Report: Panthers owner, head coach prefer different QBs

Bryce Young Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK

Panthers owner, head coach reportedly prefer different QBs

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 3/12/23

While it’s assumed the Carolina Panthers will draft a quarterback with their recently acquired No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, it’s not known which QB that might be. Perhaps not even known within the building, itself.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, while the Panthers like all four of Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson and Will Levis, owner David Tepper and head coach Frank Reich apparently have different leans.

“I just hung up the phone with someone in the organization and there’s a belief David Tepper loves Bryce Young, Frank Reich likes C.J. Stroud, and they said, ‘We love all these quarterbacks and we’ve got 48 days to make a decision on which one we will be taking,’” Shefter recently said during an appearance on 'SportsCenter.'

Several NFL executives reportedly walked away from the NFL Combine believing Bryce Young and CJ Stroud would be the first two players selected.

Many scouts were very impressed with Stroud’s workout at the combine.

However, Bryce Young is still the favorite to be the first… https://t.co/s1s4h0eZPh pic.twitter.com/S6poINTrNv
— NFL Rookie Watch (@NFLRookieWatxh) March 7, 2023

Speaking to reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine, Reich stated that Young “checked a lot of boxes” while giving the now-familiar size caveat with the Alabama signal-caller. Followed by the now-familiar note that Drew Brees and Russell Wilson are exceptions to that size caveat. The 6-foot-3, 214-pound Stroud possesses more of the prototypical size teams tend to look for in a starting NFL quarterback.

Young and Stroud have been considered two of the top quarterbacks in college football over the last two seasons and their stats have been eerily similar in that space, where Young completed 65.9 percent of his passes for 8,200 yards, a 79/12 TD/INT ratio and a 24-4 record as a starter. For comparison, Stroud completed 69.3 percent of his passes for 8,123 yards, an 85/12 TD/INT ratio and a 22-4 record as a starter.

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