Make the Case: Draft a quarterback, yes, another one

Sir Purr

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Mar 16, 2019
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Obviously, they won't have a shot at Trevor Lawrence, but the GM has hit all the other pro days for the top quarterbacks, personally watching Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, and Justin Fields, in addition to the week the team spent with Mac Jones at the Senior Bowl. If they're wrong in their evaluations of those five quarterbacks, it won't be for lack of effort.


So if the right one — one they're convinced they can win with — happens to be there when the eighth overall pick comes up, there's no compelling reason not to take him.


The Panthers dealt three draft picks (including next year's second and fourth) to the Jets for Sam Darnold a few weeks ago. If they drafted a quarterback they loved, that would make Darnold a short-term rental, and an expensive one. But what if the 2012 Seahawks, on the clock at 75, said: "We like this Wilson kid, but man, we just spent a lot of money on Flynn, let's take a running back instead."


Granted, it's much easier to roll the dice on a third-round pick than a first (the Russell Wilson analogy only stretches so far), but that's the pressure Fitterer inherited when he went from being a college scouting director in Seattle to a GM here.


Of course, what we don't know at the moment is whether the Panthers consider any of the quarterbacks who might be available to them (Lawrence and Wilson definitely will not) good enough to build a team around. It's entirely possible that they do not, and that played a part in the decision to trade for Darnold.


But if they do, and if they're convinced one of them can be the answer — and most importantly, if they're right — then using the eighth overall pick on a quarterback is a small price to pay.


And Fitterer has a ring to prove it.
 
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