The Carolina Panthers will be drafting more for fit than for need.
On Thursday, president of football operations/general manager Dan Morgan and head coach Dave Canales spoke to reporters ahead of their first draft as the organization’s new power duo. Morgan led off the presser by hinting at what he and Canales will be looking for in a week’s time.
“I think me and Dave are obviously really excited about the direction we’re headed—as an organization, as a team,” he said. “The communication and the alignment that myself, Coach Canales, the scouts, the coaches, the training staff, sports science—it’s just been awesome. It’s been a lot of fun. So we’re really excited about the future.
“I feel we addressed a lot of needs in free agency. And I think that will set us up nicely during the draft to allow us to draft the best player available and just take really good football players that fit what we want from a schematic standpoint, from a culture standpoint and all those things we talked about in our presser.”
After Morgan’s opening statement, Canales would echo the same sentiment.
“One of the coolest things that I saw is as we worked through free agency, coming out of the other side of it with this great feeling like, ‘Alright, hey, this takes some pressure off of, gosh, we gotta meet all these needs through the draft,'” he stated. “Now we get to really just hone in and focus on the guys that are really Panther fit. I’ve heard that a lot in our building just as we’ve been talking about guys.”
Carolina began free agency by addressing their most troubling deficiency—the interior protection of second-year quarterback Bryce Young. The team signed guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis to a combined $153 million in fortifying the front for their franchise guy.
They also added to the edge with outside linebackers Jadeveon Clowney, D.J. Wonnum and K’Lavon Chaisson, signed a new middle linebacker in Josey Jewell, gave defensive tackle Derrick Brown and cornerback Jaycee Horn some partners in A’Shawn Robinson and Dane Jackson and acquired Pro Bowl wideout Diontae Johnson in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
