The LA Chargers have done trade business with the Carolina Panthers just two times.
The Carolina Panthers‘ were one of two expansion teams to join the league for the 1995 season, the other being the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the LA Chargers have done business with the team two times.
The first trade between the two teams came at the start of the Panthers’ existence, occurring in the 1995 offseason. The second trade was very recent, being this offseason.
As part of our ongoing series here at Bolt Beat, using Pro Football Reference’s Trade Finder tool, we break down which of the two trades is the best trade for the Bolts.
The LA Chargers’ best ever trade with the Carolina Panthers:
This might seem like jumping the gun but the trade that Tom Telesco managed to pull off this offseason with the Carolina Panthers was absolutely phenomenal. Even if Trai Turner does not turn out to be a long-term asset for the team, this trade was exceptional and is a big part of the Chargers’ rebuilding offensive line.
The team traded one year of left tackle Russell Okung, who was solid while he played but rarely played last season and was expendable. The team went on to sign Bryan Bulaga to replace (and improve) from Okung and have a promising young talent in Trey Pipkins to potentially start at left tackle.
In return, the Chargers received a five-time Pro Bowl left guard who is only 26 years old and has two more seasons under contract. Turner is coming off the worst year of his career in terms of Pro Football Focus pass-block grading, ranking 39th among qualifying guards with at least 50 percent of the snaps played.
Turner also tied for the second-most sacks allowed among qualifying guards, which is not super promising.
However, the team still flipped one season of a left tackle that hardly played last season for two seasons of a young, promising guard that has shown potential to be one of the best in the league and under new offensive line coach James Campen can reach an even higher ceiling.
This is better than the other trade that the two teams have made. In that trade, the Chargers traded the 29th overall pick in the 1995 NFL Draft for a second, third and fourth-round pick in that year’s draft.
The only player that ended up being a tangible asset for the Chargers was second-round pick Terrance Shaw, who was a serviceable starting corner for the team for five seasons.