Mystery NFL Team Tried To Trade For Panthers' Defensive End

The Carolina Panthers are trying to figure things out, and another NFL trade would have gone down had they approved it.

The Panthers were allegedly offered a massive deal that involved two future first-round picks for defensive end Brian Burns.

Unfortunately, this failed to gain the nod of Carolina.

After dealing away Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers, pundits were coy to the idea that a fire sale was happening heading into the November 1 NFL trade deadline.

But after rejecting the trade for Burns, that does not appear to be the case.

Furthermore, the Panthers already got a haul of draft picks from the McCaffrey trade as they received three picks in 2023 (a second, third and fourth-rounder) as well as a fifth-round 2024 pick.

But then again, the door remains open for any potential deal thrown the Panthers' way.

About a week ago, the assets dangled could sway Carolina to agree to another deal.

So far, McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson were the notable names dealt away by the Panthers.

Anderson was sent to the Arizona Cardinals, another deal that snagged them two draft picks, a sixth-round pick in 2024 and a seventh-round pick in 2025.

Taken as a whole, the picks that Carolina got are not something that may make a difference unless they are lucky enough to get a steal in the future NFL Drafts.

But what appears clear is that the Panthers are in rebuilding mode, and being offered future first-round picks would have made sense.

However, that may depend on which player would be of interest to other teams.

It would have taken more than picks for the Panthers to agree to part ways with Burns, the 16th overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft.

The 24-year-old has so far had nine sacks each in the past two NFL seasons after getting 7.5 as a rookie.

He was also a Pro Bowler last year and was named by CBS Sports as one of the 25 best players under 25 this season.

Lastly, Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer said that they would be open to trade offers.

But as far as Burns is concerned, it would have to be something astronomical per the report from Panthers.com.

"Philosophically, we always listen. We have gotten calls. We've said no to all of them," the general manager said. "I think there are certain players on this team; we like the really young core of our team. We're building. This isn't a situation where we're trying to sell. We're trying to add players to this already really good young mix."