The Panthers have about as many roster holes to fill this offseason as any team in the league. There’s a lot of time between now and the start of next season, but generally the best place to start building is the NFL draft.

In our first seven-round mock of the year, we had Carolina pick Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown at No. 7 overall. A lot has changed since then, including the sudden retirement of All-Pro linebacker Luke Kuechly. With that in mind, we took a different approach to this mock. In addition to attempting to fill the void left behind by Kuechly with the first pick, we chose local prospects whenever it was reasonable to do so.

For the sake of this scenario, we assumed the Panthers will be keeping Cam Newton at least another year, hence no QB pick. Here’s how it played out.

No. 7: Clemson LB Isaiah Simmons

It was difficult picking between Simmons and Brown here. In the end, we went with Simmons because of his versatility. That’s often an oversold trait for college prospects. In Simmons’ case, he’s the real deal. Like Tyrann Mathieu, Simmons (6-foot-4, 230 pounds) can line up at a number of different positions, including safety or in the slot. He also loaded up the stat sheet at Clemson, totaling four interceptions, 11 sacks, six forced fumbles, 20 pass breakups and 28.5 tackles for a loss. That flexibility will make him more valuable than a defensive lineman, even a very good one like Brown.