Cornerback Options for Panthers: Delvin Breaux

Panthers are dangerously thin at cornerback; could former Saint Delvin Breaux be an option?

The botched deal with Bashaud Breeland left the Panthers with an enormous hole at cornerback. After a down year in the secondary, Carolina cannot afford to go into the season without upgrading their backend.

In high school, Delvin Breaux broke several vertebrae and was never able to play on his scholarship to LSU. Breaux left school in 2012 and bounced around several arena football teams before making his way onto the Saints roster in 2015.

Breaux made an impact early and started all 16 games his rookie year. That season he posted 45 tackles, 3 interceptions, and 19 passes defensed. For the year, Pro Football Focus gave him a high mark of 85.0 and ranked him among their top ten corners in the entire league.

Building on a stellar rookie campaign, Breaux was making a name for himself before going down to injury his second season. The New Orleans native only managed to play six games in a year marred by a broken fibula and shoulder injury.

This past preseason Breaux suffered another fractured fibula and was placed on injured reserve.

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A free agent this summer, Breaux has experienced a cool market due to playing 6 games in two years. However, when healthy the talent is there and the Panthers should be very interested.

Breaux has desirable size at 6'1'' and the ball skill the Panthers have lacked in the secondary since 2015. The 28-year-old still has plenty of tread on the tires and would be a good consolation prize after losing Breeland.

He would come cheap too as a one year prove it deal is probably in his future. The Panthers should definitely be targeting him at 2-4 million dollars yearly on a one to two-year deal. Breaux's durability is definitely a concern but his potential upside should be enough to take a gamble on. 

Also, I wouldn't complain about the Panthers turning the tables and poaching a Saint for once...

 

By Grant Hughes

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