Mr. Scot

You think the hysteria stops after the draft? Wait till the post draft reactions from the people who wanted a guy they didn't pick

Already there You're not the only one I've heard say that.

They had a guy who did it that way not too long ago. They fired him after Week 5 last season.

Yeah... That's not the case at all. The reality is you don't know what you're talking about, and it's obvious. Again though, that really isn't a big deal until you run around telling other people you know more than they do. You don't. Hence why you'd be way better off listening instead of talking.

John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan did the same thing when they were deciding between Trey Lance and Mac Jones. They didn't name their actual preference until a day or two before the draft. Both chose Lance.

FYI: Pasted a load of excerpts from the article in a separate thread

Also from the article... Fitterer recounted some lighter moments from the trip, like the night in Tuscaloosa when Morgan was to pick up the Teppers from their hotel. Morgan texted the owners saying he was their Uber driver and he would accept cash or stock tips. The Panthers kept bumping into (Josh) McDaniels and Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler at the quarterback dinners. Fitterer said Carolina had the 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. slot with Young, who was to meet the Raiders, who have the No. 7 pick, at 8:30 in a different corner of Evangeline’s. “We sent him over there late just to piss them off,” Fitterer said, smiling. Fitterer then texted McDaniels: “Where are you picking? You’re never gonna see (him).” The next night when the Raiders had the early sitting with Levis at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in Lexington, it was McDaniels’ turn to fire back. “Hey, too bad,” Fitterer recalled McDaniels texting him. “We’ve got him first.” Less impactful, but funny

Excerpts from Joe Person's latest article in The Athletic (personal comments added) ____________________________________ The Panthers’ Week of Quarterbacks began with seven of the team’s coaches and front-office personnel sitting practically shoulder to shoulder in a Wheels Up two-prop plane taking the group from Charlotte to Columbus, Ohio. (Owners Dave and Nicole Tepper were in their own plane for the first leg of the three-city trip.) - Insert "rich guy" comment here Fitterer said the trip confirmed his pecking order for at least three of the top four quarterbacks in the draft. Florida’s Anthony Richardson’s pro day is Thursday. Based on conversations with sources who attended last week’s pro days, the sense here continues to be that Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud are the Panthers’ top choices. But one thing Fitterer did not learn on the QB tour is who Reich’s top choice is — because Fitterer doesn’t want to know. - There's a saying about not letting your right hand know what your left hand is doing that applies here. More to the point, if you still questioned the idea that the final decision isn't made yet, I'd say this pretty well confirms it. “Frank and I had that conversation in his office. I said, ‘Don’t tell me who you like until we get down to it,’” Fitterer said Monday during a break at the NFL owners’ meetings. “As you go through the process, it gets more and more clear. But we’re still going through that.” Fitterer said he’ll probably ask Reich who is his guy is a week or two before the April 27 start to the draft. Until then, Fitterer said everyone can go through the process without feeling any bias based on what other coaches or scouts believe. “There’s so much talk about it and things get out. ‘Frank likes this guy. We like this (guy).’ Nobody knows, because I don’t know,” Fitterer added. “I get a sense of where he’s at. But I’m not gonna ask him.” - Worth noting that the 49ers did this same sort of thing a few years back. John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan agreed to not discuss their preferences until all the evaluation work was done. When that time came, both of them had settled on Trey Lance as their guy. The Panthers’ process will include bringing the four quarterbacks — Young, Stroud, Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis — to Charlotte for top-30 visits during the first two weeks in April. But it will not include any private workouts. “We’ve seen all the tape we needed to see,” Fitterer said. “We saw the workouts. We’re not gonna learn a whole lot more working them out again.” - Both Fitterer and Reich have stated that when it comes to player evaluation, game tape is king. One of the purposes of The Combine, pro days and visits is to get to know the prospects as people. Fitterer believes the sitdowns with the coaches were particularly beneficial to the Teppers. “The good part is Dave and Nicole got to hear from the coach’s mouth instead of hearing scouts’ reports, which are always really good,” he said. “You’re hearing this from Nick Saban and Ryan Day about these quarterbacks. So that was really good.” The Teppers left Lexington, Ky., after the Thursday night dinner with Levis due to a prior engagement, but Fitterer and other team officials spoke with Wildcats coach Mark Stoops on the field at Kentucky’s indoor facility. - Confirming that the Teppers didn't just choose to skip out on Levis Seeing the quarterbacks on successive days allowed Fitterer, Reich and the rest of the contingent — which included offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, senior assistant Jim Caldwell, assistant GM Dan Morgan, VP of football administration Samir Suleiman — to get a clear picture of their skill sets. “They’re all very different,” Fitterer said. “Will Levis probably had the strongest arm of the group. C.J. is very fluid in his motion. Bryce, the accuracy was just on point. He had a little bit better arm than we thought.” Better in terms of strength or accuracy? “Both,” Fitterer said. “His arm strength was good. The ball was jumping off his hands. The accuracy was really good. C.J. (had a) great deep ball. He’s really strong at all levels. He showed good touch.” - Again, they're being very thorough on all these guys, and there's more... Fitterer said Young, who had a huge game against Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinals, has a “swagger” about him. The GM also said Young’s 5-foot-10 frame doesn’t seem to affect him, noting his production on short passes over the middle of the field. “(That) is usually a hard throw because, one, you have to get the ball up. And two, you can’t see it and you don’t know what’s going on in there,” Fitterer said. “But he has no problem moving and sliding in the pocket and finding windows. I think that’s probably because he’s been short his whole life, and you learn to compensate. You learn the little tricks of the trade.” Fitterer said the 6-3 Stroud doesn’t have any problems moving in the pocket and seeing the field. “He’s big,” Fitterer added. “He’s strong, durable, all those things.” - "Probably because he's been short all his life" is a great quote After the owners’ meetings, the Panthers will head to Gainesville, Fla., before returning to Charlotte for the pre-draft visits. They’ll have learned a lot about the QBs over the steaks and skull sessions with Saban, Day, et al, but they’ll also know more about each other. “It’s fun because you start to bond over this. You’re away from the office. You’re having dinner. The player leaves. You sit there another hour and discuss,” Fitterer said. “There’s a camaraderie that’s being built, as well as trying to find a quarterback.” - Person mentions in another part of the article that this trip was an opportunity to build camaraderie between Fitterer / the scouts and Reich / the coaching staff. ____________________________________ Link: The Panthers QB Tour Overall, lots of good info in this piece. Nice to know the coaches and the personnel guys are doing a little team building. Also explains why the final QB decision isn't made yet, and it makes sense. Bottom line though? Feels really good to be optimistic again

He's correct. Players aren't signed for what they've done, but for what it's believed they will do. Past success can be used as a gauge but NFL executives know the phrase "past performance does not guarantee of future success" very well. New contracts aren't a reward, they're an investment.

All while not playing full seasons...

His neck's not long enough.

I'd be good with that...

I'm not sure they'd need him to. They've got Morgan, Caldwell, Brown, Capers and several other voices on staff more qualified to offer input than Tepper.

Social services may be paying you a visit

I'd probably give that job to Ekwonu or Bozeman.

To be fair, that describes a pretty good number of quarterbacks in the league right now.

From what I've read, the conditions are that the Niners pick has to be higher and Gonzalez has to meet some kind of performance requirement (unknown, but could be as simple as being on their roster for the 25 season)

Are they seriously asking this?

Young would have an easier time hiding behind a fullback though

Is Stroud really that great an athlete though? Based on what I've seen, I don't really think anybody is mistaking him for Michael Vick

There is a certain physical element to that debate, but it's not about athleticism. It's about durability. Young is as good a quarterback as I've seen in a long time. Stroud has the intelligence, accuracy and processing ability that I look for too, though. The difference id I don't feel like I'd be holding my breath every time Stroud took a hit.

In the past, we've had a fairly vocal crowd supporting the idea of "take the superior athlete and teach him how to quarterback" (maybe because people were big fans of Cam Newton) but it feels like that crowd has either lost some members or simply grown silent. I've always been in the "take the guy with the superior quarterbacking skills regardless of whether he's the best athlete" camp myself. Most signs seem to point to the Panthers going that route with their QB pick, so I'm certainly not complaining. There are definitely some sports fans who'd rather lose an exciting game than win a slow and steady one. That's the bunch that continuously calls on the team to make big moves and swing for the fences every time. And yes, that might be a lot of fun to watch... ...but it's not always the smart play.

In the vast majority of successful NFL franchises, this is exactly how it works. And yeah, it does sound like Tepper wound up eating a healthy dose of humble pie after his first few years in the league.

Quoting for the sheer irony of it

I honestly think they're telling the truth. This is an extremely careful bunch. They're not going to jump to conclusions. The eise thing is to wring every ounce of information they can out of the process before coming down on a final decision. I'd guess they have leanings (Breer mentioned that) but the final decision is yet to come. And I've got no issue with that. It's a smart way to go.