CHARLOTTE, NC — General manager Scott Vetterer looked relieved that general manager might be nine days away from making the biggest decision of his career as the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL Draft.
Although he did ask new Carolina Panthers coach Frank Reich which quarterback he preferred among the Alabama squad Bryce Young and Ohio CJ Stroud Before his final pre-draft press conference last week, he was confident they would be on the same page when he popped the question.
League sources familiar with the team’s plans, odds makers, and several draft analysts believe the Panthers’ first-place pick in the NFL Draft Thursday (8 p.m. ET on ESPN, ABC, and the ESPN App) will be young despite his 5-foot-1 and 10, 204-pound frame has skeptics concerned about its durability.
All Fitterer has allowed is that the Panthers have the clear this time around with the No. 1 overall pick.
“We see things the same way,” he said of himself and Reich, the former NFL quarterback of 13 years. “We value the same traits, the same characteristics. There are certain things we really want, and that’s where the clarity comes from.”
There was no clarity at this point in 2011, the last time Carolina had a top pick. The staff was divided over whether to take Auburn quarterback Cam Newton to the point where the situation became volatile during a meeting less than 48 hours before the draft, according to a person who was in the room that day.
There were questions about Newton’s decision-making and his unique style in the role of a dual-threat quarterback. There were questions about his character dating back to his freshman year in Florida, when he stole a laptop, and later when he was accused of a pay-for-play scheme to go to Mississippi State.
Ron Rivera, the first year head coach at the time, angrily told everyone in the room that he was tired of hearing what Newton couldn’t do for the organization and demanded that they focus on what Newton could do.
Two days later, the Panthers made Newton the first overall selection. Five years later, Newton was the league’s MVP, and led Carolina to Super Bowl 50.
The absence of issues surrounding Young and Stroud’s character is one of the reasons Fitterer was so comfortable.
“The guys have done a lot of work and we are ready,” said Vetterer.
And another person believes in the process that led him to send four draft picks and wide receiver DJ Moore to the Chicago Bears to go from ninth to first for a shot at Young or Stroud.
Understands Bill Polian, the first general manager of the Panthers in 1995. He went through the hunt for the quarterback with the top pick in 1995, when he moved to fifth place pick Kerry Collins, and in 1998 with the Indianapolis Colts, when he stayed at number one and picked Peyton Manning .
He said the process of getting to know the players as people, a much more intense process now than the last time he had a top pick, was more important than evaluating them on the field.
“By a factor of 10,” Polian said.
Vetterer’s operation began in the fall when he and assistant general manager Dan Morgan began attending games played by Young, Stroud, and Kentucky. Will Levis and Florida Anthony Richardson – The four players they felt might be a long-term solution to their long-standing problem.
The next step, after Carolina completed its fifth consecutive losing season with the No. 9 pick and Reich hired, was to get the first pick. Fetterer pulled it off on March 10, believing, according to NFL front office sources, that it was the only way to shoot Young or Stroud.
“I feel with this process that we made the right decision,” said Vetterer. “…I hate to be in [No. 9] Now try to find out. ”
The Panthers kept Richardson and Levis in conversation throughout the process even though Young and Stroud have been the primary targets since the day the trade took place, according to a league front office source familiar with the situation.
He’s been as interesting as Richardson at 6-4 and 244 pounds, the source said, having just 13 kidneys and a low 2022 completion percentage (53.8%) that put him over the top in the draft.
Fitterer never budged from saying that the four were working all the time.
“We consciously try to keep all four of them there so we can ask every question and look at it from every angle to make sure we’re making the right decision,” said Vetterer. We want to keep this process open all the way through. ”
It wasn’t nearly as open in 2011 because there was a huge drop in quarterback talent after Newton. That’s why Rivera desperately sought clarity near draft night.
In 1995, the race was a two-quarterback when Carolina’s options were Collins and Alcorn State’s Steve McNair, who finished third for the Houston Oilers.
“Sometimes it’s close, like with Keri and Steve,” recalls Polian, noting that the screening process made Manning the easy pick over Ryan Leaf to Indianapolis in 1998. “But it was the time to get to know them that mattered.”
This year the process intensified at Carolina State on March 23 when Ohio State held its pro day, followed by Alabama the next day.
The Panthers fielded an army of about a dozen team officials, including owners David and Nicole Tepper, for both. But what they learned in the field was not so much as what they had learned about expectations at dinner the night before.
Football was hardly part of the conversation.
“For us, that’s the most important thing going through this process, getting to know these people, and looking really deep into who they are as people,” Morgan said.
This part of the process is confirmed by all of the research Panthers, the college’s Director of Scouting Cole Spencer And his team has done so throughout the process, which began as soon as the prospects became freshmen in college.
“We’ve seen these people many times over the past two years, whether it’s training exposure, going to school, talking to staff at school, or strength [coaches]coaches, and then watch the ‘live game show’.
As intense as the screening process was, it never quite reached the level it reached with Newton in 2011 when scout Khary Darlington’s job from mid-January through the draft was Newton’s shadow.
But it wasn’t until Rivera and general manager Marty Horney went separately to Atlanta in the week leading up to the 2011 draft that they had the clarity needed to draft him.
“By the time they came back I felt like they had made up their minds all the way, that was the direction we were going to go,” said Darlington.
Wetter and Reich didn’t need last-minute trips this year.
With all the preparation the Panthers have made, it’s no wonder Fitterer looked so comfortable that he’s close to the top overall pick this Thursday.
“So I know we made the right decision to go there,” said Vetterer. When we made [trade]We felt strongly that there would be a man we wanted.
“The next step will be implementation on draft day.”