Double dipping at edge doesn’t mean they have taken two of the same player
It turns out the Carolina Panthers weren’t done adding to the Edge group on Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft, trading up with the New England Patriots for a second time to select Princely Umanmielen out of Ole Miss with the 77th overall pick.
Unlike the Panthers last selection of Nic Scourton in round 2, there’s a fair bit more athletic testing data available for Umanmielen. For edge rushers in particular, you do love to see explosive jumps and Umanmielen’s 38 inch vertical jump 10.5 feet broad jump qualify.
Princely Umanmielen is a DE prospect in the 2025 draft class. He scored a 8.98 RAS out of a possible 10.00. This ranked 207 out of 2012 DE from 1987 to 2025.https://t.co/o0gtOSrgn3 pic.twitter.com/3HwZaQjfDa
— Kent Lee Platte (@MathBomb) March 31, 2025
Umanmielen will be 23 during his entire rookie season, with his birthday being exactly one week before the day he was drafted. On the lighter side at 244, his arms were measure at nearly 34.5 inches at his pro-day, one of the longest of any edge in the draft.
Now for the good stuff: Umanmielen was an absolute menace rushing the passer in 2024. For a team like the Panthers missing a designated 3-4 outside backer that excels at putting pressure on the quarterback, he fits like a glove. Of his 474 snaps in 2024, 464 of them were on the ball, lined up outside the tackle.
He made those plays count, putting up some explosive production including 11 sacks and 14 tackles for loss in 2024 alone. His more advanced metrics are even more compelling. A 91.1 pff defensive grade, 91.5 pass rush grade, whopping 22.8 pass rush win rate and a 8.6% run-stop rate all rank around the 90th percentile among edge rushers in this year’s draft.
He does have moments where he will get completely washed out of the run game, but overall his attacking style usually had him in good position to affect the run in college. In the NFL though, he’ll probably need to be able to stand-up and hold the point of attack more often than he needed to at Ole Miss.
In the short term, Umanmielen becomes one of the Panthers most explosive designated pass rushers. He’ll join Nic Scourton in competition for snaps behind projected starters Jadeveon Clowney and DJ Wonnum, but I would expect him to very quickly become a priority to get on the field on so-called “money downs” like 3rd down passing situations. In obvious run situations, Umanmielen’s play strength might make him a bit of a liability so there shouldn’t be an expectation for him to immediately become an every down player like Scourton could be early on.
Long-term, Umanmielen is a little older than Scourton so his ceiling is likely a little more limited. That said, Umanmielen probably has the highest double digit sack potential of any of the edges currently on the Panthers roster. If he can learn to refine his pass rush plan instead of making it up as he goes during each rep, he could become a great “closer”. As a run defender, if he can become a little more stout, he could develop into a 3 down player for the Panthers.
The Panthers brain trust saw an opportunity to add some juice to the edge room and might have struck gold if his production translates into the big leagues.