Mr. Scot

We've been trying to reach you about that

I am. Jeremy Fowler actually said a little before the draft that the Panthers were putting it out there that they could take a quarterback but some teams weren't buying it. Once the report got out that they weren't picking up Darnold's option yet, multiple analysts jumped on it to say that it meant we were probably taking a quarterback.

See above. We've been told by more than one source that the Panthers didn't like Lance and thought his skill set was a mismatch for Joe Brady's offense Person stated a while back that the Panthers didn't think that much of any of the quarterbacks outside the top two. The result of the draft would seem to bear that out.

Verge's actual quote was that there were people in the building who were very high on Fields, but that Fitterer and Rhule were not among those people. Looks like that was true.

Insiders have said several times that the team wasn't very high on Lance. Their thought was that he doesn't fit Joe Brady's system.

I am shocked Still waiting to see what the "strong plan" is. Speculation was that they renegotiate his deal to spread out the cap hit over both years. Guess we'll see.

I'd also prefer Richie Grant if we went that route, but I really want a tackle.

Can't speak for everybody, but I previously been talking about Tepper saying he was going to let his people do their jobs and wasn't going to try to be something he isn't. My worry was that he might not live up to that statement. He did.

Eeeehhh, maybe. We don't really know what Rhule said to him. Could have been something as simple as "we really like you". Reports confirm that we did take trade down offers.

One other thing I think you can take from this: Our smokescreen game isn't too shabby. Several mocks from good sources had us taking Fields right up to the day of the draft.

Sup, dude I've heard more than one analyst refer to Horn as a Seahawks type tackle. Makes sense obviously given our GM's background.

I don't really think Tepper would have told the kid "ya know, I wanted somebody else but good luck".

I wouldn't bet on Greg Little even making the final roster.

I don't expect them to address it directly, but information does sometimes seep out later (often much later). They did talk about Darnold and indicated they believe in him. Agree about Chicago, but at least so far they're indicating they won't throw him into the fire immediately. I think at least that's smart.

The Panthers didn't think so. And I don't really give a sh-t what everyone thinks until we see them take the field. There are few things in this world more useless than draft grades in April.

It's their statement for now, and my guess is it'll turn out to be true for at least the start of the season. How far it stays true beyond that is up to Dalton.

It's a bit dumb. They weren't "spooked" into making a pick. They just took the next guy on their board.

What was actually being said was that Darnold was only a just in case / last resort / insurance pickup because the team didn't believe any of the top five quarterbacks would fall to them. Clearly, that turned out to be wrong seeing as two of the top five were available to us and we passed on both.

That turned out to be bullsh-t. The Packers are adamant they're not trading him. Mind you, that could change.

I think they tried, but the Lions got the guy they wanted one damn pick ahead of us. And much as I love OL, I'm glad they stuck to their board rather than reaching for need. They can still go O-line today of course.

I've said before that I see this as year one of the rebuild rather than year two. That hasn't changed for me. It's also possible that if we shore up other positions this year, we could be in a good spot to use our 2022 top pick to find a left tackle.

Elway is terrible at evaluating QBs. Pretty much everybody agrees on that. Paton was part of the front office that brought Kirk Cousins to Minnesota. At their presser, Paton said that after trading for Bridgewater, they no longer felt the need to draft a quarterback. Like I mentioned elsewhere, I know some people aren't happy that we chose Darnold over Fields, but imagine what we'd be saying if our braintrust stuck with Bridgewater.

For what it's worth, we have a lot of cap space next year.

Elway's not making the choices in Denver anymore. George Paton is. Elway basically did what some here thought we might do with Marty and "promoted" himself out of the GM job.

They could also get somebody like Eichenberg. I've only seen one second day mock so far today. It had us taking Jenkins.