Panthers Inform Sam Darnold of Plan, Citing Competition Will be Added

Is this the year the Panthers take a quarterback in the first round? Regardless, another signal-caller will be added to the mix this weekend.

Sam Darnold probably had a pretty good idea that the organization would pursue another quarterback when it became public that they were in the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes. On Wednesday, GM Scott Fitterer actually met with Darnold and informed him of what was about to come. 

"We want to stabilize the quarterback position. We need consistent play out of that. I sat down with Sam [Darnold] yesterday and we talked about everything," Fitterer said. "We need to help him out as well. We need to help him out with an offensive line. I think we did a good job of keeping DJ [Moore] here and with McCaffrey and surrounding him with the talent to where he doesn't feel like he needs to make every play. But in our conversation, I said, 'hey, listen, we are going to add to this group. Through this weekend there's a pretty good chance we could add to this group.' It's open competition. It's his spot right now, but whoever can take this spot and run with it, we're going to do that. He was good with that, we're on the same page."

Where does that competition come from exactly? Well, if the guy they like in this class is still available at No. 6, expect them to pull the trigger and draft a quarterback be it Malik Willis, Kenny Pickett, or perhaps even Matt Corral/Desmond Ridder. There seems to be one guy that they are in love with while they like some things about another but are not 100% sure on that No. 2 QB on their board. Should "their guy" go in front of them, that's where someone like Baker Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo come into play. A deal for a veteran quarterback could happen as quickly as Friday or Saturday if they were to go that route. 

"We're going to get through the draft this weekend and see what happens," Fitterer said in regards to addressing the trade rumors. "We do have options outside of the draft. We like guys in the draft, so we'll just see how it plays out and we'll make the best decision for this team over the next couple of weeks.

"Obviously, it's great to go with a young guy. You want to draft one, develop him and have him be your own. There's cost effectiveness that's involved in that and you also have to ask yourself why some quarterbacks are available? Ideally, you want him through the draft but however we get him, whatever it takes to get him in the door, we'll work with him and develop him."

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