Behind the Trade That Didn't Happen

It's safe to say this worked out well for Carolina.

A little over a month ago, the Panthers made a blockbuster trade, jumping up from No. 9 to No. 1 in the 2023 NFL Draft. With that first pick, the Panthers took Bryce Young on Thursday night.

However, the trade to move up to No. 1 almost didn't happen, though. Team owner David Tepper told reporters that there was actually a three-way trade involving Chicago and Houston that was set to go down that would have ultimately given Carolina the No. 2 pick. The Texans took too long and eventually backed out of the proposed deal. Carolina then turned back to Chicago with a strong offer and it was one that they couldn't turn down. 

"When we were in there, we had a trade to go up to two and it was a three-way trade with Chicago and we were going to go up to two and the Texans were going to trade up to one. Chicago was going to be down to two and we were going to trade with Chicago. And so we were waiting, we had that trade kind of ready. And so we waited. I said what’s going on with these guys, this doesn’t feel right. And so Wednesday goes, Thursday goes, and we get to Friday and the Texans changed their mind about the trade. We go into the afternoon, it’s Friday afternoon and Scott talked to [Ryan] Poles and he got a value that he would accept for us to move up to one. And basically, we knew that we had to make a decision then. We wanted to get a trade done. We thought there were better people, including the Raiders, that had better trades on the line and if we waited, they may come and jump us if we waited on that day because we knew we were the burning hand. They knew they had to trade with us, a trade they could like. So we all decided that this was the better thing to do to trade up and it was a joint decision. Everybody was on board with it I think at the time and we knew if we didn’t do it then we may lose it. So we just made that decision together."

Why would Houston back out of going up to one? Well, we don't know exactly what they would have had to give up in that three-way deal but maybe it was because they had other plans. Maybe they knew that they could wait for something even better and that was to take a quarterback at two and then trade up from twelve to three to land the best defensive player in the draft in Will Anderson Jr. Sure, they may not have been able to get Bryce Young but they still got one of the top two quarterbacks in this draft with C.J. Stroud. 

Who this nixed deal really did a number on was Las Vegas. Rather than getting the top quarterback in the draft, they end up staying put at seven and taking Texas Tech pass rusher Tyree Wilson. This isn't a slight toward Wilson, who will be a very solid player but man, had they acquired the number one pick things would have been extremely different.

Would Carolina have still taken a quarterback at nine? Or would they have passed on one completely and made their move next year? At that point in the draft, the only two quarterbacks on the board with first-round potential were Will Levis and Hendon Hooker, both of whom are still undrafted. 

So, credit David Tepper for pressuring Scott Fitterer to get the deal done and also a tip of that hat to Scott for finding a deal that worked. Now, the organization doesn't have to worry about the quarterback position anymore (we assume) and they can finally take that next step to being a true threat in the NFC South and beyond.

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