Mr. Scot

If we stay at 1, I'll be highly surprised if it's not Stroud.

The skills that he has are mostly just physical traits. A couple of teams have gone the route of trying to take physical specimens and train them to be quarterbacks. It hasn't proven to be a good strategy. That's why I'm not a fan of drafting Richardson (or Will Levis, for that matter). You take the guy who already knows how to play the position. If he's also a great athlete, fine. But having actual quarterback skills will always trump having athletic skills.

I remember Prisco having a back and forth with Tom Sorenson back when Sorenson was writing for The Observer. My favorite though was when he made a list of the ten best quarterbacks in the league listing Chad Pennington as the tenth. Then had an angry exchange with a reader where he proclaimed that Pennington wasn't a top ten quarterback

Breer is probably the best behind the scenes reporter you can find. And with the trade being over, there's no reason for anybody to smokescreen any of this stuff. Hell, look at what he said about the Panthers discussions (or lack thereof) with the Colts and Texans.

Yeah, pretty much every iteration I've seen of "the Panthers like" is "Stroud and (insert player here)". Stroud is the only guy everybody seems to be able to agree on the Panthers wanting. Worth noting though that this doesn't guarantee he'll be the guy.

Breer actually stated that one of the reasons we decided to go all the way up to #1 is that there wasn't a huge difference between what the Bears wanted and what the Cardinals wanted for their respective picks.

Not at all... If you like more than one player equally, you could move back, gain additional picks to make your roster even better and still get one of the guys you wanted. Don't know that anything like that will happen but if it did, I'd call that pretty smart.

Hate to tell ya but per Dane Brugler, Frank Reich really likes Levis.

Tis the season...

Reports are that Tepper likes Levis

The article confirms the Bears wanted Moore, but if there's a definitive statement on the Panthers being willing to trade three first rounders, I didn't see it. Hell, we only really gave up one in the end.

Definite possibility...

DJ Moore was essential to the deal on the Bears side for certain, but I'm not sure how you get out of this that the Panthers were pushing to create an extra first rounder. They were always looking for the best deal they could get.

Breer Is the best around at getting the behind the scenes info on major stories like this.

A little more about the lead up to the initial discussions... • The Panthers’ work in the fall wasn’t over the top, but it was thorough on the quarterbacks. The scouts were out, and the position was circled for them, obviously, with both Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold in contract years. GM Scott Fitterer’s exposure to the top guys was limited: He saw Will Levis and Hendon Hooker play against each other in the Kentucky–Tennessee game (ahead of the Panthers’ Halloween weekend game in Atlanta), he saw Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud play against Maryland (the day before Carolina played in Baltimore). • That Carolina could be picking in the top 10 crystallized around that game against the Ravens, which dropped the Panthers to 3–8. Early draft meetings started soon thereafter, and that’s when the discussion on strategy began. The front office didn’t think the team was far off, and, with a little luck, wouldn’t be drafting so high, in striking distance of the top of the board, anytime soon. Also, the feeling was the roster didn’t have a ton of needs—the team could use a tight end, maybe another receiver. That balance, the brass thought, plus the haul that came for Christian McCaffrey, would give the team flexibility to get aggressive. • Fitterer, assistant GM Dan Morgan and the scouts went to work on the quarterbacks’ tape when the season ended, and then had new head coach Frank Reich, offensive coordinator Thomas Brown and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown dive in with them once the staff was assembled. By the time they packed up for the combine, logically, they’d have to get to a comfortable level with at least a couple of the quarterbacks to justify having real discussions about moving to the top of the draft. • The Panthers got there, and Reich was a big-time resource in helping find the way—his ability to see the tape through a quarterback’s eyes helped the front office get a cleaner read on Stroud, Levis, Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson, as well as a better feel for how each quarterback moved, felt the game and saw the field. Then, and now, the Panthers got conviction on a couple of the quarterbacks. They’ll keep working on all four and try to figure out whether there’s another one they gain a similar strong feeling for. • Poles and Fitterer met first in Poles’s room at the Hyatt, and again later at Lucas Oil Stadium, more informally, after running into each other before prospect workouts. The Panthers showed motivation to get something done by being direct—going early would give Carolina a chance to fully vet every quarterback, and do it out in the open—but Fitterer also told Poles he could be patient, if that’s what it took. The two resolved to keep the lines of communication open, with both talking to other teams about trades as well. • The Bears talked to Houston about dropping from No. 1 to No. 2, but it was a little unclear whether the Texans were ready to pull the trigger. (The idea appealed to the Bears because of the idea that they could trade down twice.) One other team seemed serious about coming up, with a fourth team also throwing its hat in late—but talks with the Panthers were advancing faster than with the other three.

From his latest MMQB column... Inside the Bears–Panthers Trade: Deal Was All About QBs for Both Teams Excerpts: • The Panthers wanted to explore moving into the top five in general, but they didn’t talk to the Texans or Colts, figuring both were taking quarterbacks, and all that calling them would do is alert them to how serious Carolina was about doing the deal early. Talks with the Cardinals about going up to No. 3 gave the Panthers another option. The worry with pursuing Seattle’s pick at No. 5 (Fitterer worked for the Seahawks for 20 years, so he certainly could negotiate with GM John Schneider) was that, after the quarterbacks checked boxes at the combine, it could end up only necessitating a second move up. • During the week, big-money deals coming in for Daniel Jones in New York and Derek Carr in New Orleans, plus the potential fully guaranteed outlay of a Lamar Jackson deal more or less cemented the Panthers’ plan to go up for a quarterback in the draft, rather than find a veteran at the position in free agency. The Panthers also figured seeing where the market was going would motivate other teams to trade into the top three, for talented, cost-controlled options at the position. So it was time to go. • In the end, the price to go up to Arizona’s spot at No. 3 was close enough to Chicago’s price at No. 1 for the Panthers to focus on getting the first pick. Poles’s stated price was three first-round picks, if the deal was going to be done early. The Panthers knew it might end up being more than that for them specifically, since they’d be coming up eight spots, five more than Indianapolis and seven more than Houston. • That’s where the teams got creative: The Bears and Panthers agreed that 25-year-old receiver DJ Moore, under contract at $52.265 million for the next three years (an average per year less than what Christian Kirk or Kenny Golladay got on the open market) was equal to the third first-round pick in a potential trade (that would be the 2025 pick). So Moore was packaged with the ninth and 61st picks (the 61st was the highest of the picks the Panthers got for McCaffrey), a ‘24 first-rounder, and a ‘25 second-rounder. • For what it’s worth, rumblings I’d heard were that the price could wind up being two first-rounders and two second-rounders for teams in the top five. If you see it that way, Moore was the premium for the Bears going down to No. 9, giving up the idea of the double trade and doing the deal early. • So where are the Panthers with the quarterbacks? They’re good with the film evaluation part of the process, though they’ll still do more. Now, it’ll be about finding out who each player is, how he processes and what makes him tick as a person. Carolina met with the top guys at the combine, but that’s just a jumping off point for what’s coming. The Panthers come out of the trade with six picks in April’s draft: the No. 1 pick, their own second-rounder (39th), the Niners’ third (93rd), two fourths (114th, 132nd) and a fifth (145th).

I've seen a couple of people say things like that, but my opinion is still that I trust the staff. (even if they disagree with me)

I don't think King takes the idea of the Panthers drafting Richardson all that seriously.

Something tells me we're going to be seeing that opening phrase a lot in future years

An extensive look at the trade and its fallout from Peter King and his latest FMIA column... FMIA: Trade Notes The top of the draft got turned upside-down by Ryan Poles and the desperado Carolina Panthers just after 5 Eastern Time Friday afternoon, six days after he told me it’d take a ransom for the Bears to deal the top overall pick. Poles got a lot from Carolina for the top pick: the ninth and 61st overall picks this year, a first-round pick in 2024, a second-round pick in 2025, and the Panthers’ number one wideout, D.J. Moore, healthy and entering his age-26 season. Moore’s not a top-10 NFL receiver, but he’s certainly in the top 20, after three 1,000-yard years in his first five NFL seasons. Because the trade cannot be announced until Wednesday, the start of the 2023 league year, the Panthers and Bears were zipped up tight over the weekend. But I’ve gathered a few nuggets. ... The prevailing wisdom: Chicago got enough for the pick, assuming D.J. Moore can be the primo receiver Justin Fields desperately needs. Carolina paid through the nose, and recent draft history is littered with lousy tradeups into the top five for quarterbacks who didn’t pan out (Robert Griffin III, Carson Wentz, Mitchell Trubisky, Sam Darnold). “If Carolina doesn’t pick the right quarterback, the trade’s a disaster,” said former NFL wheeler-dealer Jimmy Johnson. Thoughts: This deal was not getting done without D.J. Moore in it. The Bears had a bottom-five group of wideouts in 2022, even after trading for Chase Claypool in midseason. Darnell Mooney, Claypool and Equanimeous St. Brown, as a group, weren’t going to give Fields his best chance to emerge as a quarterback and developing Fields is priority one for the ’23 Bears. The free-agency wideout crop is a D-minus, and unless Poles wanted to use his only pick in the top-50 on a receiver, Moore (or a number one receiver like him) was vital. Certainly Carolina didn’t want to deal one of its best five players, in his prime; in the span of six months, the Panthers have dealt their two best offensive players, Christian McCaffrey and Moore. But if they wanted to be sure of having their choice of quarterbacks come April 27, Moore had to be sacrificed. ... I don’t think Carolina has decided which quarterback it wants. Of course the GM, Scott Fitterer, and scouts who’ve investigated quarterbacks have their leanings. Of course coach Frank Reich and his staff have their opinions after watching tape and meeting the passers at the Combine. But 45 days out from the first round, this isn’t a done deal. It wouldn’t be smart for it to be a done deal. I’ve heard the same rumors everyone else has—that Frank Reich loves Florida QB Anthony Richardson. And he may be the pick. But I’m a bit skeptical. Nothing against Richardson, who is one of the most interesting QB prospects in the past few drafts. I wonder, though, about trading two first-round picks, two second-round picks and one of your five best players for a player with a high ceiling but with one year as a college starter. Trading to number one and choosing Richardson might turn out to be brilliant. But picking Richardson number one after dealing five prime pieces for him is a major risk. However, if Richardson become The Guy, I expect Carolina to consider a minor trade-down. This would be tricky. When teams make draft trades, the team trading up doesn’t usually admit who the player target is. In this case, the Panthers, if trading from one to, say, Houston at two, would have to be assured the Texans weren’t taking the quarterback Carolina wants. That would require some trust, obviously. Going much beyond two would be a chancy venture. ... Reich has never coached a short quarterback, and Bryce Young is 5-10. Is that meaningful? I give it a little weight. In Reich’s 17 years as a quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator or head coach, his starting quarterbacks in Indianapolis, Arizona, San Diego, Philadelphia and Indianapolis (again) have been 6-6 (Nick Foles, John Skelton), 6-5 (Peyton Manning, Kerry Collins, Dan Orlovsky, Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, Rivers again, Wentz again), 6-4 (Curtis Painter, Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett, Matt Ryan), 6-3 (Ryan Lindley) and 6-2 (Sam Ehlinger). The 6-3 and 6-2 guys totaled six starts, and I suspect that starting Ehlinger twice in Reich’s last two games in Indy was not Reich’s idea. So in 17 years, all but six games Reich coached were started by quarterbacks 6-4 and taller. Reich’s a traditionalist. He played in an era with big quarterbacks. To stake the future of the franchise on a great player, but a 5-10 player, would be unconventional for him. However, Fitterer comes from Seattle, where the 5-10-ish Russell Wilson was a major outlier for a decade. Young has gotten rave reviews for his football smarts, and just finished two years with a demanding NFL QB teacher, Bill O’Brien, at Alabama. So never say never about the short QB. ... One other thing about Bryce Young that Reich and his staff will love and could sway them toward a 5-10 QB. There probably wasn’t a quarterback in college football last year who was as smart and resourceful as Young. Case in point: On most snaps at Alabama, Young called two plays in the huddle and decided which to use—himself, not with a signal from the sidelines—once he read the defense at the line. “That’s very NFL,” said one league quarterback authority who has studied Young. “I think that’s one of the reasons his height isn’t as big a deal as it might be—he’s dealt with figuring out the right play all the time based on what he sees from the defense, and I’m sure he factors in not getting in traffic with a bunch of 6-5 guys.” Two other points to consider about Young: He didn’t have many balls batted down. And Reich is not an inflexible person—if he thinks Young’s markedly the best prospect, he’ll be good taking him. Does Young’s size mean 6-3 C.J. Stroud has the best chance to be the pick? Two veteran front-office people I spoke with Saturday think Stroud makes the most sense, but those two men are not making this call. Stroud did play the single-most impressive game of any of the four first-round prospects (including Kentucky’s Will Levis) this year—putting up 41 points on Georgia in the college playoffs, throwing for 348 yards with four TDs and no interceptions—so that counts for something. ... Re Carolina: Anyone who scouts the quarterbacks comes away thinking Young and Stroud are good candidates for the top pick. The game has changed in the past few years. If you love Young the most, you’re going to deploy an offense that’s 97-percent in shotgun and let him be the smart guy at the line he was at Alabama. Stroud showed the ability to drive the football with confidence; clearly, he’ll be able to make every NFL throw, and he’s afraid of nothing. But then there’s Richardson. It’s certainly possible in the next six weeks the Panthers could talk themselves into the versatile Florida quarterback with the great arm and 80- and 81-yard college TD runs. I wish I could tell you a good gut feel on who Carolina will pick, but I can’t. As I say, I’m sure those who will collaborate to make the pick have leanings today. Leanings can change in 45 days.

That could be because we're switching to a 3-4.

Ain't that the truth