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One move I argued Carolina should have made in the offseason, and still makes sense, is trading for DeAndre Hopkins. Panthers fans railed against this idea in the offseason, but the first seven weeks of the season have explained why it makes sense. No, Hopkins doesn’t make sense to pair with Young as a receiver-quarterback connection that can grow together and dominate the league for a decade. Sometimes, you just need viability while your signal-caller develops. Andy Dalton showed how far away Young is from that when he came in and everything in the Panthers' offense worked better. Dalton has 15 years of veteran experience to draw upon to counter the disadvantages he’s dealing with in terms of supporting cast. Young doesn’t. Hopkins would bring value to Young even as a short-term rental or a bridge option. — just somebody to throw to he can have confidence in. Even if this was definitively a worse move for the Panthers now than it would have been in the offseason — when they didn’t have to give up any trade collateral — that isn't a reason to prevent them from going for it. The original opportunity is gone, but there is no sense in passing up the deal the second time around when it would still benefit the team. There is a positive to doing it this way as well, though. While Carolina would now need to offer a draft pick to Tennessee to get Hopkins, they don’t have to pay him the full contract value that they would have had they signed him as a free agent. The Titans have already paid Hopkins a near-$10 million signing bonus, and he is essentially playing this season for the veteran minimum in salary. One reason teams balked at the prospect of signing Hopkins in the offseason was the cost, and the Titans solved that problem for any team interested in trading for him now. The question for those teams becomes: Is Hopkins, playing for the veteran minimum in salary cost, worth more than the draft pick needed to give up to acquire him? For Carolina especially, the answer is yes. https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-carolina-panthers-trade-deandre-hopkins-tennessee-titans