Excerpts from Joe Person's latest article in The Athletic (personal comments added)
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The Panthers’ Week of Quarterbacks began with seven of the team’s coaches and front-office personnel sitting practically shoulder to shoulder in a Wheels Up two-prop plane taking the group from Charlotte to Columbus, Ohio. (Owners Dave and Nicole Tepper were in their own plane for the first leg of the three-city trip.)
- Insert "rich guy" comment here
Fitterer said the trip confirmed his pecking order for at least three of the top four quarterbacks in the draft. Florida’s Anthony Richardson’s pro day is Thursday. Based on conversations with sources who attended last week’s pro days, the sense here continues to be that Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are the Panthers’ top choices.
But one thing Fitterer did not learn on the QB tour is who Reich’s top choice is — because Fitterer doesn’t want to know.
- There's a saying about not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing that applies here. More to the point, if you still questioned the idea that the final decision isn't made yet, I'd say this pretty well confirms it.
“Frank and I had that conversation in his office. I said, ‘Don’t tell me who you like until we get down to it,’” Fitterer said Monday during a break at the NFL owners’ meetings. “As you go through the process, it gets more and more clear. But we’re still going through that.”
Fitterer said he’ll probably ask Reich who is his guy is a week or two before the April 27 start to the draft. Until then, Fitterer said everyone can go through the process without feeling any bias based on what other coaches or scouts believe.
“There’s so much talk about it and things get out. ‘Frank likes this guy. We like this (guy).’ Nobody knows, because I don’t know,” Fitterer added. “I get a sense of where he’s at. But I’m not gonna ask him.”
- Worth noting that the 49ers did this same sort of thing a few years back. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan agreed to not discuss their preferences until all the evaluation work was done. When that time came, both of them had settled on Trey Lance as their guy.
The Panthers’ process will include bringing the four quarterbacks — Young, Stroud, Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis — to Charlotte for top-30 visits during the first two weeks in April. But it will not include any private workouts.
“We’ve seen all the tape we needed to see,” Fitterer said. “We saw the workouts. We’re not gonna learn a whole lot more working them out again.”
- Both Fitterer and Reich have stated that when it comes to player evaluation, game tape is king. One of the purposes of The Combine, pro days and visits is to get to know the prospects as people.
Fitterer believes the sitdowns with the coaches were particularly beneficial to the Teppers.
“The good part is Dave and Nicole got to hear from the coach’s mouth instead of hearing scouts’ reports, which are always really good,” he said. “You’re hearing this from Nick Saban and Ryan Day about these quarterbacks. So that was really good.”
The Teppers left Lexington, Ky., after the Thursday night dinner with Levis due to a prior engagement, but Fitterer and other team officials spoke with Wildcats coach Mark Stoops on the field at Kentucky’s indoor facility.
- Confirming that the Teppers didn't just choose to skip out on Levis
Seeing the quarterbacks on successive days allowed Fitterer, Reich and the rest of the contingent — which included offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, senior assistant Jim Caldwell, assistant GM Dan Morgan, VP of football administration Samir Suleiman — to get a clear picture of their skill sets.
“They’re all very different,” Fitterer said. “Will Levis probably had the strongest arm of the group. C.J. is very fluid in his motion. Bryce, the accuracy was just on point. He had a little bit better arm than we thought.”
Better in terms of strength or accuracy?
“Both,” Fitterer said. “His arm strength was good. The ball was jumping off his hands. The accuracy was really good. C.J. (had a) great deep ball. He’s really strong at all levels. He showed good touch.”
- Again, they're being very thorough on all these guys, and there's more...
Fitterer said Young, who had a huge game against Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals, has a “swagger” about him. The GM also said Young’s 5-foot-10 frame doesn’t seem to affect him, noting his production on short passes over the middle of the field.
“(That) is usually a hard throw because, one, you have to get the ball up. And two, you can’t see it and you don’t know what’s going on in there,” Fitterer said. “But he has no problem moving and sliding in the pocket and finding windows. I think that’s probably because he’s been short his whole life, and you learn to compensate. You learn the little tricks of the trade.”
Fitterer said the 6-3 Stroud doesn’t have any problems moving in the pocket and seeing the field. “He’s big,” Fitterer added. “He’s strong, durable, all those things.”
- "Probably because he's been short all his life" is a great quote
After the owners’ meetings, the Panthers will head to Gainesville, Fla., before returning to Charlotte for the pre-draft visits. They’ll have learned a lot about the QBs over the steaks and skull sessions with Saban, Day, et al, but they’ll also know more about each other.
“It’s fun because you start to bond over this. You’re away from the office. You’re having dinner. The player leaves. You sit there another hour and discuss,” Fitterer said. “There’s a camaraderie that’s being built, as well as trying to find a quarterback.”
- Person mentions in another part of the article that this trip was an opportunity to build camaraderie between Fitterer / the scouts and Reich / the coaching staff.
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Link: The Panthers QB Tour
Overall, lots of good info in this piece. Nice to know the coaches and the personnel guys are doing a little team building. Also explains why the final QB decision isn't made yet, and it makes sense.
Bottom line though?
Feels really good to be optimistic again
