Carolina Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer may be trying to get in on his biggest deal yet.
According to national NFL reporter Cameron Wolfe, the Panthers will likely make a bold effort to move atop this year’s draft board. That, of course, is contingent on if they really, really love at least one of this year’s quarterback prospects.
“Well, the Panthers are certainly going to go get a quarterback,” Wolfe said on Friday. “And the Derek Carr situation is something we’ve been tracking for weeks now. They are gonna talk to him again on Monday over the phone. But what I hear here is their preference is to find their franchise quarterback long term via the draft.
“So they’re doing a lot of homework on these quarterback prospects here. And the one thing to watch as we look at teams here who are trying to trade up, Carolina should be high on that list. I’ve been told they are gonna be aggressive if they fall in love with their guy.”
Wolfe went on to mention one of those guys, in particular.
“One guy to keep an eye on is Anthony Richardson,” he added. “He’s met with all the quarterback teams here. Carolina’s meeting apparently went great. They loved his work on the board. He’s a guy that, obviously, has some development to do. But he said earlier today, he’s like Cam Jackson—Cam Newton and Lamar Jackson together. And you have a staff like Carolina has with Thomas Brown, Frank Reich, some of the offensive coaching staffs there. They are a type of group that wants to develop their quarterback.”
Fitterer said as much on Wednesday, stating his preferred route to go under center is the draft-and-develop approach. He also mentioned how well the team’s meeting with Richardson went.
We’ll just have to wait and see how, or if, he approaches other teams about a trade for their quarterback.