Panthers begin filling in the blanks in scouting process

[Sir Purr]

With their own medical portion taken care of, they have to figure out how to make do for the next couple of months, which won't feature many of the draft process's staples. First and foremost, the annual Scouting Combine was canceled, meaning teams lose the large-scale and extremely standardized way of gathering measurements, 40-yard dash times and other testing scores, along with medical records.


In its place, teams will have to rely on information gathered at pro days at colleges, and even that has its limits.


Teams are only allowed to send three representatives to each pro day, which means carefully tailoring the traveling party.


For instance, if Alabama has a lot of offensive linemen (and it does), they could send line coach Pat Meyer to accompany college scouts. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady would also likely be on hand to see some quarterbacks and skill position players.


Fitterer will hit a few schools, and head coach Matt Rhule will as well. In the past, particularly when drafting in the top 10, teams would send half the coaching staff to certain pro days.


They're still figuring out the specifics, but veteran defensive coordinator Phil Snow knows it will be a different spring.


He went to exactly no pro days last year, but knows he's likely to be on the road quite a bit in March, health conditions permitting.


"Depending on the virus," Snow said last month while coaching at the Senior Bowl.


Those pro day trips will be vital because large portions of the usual reports will still be blank in the absence of the Combine.


Snow said that while coaching in Mobile, Ala., there was part of him that wondered if he was getting an accurate read on the players he was coaching on the field.