Insider suggests top QB prospect was never a 'primary target' for Panthers at No. 1

At least one Carolina Panthers insider has suggested fans can ignore any chatter about the club possibly drafting Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Will Levis first overall on Thursday night. 

For a piece published on Tuesday, ESPN's David Newton wrote that Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer and assistant general manager Dan Morgan kept Levis and Florida Gators signal-caller Anthony Richardson "in the conversation throughout the process" after Carolina landed the draft's top choice from the Chicago Bears in March. 

However, Newton added that Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud of the Ohio State Buckeyes were always "the primary targets" for the Panthers "from the day the trade (with Chicago) was made." 

A source also told Newton that "as intriguing as Richardson was at 6-4 and 244 pounds, having only 13 college starts and a low 2022 completion percentage (53.8%) made him too much of a project to take at No. 1." 

There's zero indication in Newton's piece that the Panthers found Levis as "intriguing" as Richardson.

Newton repeated information shared by numerous reporters and said that "league sources familiar with the team’s plans" assume Carolina has decided to take Young first overall. Also on Tuesday, CBS Sports analyst Pete Prisco argued Levis should be the top-ranked quarterback of this draft class over Young, and betting odds shifted dramatically after a Reddit post claimed Levis is "telling friends and family Carolina will, in fact, take him on Thursday." 

As of early Tuesday afternoon, Oddschecker continued to list Young as a convincing favorite to be the No. 1 pick at -600 odds. Levis was at +700, while Stroud seemingly wasn't in the conversation at +2500.

"...The speculation is all the action was off the back of a Reddit post," a DraftKings spokesperson told ESPN's David Purdum about sportsbooks receiving an influx of bets on Levis to be the draft's first choice. As Purdum noted, Young is still "the consensus favorite to be the top pick" despite Tuesday's betting developments. 

"For us, that’s the biggest thing going through this process, getting to know these guys, digging down deep into who they are as people," Morgan said about Carolina's vetting process.