Who should the Carolina Panthers take at #1 overall?
It’s a guarantee that a QB will be taken first overall after the Chicago Bears agreed to a massive haul which included multiple draft picks and DJ Moore to move down eight slots in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Now, the Panthers look to fix their franchise and get a long-term QB answer in the building. To me, they have one part of the equation in place with Frank Reich, who has a ton of success working with QBs at the NFL level.
The big question is now which quarterback they will take, and it’s likely between CJ Stroud of Ohio State and Bryce Young of Alabama.
Both QBs come with insane positives but a few negatives sprinkled into their game.
Stroud is a very natural and accurate passer with solid size, effective mobility that he needs to use more, and has been compared to Jared Goff and Dak Prescott.
He’ll likely succeed in the NFL as a pure pocket passer, but he does possess the ability to use his legs. If Reich could reign that into Stroud’s game, he could be a serious threat in the NFL.
Bryce Young is the other logical choice for this spot. He played in a pro-style offense at Alabama and is an even better thrower of the football than Stroud is. The most obvious negative of Young is his slight frame. He’s 5’10” and just about 200lbs, which is the size of a slot cornerback, not a franchise quarterback.
We’ll see if that impacts him at the next level, and we’ll see if the Panthers are worried about his frame. If they take CJ Stroud, that tells me they could have durability concerns about Young. Stroud is a slightly inferior prospect than Young, but the lack of size could drop Young.
This is the first major move of the 2023 NFL Draft, and the Carolina Panthers are now on the clock.