Is there actually fire emanating from the recent reports linking Bryce Young to the Carolina Panthers? Yet another league insider believes there is, and that could be bad news for the team picking directly behind them.
On the latest episode of ESPN 97.5 Houston’s The Bench, host and NFL Media draft analyst Lance Zierlein dished out the most recent insight into how the top two picks may unfold. He says the Houston Texans very much prefer Young over fellow quarterback C.J. Stroud, and there might be no way they can grab him if it’s up to Panthers owner David Tepper.
“If it were up to Frank Reich, I think he might rather have a bigger quarterback. But if the owner pulls the trigger there, which I believe is gonna happen, the Texans have no chance at getting Bryce Young,” Zierlein stated on Friday. “Like, even if they offered a trade up, they’re not gonna be able to get him.
“The only way they’d be able to get him—what I was told—is if Bryce tries to tell them he wouldn’t play for them. That’s the only way they would have a chance—saying ‘I’m not playing for you’ and that’s not Bryce’s personality.”
Carolina, ever since acquiring the No. 1 overall selection back on March 10, was reportedly open to trading out of the spot. But now that they’re even deeper into their evaluations with less than two weeks to go until showtime, the Panthers may be preparing to maintain control of the board and just take the passer of their choice.
And that passer, if the current tide is indeed correct, is the one Houston had been hoping for.
