David Mayo to Carolina Panthers: Full Draft-Pick Breakdown

With their first compensatory selection in the fifth round, the Carolina Panthers selected linebacker David Mayo out of Texas State.

This is something of a surprise!  Mayo was generally considered an undrafted free-agent prospect, lacking the athleticism or instincts to adapt to the NFL level.  NFL Draft Scout listed him as somewhere between a priority free agent and “just a guy," and he didn’t earn an invite to the combine.  At his pro day, Mayo put up a 4.74-second 40-yard dash and moderate numbers in the other drills, according to NFL Draft Scout.

Ignore his draft prediction for the moment, and let’s just look at the player.  Mayo earned Defensive Player of the Year honors in the Sun Belt Conference and finished second in the nation with 154 tackles.  He finished his entire career with 284 tackles, moving from defensive back to linebacker in his senior season.

Mayo also has an excellent story and is easy to root for.  He was living in a shed while trying to scrape his way onto a college team, eventually working his way onto Texas State as it moved up from FCS to FBS.  He definitely has the work ethic and determination to earn his way onto a roster and make an impact.

His primary on-field attribute is a relentless motor.  You don’t come second in the nation in tackles without being willing to fly all over the field.  He’s not going to give up on pursuit easily.  He’s a vocal leader and well-respected by all his teammates and the coaching staff.  Pro Football Focus also rated him as the sixth-best 4-3 outside linebacker with a 10.8 Run Stop Percentage, so he’s not just all buzzwords.

He did miss parts of each of the last two seasons with knee injuries—a meniscus tear and MCL damage, according to NFLDraftBible.  That’s a bit of a concern.  I also question if he has the pure physical abilities to stick on the roster.

He’ll be in the competition right away for a special teams position, and he’s exactly the kind of player I’d look for there—a high-effort, high-motor tackling machine.   

If, then, Mayo was a seventh-round pick, I’d be happy.  So, your grade on this pick is going to depend somewhat on your point of view.

This was one of the Panthers' last two picks.  If they wanted to ensure they could bring Mayo into camp, they had to use one of their picks on him.  Thus, they used one of their last picks to get dibs on a player before he hit free agency.

However, the only reason it was one of the Panthers' last two picks was because they had traded away a sixth-rounder and a seventh-rounder earlier in the draft.  There’s nothing out there to suggest that Mayo was a fifth-round prospect; he’s not even listed by NFL.com, ESPN or Advanced Football Analytics.  CBS had him as the 422nd-best player in the draft; only 256 players are selected.

Andres Leighton/Associated Press

There’s a big difference between an NFL scout room and publically available knowledge, and I could easily see Mayo being hundreds of spots higher than CBS had him on certain teams' boards.  Was there really that big of a chance he would have been gone before Round 6, however?  Or Round 7?

This is the downside of getting rid of so many selections early on.  In order to get Mayo, who Dave Gettleman clearly likes, they had to use a fifth round-caliber selection.  This could have gone toward a safety like Anthony Harris or Deron Smith, as Mayo likely would have been available later.

The pick, then, makes some sense when you consider what the Panthers had left in this year’s draft—at a certain point, if you think he’s the best player, you have to go get him regardless of what the consensus boards say.  However, because they used so many picks to move up earlier, they were stuck with either using a pick a good two rounds too early on Mayo or risking someone else taking him late in the seventh round or in undrafted free agency.

This is why I’ve been negative about the trades earlier in the draft.  It left Gettleman between a rock and a hard place.  He chose to go get the player he fell in love with rather than gamble, which makes sense, but he likely could have had his cake and eaten it too if he had more picks.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the Carolina Panthers during the NFL draft.  Follow him @BryKno on Twitter.