The Carolina Panthers pulled off a bit of the unexpected to close up their proceedings on Friday night.
But first, we go back to general manager Scott Fitterer’s pre-draft press conference, where he told reporters that he wasn’t going to “force” picks based on need. In fact, here’s the exact quote:
“The whole part of free agency for us—and this is our philosophy and it has been—is to go into the draft and be able to pick the best player available,” he said last Tuesday. “And so we’ve done that. When it comes down to best player available and there’s two guys at certain positions and one position is a need—say it’s a linebacker—then the [pick] is a linebacker. Going into it, we’re aware of where our weaknesses are, and we’d like to address it. But we’re not gonna force it.”
Well, they kinda sorta forced it.
Not content to stay put with the 93rd overall selection, Fitterer and the Panthers shipped off that little number, as well as the 132nd, to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for No. 80. And with that newly-acquired piece of capital came a raw outside linebacker in DJ Johnson.
Fitterer seemingly conceded to his own logic afterwards, stating the upside they see in Johnson was too high to let fly. So, time will tell if breaking the rules pays off.
But until then, enjoy the very moment in which they did:
