Panthers take LB Beason in first round

CHARLOTTE -- The Carolina Panthers may have gotten their insurance for injury-prone Dan Morgan, but for now Jon Beason is ready to take orders from his fellow former Miami Hurricane.

Carolina selected the hard-hitting Beason with the 25th pick in today's draft, two hours after they traded down to get an extra first-day pick.

Beason, who led the Hurricanes with 76 tackles last season, provides much-needed depth at linebacker. Morgan, who also starred at Miami, has missed 40 of 96 games in his career with numerous injuries.

But the 22-year-old Beason, who knows Morgan from offseason workouts at Miami, isn't ready to take over at middle linebacker just yet.

"If he tells me to run through a brick wall, I'll do it," Beason said of Morgan. "I'm sure he's going to put me on his schedule and I'm just going to follow him. Is he my competition? No, I look up to him. I'm going to work extremely hard and obviously try to earn a starting job, but he's a guy that I know Carolina has a lot of respect for and I have a lot of respect for."

Morgan missed the final 15 games in 2006 after suffering at least the fifth concussion of his career. He's been cleared to return next season, but his backup, Chris Draft, signed with St. Louis.

"Linebacker is a need. We haven't addressed it and we lost guys in free agency," coach John Fox said. "That was a position we were looking at coming into the draft and it fell where it happened to be, in the first round."

The pick came on a day where the Panthers, needing help in several areas, traded the No. 14 selection and their sixth-round pick to the New York Jets. Carolina got the Jets' first-round pick, their second-round pick, 59th overall, and a fifth-round selection.

In the second-round, Carolina selected Southern Cal receiver Dwayne Jarrett with the 45th pick.

The 6-foot-4 Jarrett, who left school after his junior season, got a ringing endorsement from Carolina's Keyshawn Johnson, another tall former USC receiver. Jarrett is expected to provide depth with Johnson set to turn 34 in July.

"We need another wide receiver. We need that third guy," said Johnson, who was working as an analyst for ESPN. "This guy is much like me."

The trade came after the Panthers turned down a trade offer from Cleveland, which offered its first-round pick next season. The Panthers felt they needed a pick in the first round this year.

"We thought there would be a lot of good football players that fit us in the mid-20s," Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said. "It worked out that the Jets wanted to move up and they had a player they wanted. We had talked to them several times."

The deal also came after the Panthers failed to pull off a trade for three-time Pro Bowl tackle Kris Jenkins. St. Louis and Denver had expressed interest.

"We've said Chris is on our team and we want him to be on our team and he's a valuable player," Hurney said. "Nothing has happened and I don't see anything happening."

The Panthers entered the weekend needing help at safety, linebacker, defensive end and receiver, but many of the players they targeted with the 14th pick were already taken when they went on the clock.

The first safety taken was LaRon Landry of LSU, who went to Washington with the No. 6 pick. The top linebacker in the draft, Patrick Willis of Mississippi, went to San Francisco with the 11th pick.

Two more safeties were then taken before the Panthers' picked. Jacksonville took Reggie Nelson of Florida 21st overall and Brandon Merriweather of Miami went to New England with the 24th pick. That left Beason as the safe choice.

The 6-foot, 237-pound Beason, who was a fullback his freshman season at Miami, moved to linebacker his sophomore year. He's played both outside and inside and played in the same 4-3 scheme Carolina uses.

Beason's stock dropped when he ran the 40-yard dash in a slow 4.78 seconds at the combine, although Beason said it was because he aggravated a knee injury.

"Sometimes you get caught up in underwear timed speed versus how they carry their pads and playing speed," Fox said. "Jon played very fast and that's the key."

Beason claimed the Panthers were on top of his wish list.

"I think it's a great scheme. Coming in and playing with Dan, a guy that I trust and who's a Hurricane so I know he's going to look out for me," Beason said. "I think it's a great place to live. ... I love everything, the uniforms. It's a great place man, a great place."