Are the Panthers taking a quarterback with the 9th overall pick?

It's hard to be good without the quarterback.

Nobody will dispute that. It is the most important position in sports. You cannot win without quality quarterback play.

I understand that for a lot of people, they look at that way about like, goal tending and hockey. And I think you can cover it. It's hard to cover it in football, man.

Hard to cover it without quality quarterback play. Scott Fitterer is the general manager of the Carolina Panthers. You hear him all year long, right here.

Not him, but, well, maybe. But the Panthers right here on the Fan & Rally. If you're listening here, Scott Fitterer joins us from the Scouting Combine on the Adam Gold Show. First of all, I think this is a first for you and I to chat, so I appreciate your time.

Thank you very much. Are you having fun in Indy? You know what?

I am. This is actually a great time of year, you know, because we get so much information while we're here. We learn so much about the players, but it's also our friends around the league. This is one of the few events during the year where, you know, all the scouts, all the personnel guys from other teams, all the coaches, we can all be together. And it's such a small world and small fraternity.

We all know each other. So it's fun. We get a lot of work done.

You have some fun. If you do have some downtime, which isn't much, but it's good to be back here. I mean, there's no downtime. What kind of downtime do you have in the NFL?

Yeah, not much. When you get here, you know, you're up at six in the morning, then you get to bed at midnight and it's jam packed throughout the day with meetings and interviews. And even when you do have downtime, it seems like there's something always going on. But you can always get one more conversation in to try to learn something.

So it's nonstop. Let's talk about quarterback. I led into it by saying that it's the most important position in all of sports and other sports have like you can hockey and goaltending or starting pitching and baseball. But honestly, there's nothing like the quarterback in the NFL. Your thoughts on the best way to find the quarterback?

And I know it's team specific. You pick ninth. Is the best way through the draft for you? Or is the best way maybe finding somebody in free agency who can play the right guy in free agency?

Yeah, I think just the role of thumb. The right way is always through the draft. You always want to draft and develop and have someone there over a period of time where there's two contracts, whatever it may be, and they're yours and it's cost efficient. There's a lot of smart things that go along with drafting one.

But sometimes you can't get in a position to get the guy you want or you just can't get up there high enough to get them. They're gone by the time it's your pick. So sometimes you have to bounce out by adding in a veteran, maybe a stop cap at the time. But the right way is through the draft through the draft. You pick at number nine.

Is it your sense that the player you would like to be your quarterback will be there at nine or not? We're finding that out this week. Usually you walk away from here knowing, Hey, listen, this guy, he's got some red flags. Maybe we didn't know this about him.

Maybe this would cause him to fall so far. Everything's been impressive with these guys. It's made a tough decision. If we've got a quarterback to certain decisions to make, if we want to go a different position, obviously you might be able to sit and stand and take someone there.

It all depends on who you want, who you're convicted on. And then you make the right moves that sometimes it's costly to move up to the, uh, to the, uh, upper part of the draft. But in the long term, the course of, you know, five, 10 years, if that's the right decision for your team, that's what sets us on the course you need.

It's worth it. Scott Fitterer, general manager of the Carolina Panthers is joining us here on the Adam Gold show. Um, I don't know if you have a number in mind and how many quarterbacks do you believe in this draft are future starters at that position? You know, it's, uh, hard to say. I think we have, uh, I think it's five that we have projected to start at some point, you know, whether it's right away or maybe two, three years down the road, they might need a year or two to develop. I think the number is five. I'd have to look at the board again, but it seems like it's the right number and, uh, you know, which is a fairly deep draft. Usually, usually it's only, you know, you know, several guys go in the first round, only one or two usually hit.

Um, so to have five guys that you feel strong about, it's a pretty good thing. Do the odds enter into your thought presses process? And here's what I just do to explain that because I've done the math over time and quarterbacks that are taken in the first round are like, uh, you know, less than a 30% chance of hitting. And the numbers not dramatically better in terms of the odds in the top five. Do the odds play into your decision making or do you simply have to look at your, you use your eyes and say, we think it'll be different this year. Yeah.

Um, I think, I think it's a little bit of both. Uh, you just have to know if you're going to go up there, if you're going to spend all these assets to go up and, and take a quarterback, you bet you better have a lot of conviction on it because if you miss it, it could set the team back, you know, a couple years, you know, you're going to lose some draft picks up there to get up there or it might be a combination draft picks and players and you hate to do that, but you know, hopefully this is the last time we're picking in the top 10. It might be one of our last shot to go up and get the guy that you want where it's, you know, cost efficient.

It's hard to go from 22 to up in the top five. So, uh, you know, this might be a year that, that you have to be aggressive and go do things like that. Or if you have a guy that you really like it, second round or third round that you think might be there, that's great. Maybe you keep building and adding pieces around them.

Uh, maybe that's San Francisco model, uh, you know, Philadelphia, Philadelphia model, whatever it may be, where you have so much talent around the quarterback, you play with lightly lesser guy, let him develop and become the guy. So there's a lot of different ways to do it. But, uh, again, if you go up to get a guy, he's better. You better have conviction, right? It's if you, uh, if you come at the King, you best not miss to use that phrase like, cause there are teams like the Browns and I'm not trying to disparage anybody.

Just these are all factual things. The Browns who kept going after quarterbacks and kept missing the jets twice in a row, drafted very high and not even trading capital to get up into that spot, just being there already. Is there a, is there a value on the time lost? If you guess wrong, uh, it's different for everybody. Um, I do believe you have to keep swinging until you find a guy, you know, there's different levels of it, but if you're giving up a ton of assets, you know, it's, it's hard man.

You better be right. Um, so I know it's like a broken record, but it's true, but you can't be afraid either. It can't be afraid to take a chance. Just like you said, it is the most important job in all the sports and a quarterback and a good defense is what makes championship football. Scott Fitter is joining us here. I know you're busy, so I'm not going to keep you too much longer.

I appreciate your time. Um, as understanding how important the position is and then you look around the league, uh, and you see what Russell Wilson did as a third round pick, what Jalen Hurts did, uh, is doing as a second round pick and to the other extreme Brock Purdy as the last player selected, uh, in this draft to be as successful as he was for a short period of time and understanding it's small sample size. Does that kind of almost blow up the model that you have to trade up and get the guy that everybody thinks is going to be the man or is it just too hard to determine? So maybe you don't have to reach in the first round.

Yeah, it's funny. Those three guys you mentioned all with a very good teams, very well-rounded teams, uh, you know, good defenses, good skill position players. Now Brock Purdy walked into a really good situation. You know, Russell Wilson walked into a good situation. Jalen Hurts walked into a good situation.

So yeah, it was two different ways to build it. Um, you know, so if you do drop back and you want to keep building, pick up other positions prior to drafting one of those quarterbacks in the mid round or late round, that's great. Uh, he keeps swinging. It doesn't cost as much if you miss, but, uh, rarely do you get it. Um, you know, there's those franchise guys are usually up at the top for a reason. You know, the homes, the Josh house, those guys go early.

Justin Herbert, they go early for a reason. How many people, how many teams passed out of my homes, right? How many people passed on a Lamar Jackson?

Uh, so look, there are stories either way. All right. A couple of more things. Then we'll let Scott fitter ago. The, I know there are other positions that you understand your team must improve at, uh, give me a top two or three on the offensive side that, you know, you must get better at.

Yeah. I think part of it's retaining some of the guys that are free to sign your team, you know, bring those guys back. And then I think adding a playmaking tight end, someone to get down the seam, uh, you know, tight ends, always a quarterback's best friend. And you know, whether it's a receiver, that's a true vertical threat or someone that's instant separation underneath that'll, that'll compliment terrorists and compliment DJ and the rest of our, uh, our, uh, receiving core. So I think those are a couple of positions that offensively that we look at.

And on the defensive side of the ball, is it the interior of the defensive line? It seems like that's the new sexy player. Uh, you know, Aaron Rogers, Aaron Rogers, sorry about that. Aaron Donald's changed the game for, uh, for the entire league. He has made that a focal point, whether it's Aaron Donald or Chris Jones, uh, is it that part of the field?

Is it another part? Yeah. And when you have, when you can get pressure from inside, especially with these, uh, kind of smaller mobile quarterbacks, it's really hard for them to see. And then you get them out on the run. And then if you pinch down on the end with your, your guys, you can create a lot of havoc for those guys and they have to throw the ball away. And, uh, so yeah, I think guys are investing more on the, on the front, whether it's, you know, past rushers, but really those interior rushers with the small quarterbacks is really affecting the game right now.

And so those guys are very valuable. All right. Um, if, if, if I was asking odds on, will the Panthers pick at nine, would you say yes or no? I would say, you know what? Uh, we're not even sure yet. I'm not even sure where I'd go with that. Uh, what I know is we'll put ourselves in a position to get a good player, whether it's moving up, moving back or staying there, you know, we'll read the board, we'll trust our scout's work and all the work our coaches put in and, uh, we'll take the best player.

Scott fitter, general manager of the Carolina Panthers. I thank you very much for your time. Uh, have fun with it, whatever time you've got left in Indianapolis or, uh, and we'll talk to you very soon. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

You got it. Scott fitter, general manager of the Carolina Panthers. It is, it is something to think about, about the quarterback position. Well, and without saying yes, you have to have that guy, but if you expend any assets to move up, you better get it right. The teams that are continuously drafting in the top five that get it wrong. Well, that's why they continue to draft in the top five because they continuously get it wrong. And one question I should have asked that I didn't was, is it harder to evaluate quarterbacks today? Because the college game and the pro game are so vastly different.

Is it harder to evaluate? It has to be, excuse me, it has to be harder to evaluate quarterbacks, but clearly they're looking at a quarterback. Um, it's interesting that the number he said was five. You only hear four quarterbacks in the top four in that were mentioned as being picked in the top 10 of the draft.

You only hear four. You hear Bryce young, who by the way, measured, I believe five, 10 and a half. You hear CJ Stroud, who's bigger. I mean, I think CJ Stroud, uh, is a, a legitimate pro prospect, but we don't know. Will Levis from Kentucky, who's got all the physical measurables of a Josh Allen, big arm, not a lot of successes last year.

Anthony Richardson from Florida who super athletic, big, strong arm, but can he play the position? I mean, I'm not the expert on that at all, but this is what is being said, written about those four players. But he mentioned that there are five.

I wonder if the fifth is somebody who's injured. Hendon Hooker from Tennessee was probably going to be the Heisman trophy winner until he went down with the injury with about what, three games left. Then Hendon Hooker was going to be the Heisman trophy winner without him, Tennessee.

I mean, it didn't, the season didn't end well. I wonder if Hendon Hooker is that guy. What I've read about Hooker and the way the NFL looks at him is that not the biggest arm in the world, but good mobility, smart as hell, and an accurate thrower. You can get away with not having the best arm in the world if you have the other two. If you have the smarts and the accuracy, he can make the throws necessary is what I read.

Well, that's backhanded. Make him make the necessary throws. He'll get the job done. But if you have the other stuff, if you're accurate with your throws and you can think the game on the field, it's probably the two most important things than having the big arm because there's been a lot of big arms that couldn't play in the NFL. But the smart quarterbacks, you can figure it out for a while. It's a great example of somebody like that who was a very good quarterback for two different franchises. Chad Pennington, who played for the Jets and the Dolphins and was a good quarterback. Chad Pennington didn't have much of an arm at all, but he was really smart and he was accurate. If you can be those two things, you have a chance to succeed.