The tide has rolled atop the 2023 NFL draft . . . at least for the time being.
As of Monday, University of Alabama quarterback Bryce Young is now the betting favorite—for multiple oddsmakers—to be selected No. 1 overall by the Carolina Panthers. Young has been moved ahead of Ohio State University’s C.J. Stroud, who has been the favorite since the team acquired the top pick from the Chicago Bears on the weekend of March 10, by both DraftKings Sportsbook and FanDuel Sportsbook.
Bryce Young is now the odds-on favorite to be the #Panthers pick at number 1 on the FanDuel and DraftKings sportsbooks pic.twitter.com/lq6C3R5LJS
— Edgar Salmingo, Jr. ✌️ (@PanthersAnalyst) April 10, 2023
This likely comes as a result of numerous rumblings from the past week about the Panthers favoring the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner. NBC Sports’ Peter King reported on Monday morning that there’s some fire accompanying all that smoke. He wrote:
Though ESPN’s Chris Mortensen stressed the final call has not been made, the plugged-in Mort did say he thinks the Panthers “will stick with him when it’s time to turn in the card” on draft night. This jibes with what I wrote last week — that Young has a lot of fans in high places in the organization. I agree with Mortensen that it’s not a done deal, but the momentum toward Young is real.
We’ll see how real it is in less than two weeks.
