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Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Last year, the Carolina Panthers used the entirety of their draft capital on defensive players. They've picked a few offensive players in the 2021 draft, but they've also done quite a bit of trading down. 

And according to NFL Network's Peter Schrager, former Cowboys and Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson may have something to do with that. 

"Matt Rhule -- you might laugh at this," Schrager said. "He spent a day on a boat with Jimmy Johnson recently on a fishing trip, and they went through the trade value chart. I think Jimmy Johnson might be having an influence, maybe, on what Carolina's doing. Trade back, trade back, trade back, collect picks."

Here's the video:

Carolina has made five trades so far, moving down four times and moving up once. Using the old-school draft value chart Johnson made famous in the 1990s, the Panthers came out ahead on draft capital in four of the five deals. The same is true when you look at the trades in the Chase Stuart chart at Football Perspective and the Fitzgerald-Spielberger chart at Over The Cap. In the trade value chart created by CBS Sports editor R.J. White, the Panthers actually went five-for-five. 

Note: Because the charts use different values, we denoted the winners and losers of each trade in percentages, rather than raw points. So, in the trade where the Panthers sent Nos. 39 and 151 for Nos. 52, 83, and 204, they received 4.6% more draft value points on the Jimmy Johnson chart, 18.6% more points on the Chase Stuart chart, etc.

Panthers TradePanthers ReceiveJohnsonStuartOTCWhite
39, 15152, 83, 2044.6%18.6%29.0%1.4%
52, 11359, 891.6%5.0%3.6%1.7%
73, 191700.4%-11.8%-27.3%0.1%
89109, 158, 2022 4th2.9%80.0%121.4%22.3%
109126, 166, 232-2.4%24.5%92.3%6.1%

The Panthers still have three more picks in their pocket, and perhaps they'll trade down yet again to collect even more value.