With the ninth pick in the 2012 Cincy Jungle Mock Draft, Jason Blanton, the producer for the Cincy Jungle podcast, selected for the Carolina Panthers, who finished the 2011 season with a 6-10 record.

With the No. 9 pick in the 2012 Cincy Jungle Mock Draft, the Carolina Panthers select....

Luke Kuechly, LB, Boston College

The Panthers need some serious help on the defensive side of the ball. They really need guys up front who can put pressure on the quarterback, but with Q. Coples and M. Ingram off the board by pick 9, I selected the best available defensive player in Boston College's Luke Kuechly.

Kuechly had an extraordinary collegiate career and was arguably the most productive linebacker in NCAA history. Not only has he won about every award a defensive player can win, he set multiple records including most total tackles in a season twice (183, 191) and most tackles in a collegiate career (532) despite only playing for three seasons.

Kuechly would join an already talented but injury plagued group of linebackers in Carolina. Thomas Davis has torn his ACL three times in his three year career, and defensive leader Jon Beason is coming off an Achilles injury as well. If this group were healthier I would have looked at DT Dontari Poe, WR Michael Floyd and even CB Stephon Gilmore, but at the end of the day Kuechly provided the best value at No. 9.

Luke Kuechly Highlights:

Joe Goodberry's Instant Analysis:

This is an interesting selection that I haven't thought of yet. The Panthers did lose Dan Connor is free agency to the Cowboys but that's because they have Jon Beason, James Anderson and hopefully Thomas Davis (multiple injuries) as their LBs for next season. If they took Kuechly, Beason, who has played WLB before, could move back to the outside. Luke Kuechly could really play any spot in that defense. He's an extremely smart and instinctive player and he'd learn a slightly new position in no time.
Grade: C+
Value: -5

Draft Overview:

#	Team	Picked By	Name/Positon of Pick
1	Indianapolis	Alex Neyer	Andrew Luck QB
2	Washington	David Farrelly	Robert Griffin III QB
3	Minnesota	Palewook	Matt Kalil OT
4	Cleveland	Jason Garrison	Justin Blackmon WR
5	Tampa Bay	Andrew Bernius	Morris Claiborne CB
6	St. Louis	Jim0ijk	Quinton Coples DE
7	Jacksonville	AK513	Melvin Ingram DE
8	Miami	Dan Lockhart	Trent Richardson RB
9	Carolina	Jason Blanton	Luke Kuechly LB
10	Buffalo	Casey Penn
11	Kansas City	Kenneth Taylor
12	Seattle	Jerod Egner
13	Arizona	Dan Wolford
14	Dallas	Joshua Foster
15	Philadelphia	Travis Parker
16	New York Jets	Kenneth Taylor
17	Cincinnati (from Oakland)	Jason Garrison
18	San Diego	Anthony Knox
19	Chicago	Steve Whited
20	Tennessee	Jeff Welch
21	Cincinnati	Jason Garrison
22	Cleveland (from Atlanta)	Jason Garrison
23	Detroit	Andrew Perrotta
24	Pittsburgh	Jason Garrison
25	Denver	Jared Morgan
26	Houston	Brett Kollman
27	New England (from New Orleans)	Anthony Knox
28	Green Bay	Travis Castleman
29	Baltimore	Jason Garrison
30	San Francisco	Chris Brown
31	New England	Anthony Knox
32	New York Giants	Matt Leitner