The Carolina Panthers made the splash of the NFL offseason by trading away two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and an ascending star at the wide receiver position in D.J. Moore to acquire the rights to the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft from the Chicago Bears.
While those are a lot of assets to move, when you believe as much in a guy as the Panthers do Bryce Young, you make the move. The former Alabama quarterback was subsequently selected with the top pick in the draft and tasked with rebuilding a Panthers franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs since January of 2018 and hasn’t won a playoff game since January 2016
Drafting No. 1 overall usually means you are going to the worst team in the league, but that’s not the case as the Panthers traded up to make the pick.
Carolina has some really nice skill-position players to surround Young as a rookie between guys like Miles Sanders and Adam Thielen. The Panthers also brought in head coach Frank Reich who has a proven track record of NFL success, especially at the quarterback position. They will also get to play in an expectedly-weak NFC South division and have quite a friendly schedule.
For all of those reasons, some people predict the Panthers as their dark horse team to make the playoffs in 2023. Colin Cowherd of FS1 has always been particularly high on Young and was one of the first people to view Carolina as a playoff team. Cowherd argues that with Alabama players, you can feel more comfortable because you already know what you are going to get. Nick Saban and his staff do a great job of getting as much talent of all of their players as possible so as a team you feel pretty confident in what their ceilings and floors are.
Cowherd argued on his show this week that we know what we can expect from Young in his rookie year. Cowherd says,
“There is a reason that Carolina and Frank Reich, who has a history of being very good with quarterbacks, gave up D.J. Moore and all of those picks to go to No. 1. They looked at that film and they felt watching that film they knew what they had. I still have questions about C.J. Stroud.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=1]
[lawrence-auto-related count=1]
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Sam Murphy on Twitter @SamMurphy02.