver Tuesday morning, hours before the roster cut deadline, in a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Feature image via ay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports.
